Poll: Americans See, Hear More Profanity

"Do you have any idea how many times you've just said that?" he reports saying from time to time. "I mean, if I take that out of your vocabulary, you've got nothin!'"

I think that the bartender gets it right. When the words become the conversation, it is a little bit of overkill.

The idea that a word could be profane is just ridiculous. I don't think society is becoming more profane, I think people are simply less willing to buy into the idea that certain words shouldn't be used. While I will concede that some people overuse "swear words", that's really not the fault of the words themselves. It shows the immaturity of the person. It also speaks to the fact that these words are (or recently were) considered taboo, and these people say them for the shock value.

Personally, in a way I think it is good for society. My opinion has always been that they are just words, words that more easily get emotions across, words that are just words like any other words. Although I do also think that people need to learn to better restrain themselves while in public places, for example. On a recent trip to disney world with my high school, I heard a lot of my peers unable to stop themselves from cursing. I personally think it is a little sad, as, even though they are just words, there are just some things that are inappropriate in a public environment.

to wrap it up, yeah, they are just words, but, everyone needs to learn at least a little self control.

I mean *@#*! this is what *@#* will be. I *@#* know why *@#* people have a *@#* *@#*! with cursing *@#*! so *@#*! much *@#*!. It's not *@#*! you *@#*! can't *@#*! me. *@#*!

Sticks and stones may break my bones...

Who the @!$%# cares? The only problem with obscenity is it's over use by the unimaginative. It's not like anyone leaves their house anymore, so what's the issue?

Also, that guy should be more concerned with lowering his cola intake.

I speak two languages. English and Profanity. I'm very fluent in both.

Bad words are only bad if you are trying to HURT someone. Otherwise, they are a valid part of the vocabulary, and provide a comedic tuna for the flipper egg.

Could you the current state of our country any better than this picture?

That would be:

Could you represent..... I guess the misspelling goes along with the topic. ;)

language is always changing, and so is the concept of what is profane. all this article does is try to cast today's English language in the light of the past in an attempt to shock us. no one should care what words we say, as long as they aren't portaying more dangerous actions. if violence, crime, unprotected sex, dangerous drug use and the like are being promoted publicly moreso than in the past, this is a cause for concern. if certain choice words are being bandied about more liberally, nothing is really any more wrong with the world.

What was that, Wolfanoz?

My question, could the current state of our country be any worse than it is based on your response, and how you laid it out? Seems like we are losing literacy as the years go on.

Perhaps you had a whole lot of typos, or something else going on. Your comment, exactly, is much more painful to me than hearing a few phrases of profanity in my day. Misuse and poor grammar IS profanity, if you ask me.

Peter Filas:

I'm sure all the writing you've done in your life has all been fantastic, right? I'm also sure you're perfect in everything you do.

I didn't receive two collegiate diplomas by using telekinesis and have someone else do it for me because I couldn't read or right.

Of course, we do live in the day and age where everyone's a critic on the web yet won't say a word to someone in person in fear of their own well being. :)

And yes, I typed right instead of write. Just to see if you'll continue to criticize.

profanity is great for emphasis, unfortunately it is used to the point that it is almost nolonger offensive and hense loses alot of it's meaning. If someone screams "ahhh!! that f&ckin hurts", you dont know if he was shot or just stubbed his toe. SOme words have completely lost their meaning like dork which used to be very offensive. I think we need new list of increasingly offensive words and then follow set rules when to use them. SO people know when we are just mad vs pissed.

I do like battlestar galaticas use of the word frack. Nice way to get the meaning by the censors. My mom screams "birds!" when she gets hurt.. I used to laugh at her and say it still means the same thing as the s-word" and didnt see the difference. Now i am older i say "fudge nuts" so go figure.

Neither birds or fudge nuts are profane despite their usage. I believe all profane words must fit in one of three catagories, Sex, bodily fluids and function, religion and to a lesser degree descriptions of intelligence.

SO i have two questions for you is fudge nuts profane when i scream it after hammering my thumb? And if it isnt give me a new profane word that fits the catagories but isnt known to be profane.

Umm...I don't mean to sound too unoriginal, but who gives a @!$%#? This article is acting like this is evidence of some sort of moral decay. It sounds to me like the author - and the people who are offended by swearing - are scared that words like @!$%# or @!$%# will one day become "normal." It seems to me, though, that if that happens there's one less thing to get offended over. Why do people feel this impulse to preserve these taboos?

