F-Bombs

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I have never been the kind of person who was comfortably able to use those certain four-letter words, although I'll blurt out the occasional "s**t!" if I remember something I was supposed to have done, but didn't. But I learned at an early age that there were words you were absolutely not supposed to use, so I didn't use them, but I knew that other kids did. I didn't really approve of it, but I never said anything about it.

Recently, I was at a local gaming shop, playing a TCG with some other people. One of the rules of the shop is that you don't use foul language, so when we play we take care to follow that rule. But when we stepped outside afterwards, that's when the F-bombs came out. It made me uncomfortable thinking about it, but it also cause me to wonder whether there's some kind of psychological need in people to pepper their conversations with four-letter bombs. It's not so much whether it's a moral issue anymore, but it seems to be such an unnecessary thing to do.

I feel sorry for people who get upset because someone said a word.

It's what people do when they can't think of real words. Or when they don't have a legitimate complaint. Calling someone a murderer or a thief or a liar would be more effective than referring to him with some vague cuss word. Or describing a situation articulately will get a better response than using barbaric, nonsense noises. But when you're not very bright, you work with what you have. The cussing makes them feel like they're saying something when they are not.

It could also be about drama. They think it makes the topic more important or something.

For me swearing is a means of expressing how frustrated or angry I am when no other words exist. The worse the swearing, the more upset I am.
I suspect that some people see it as a form of rebellion against parents that taught them to not swear. My parents discouraged it but never actually banned it, so I do not have that conditioned concern about doing something I shouldn't. Also, growing up in a public school gave me an education in 'alternative language'.

This is true, but calling someone (for example) a "f*cking liar" is most likely going to hit harder than just calling them a "liar".

Calling someone a "liar" or a "thief" (much less a murderer), with or without a four-letter attachment, are "fightin' words" and if you're going to come at someone with those kinds of accusations you better be prepared to do what it takes to assert yourself.

I swear every other word, it's ridiculous really. If people don't like my swearing I generally find I don't like them.

This past semester I had to put up an art show with someone who couldnt tolerate profanity. here apprehension re: four letter words had to do with PTSD because she had once been sexually assaulted. I can totally respect that. However I gradually found I could not tolerate her or the third person we had to show with. After a while I just began using profanity whenever I was annoyed. The offended was not amused but didnt speak up about it.

Sometimes I wish I never learned profanity because profanity is intellectual and verbal laziness. Carefully chosen words are often much more powerful than four letter words. And thanks to a variety of factors including problems with not being able to call on my knowledge of the language all the time, and especially because i learned profanity at a fairly young age, I often find myself at the mercy of a limited vocabulary.

I find the older people get, the less profanity does for you. The older you get, the more you are effected by carefully chosen words, and the more they can effect someone else of the same or older age.

I wish I never learned ot swear. Its made me an idiot.

I'm in high school, so swearing is completely normal at my school and with my friends. I don't swear very often, but I really don't mind when other people do.

The amount of profanity I put into normal conversation depends on the people I'm with. I tend to immitate how other people talk.

I've been saying "Frak" a lot, along with "Feltergarb". I think I've seen too many episodes of Battlestar Galactica.

Those words ought to have a lot more impact because they're more meaningful and pose an accusation of something real, but the people who will react to swear words are less worried about the content of what you're saying than they are about breaking taboo by saying "bad words".

To me, words like "f**k" don't have any serious meaning or impact, but because I'm an IRL troll, I use those words to make people upset. Even though I feel sorry for the people who react that way, I do find them wonderfully amusing.

Do you also enjoy tormenting small animals?

Those words are not "meaningless." They're just not as specific as other words.
And they mean different things to different people.
And they imply a lot about the user and the user's opinion of the listener.
Perhaps one should refrain from using words that he doesn't understand.

I don't appreciate the ad-hominem. Small animals never did anything to me, so why would I hurt them?

When I say a word that upsets someone, I'm not causing harm. It's your own fault if you overreact to a sound because you think it means something horrible. Let me put it this way. Some uptight Brits may be flustered by words like "fanny", but as Americans have regularly heard such words without worry, we can be quite sure that the word itself has no inherent power. And the same is true with other words, or the other way around, or between different groups of people. Linguists understand that the meaning or impact of a word is not inherent, and that the association between a form and a meaning is arbitrary and based on mutual understanding, not on the prior nature of the word.

If a word doesn't hurt me, then surely anyone else can hear it without being hurt by it, if they understand it as a word and not as an indelible power expressed through sound. I would say that it is the listener who gives a word power. The listener decides to become upset, and that is not an action of mine.

This is also why I have no concern about children hearing swear words. Children who haven't learned to swear have no preconceptions about the power of these words, so they have none. Desensitizing people to a word takes away the word's power and makes us have to think about what we're saying instead of resorting to words that really have no meaning beyond "I'm upset" or "I don't like you". Only then can you really insult people properly.

Words are words unless meant to hurt someone. Perceived obscenities as an expression of anger or frustration are perfectly fine, saying F--- you to someone is not.

So what you're saying is that it's okay to swear if you're so angry you aren't thinking about what you're saying, but it's not okay if you premeditate your statement and think about whether it's what you really want to say.

I guess we better never say critical things to each other even if they're true.

Or is it not the content that upsets you, just the word? See my previous post, QED, etc.

Why people feign apoplectic rage at expletives, eludes me. Maybe their parents beat them every time they swore, making them feel psychologically compromised every time someone curses in their vicinity as they are mentally transported back to childhood. You should be taking it out on your parents who were douches for physically assaulting a defenseless sentient creature.