If people hated being offended, as they are claiming, I would expect them to welcome any sort of sweeping changes in our language or society at large which decrease the chances that they are offended. In other words, if bad words offend me it's in my interest to use them and surround myself with them to the point that they seem normal. Then they will be no longer offensive. Am I wrong?

I'm curious, for those of you who think that profanity is a bad thing - why? Words have what power we give them, either by speaking them or hearing them. It seems silly to me that certain words have, by some sort of general agreement amongst the impressionable, the power to threaten. These people act as though the "evil" behind the word "@!$%#" is tucked away in there somewhere between the "u" and the "c," when it's really inside them.

powercow

Do you not laugh (or snicker) at times when someone happens to say something that may be general conversation?

Babies have no idea what you're saying to them when they're born (if it's being said in the proper tone). You could be swearing up a tone in a happy, calm voice and the kid will smile anyway.

George Carlin goes into detail about this in one of his stand-up acts and makes a great point in that words are WORDS. It's the people that make a bigger deal out of them than they really are.

Doesn't it seem profanity and what is considered profanity changes as the society changes. I imagine in the first half of the 20th century, words like "damn" were considered rather profane. Nowadays, it's still considered relatively profane, but not nearly as much as it used to be -- as the word came into everyday use more and more, it's shock value decreased more and more. The f-bomb may or may not follow...perhaps it will always rate high on the shock value scale.

I keep coming back to the same thing with all the things people find offensive or morally wrong today. The younger generation grabs onto what the older generation considers offensive or questionable, just as the older generation did; they're just rebelling against the older generation. What we (as the younger generation) do/say/listen to/watch today will probably become tame as we grow older, and our kids will surely shock the hell out of us.

I wonder though.

Words are given power through taboo. Breaking this taboo may now be painful, but soon new words will likely take their place.

Personally, I swear extremely rarely. More often than not you'll hear me using foreign injunctions instead of true curses. I'd probably be nailed to a cross in Canada or the UK if I got angry.

Atop that all, I realize most definitely that there are a number of words that have already lost their taboo power. Words I use naturally without thought or consequence that cause older people who are less exposed to my age level to cringe.

I don't think it can really be stopped. Some day the F-word may be common and harmless, no longer connected to explication or even lewd meanings. People will look it up in the dictionary and find it's biological definition under etymology.

It seems to me that the offensive things, the really taboo things today, are not "dirty words" like @!$%# but rather slurs, which have associated with them a lot of baggage. If, as you say, Set, the trend is to embrace what the previous generation considered taboo, and this works through language, does that mean that we'll see an upsurge in the use of racial and sexual slurs? This seems more dangerous than an upsurge in the use of the word "@!$%#" because when you say "fag" for instance you are automatically tapping into an entire subculture of homophobia and hatred. @!$%# is just a dirty word.

So, if indeed the next generation embraces the Slur as the new offense, do you think that they can divorce these words from their histories? Make them neutral? Right now we're at a point where the various subcultures are reclaiming their words - black people can say "@!$%#," gay people can say "fag," so is this enough to take the teeth out of these words? Does this mean that in 20 years they'll be just as harmless as @!$%# or @!$%#? Or, do we think that a part of the hypothetical youth culture's embrace of these terms will be an actual increase in racism and homophobia? Or am I barking up the wrong tree altogether?

actually I find the word Nazi more offensive than the F word.

I find the words "U.S. Foreign Policies" super mega offensive, more than the curse word describing feces.

I'm gonna stop because I could go on and on forever.

Mykola - Nah, I think what you're getting at is right. I should've been more clear -- I was referring strictly to the swear words like they mentioned in the article. I think slurs are in a different category altogether as they can generally only be hurtful when used toward a person of a particular group by a person not in that group. Swear words can be used by anybody toward anybody, anything, or any event. They don't single out a particular group or individual like a slur does.

It's hard to tell what's going on with language now-a-days. The "seven words you can't say on TV" seem to be more accepted nowadays. Such as, at my highschool, most teachers will be more offended by racial/sexual slurs than the F-word or any other swear word. Unless, of course, they're religious. In those cases, you'll get kicked out of class for saying hell.

I always thought it strange people could find a gesture or word innapropriate. In some cultures, it is wrong for women to show any part of thier body, and some people think that they are 'bad' for doing this. What about cultures where is is polite to burp after a meal. In some ways it is, it shows that you are happy to have had a good meal; you ate all of it, to the point where you would overflow if you ate anymore. For Americans, this practice is taboo.