Poll: Americans See, Hear More Profanity

powercow wrote:

I do like battlestar galaticas use of the word frack. Nice way to get the meaning by the censors.

Excellent example! There is absolutely zerodifference between "frack" and "@!$%#", yet one is oddly acceptable whilst the other is verboten. People are just insane.

People don't swear too much where I work. I don't hang out in bars. I think some people like to hear lots of swear words so they hang out in bars.

"What we hear, it's gross," says Kramer, 67. "I tell them, 'I have a dictionary and a Roget's Thesaurus, and I don't see any of those words in there!' I don't understand why these parents allow it."

I wonder if this Kramer guy is familiar with the term "abridged." They are words, and have been such, for longer than he's been able to form syllables.

Words are sounds organized into various orders for the means of communicating ideas. Considering some sounds profane is silly. Profanity, as a concept, is one of the more ridiculous things that society has dreamed up. It's not the words themselves, but the context. Were a person to tell me that my girlfriend fellated them in the backseat of their car last night, and that they had an orgasm on her face afterward, or if they called me a @!$%#ing @!$%#, I'd be rather bothered. If I overhear somebody in a mall drop an F-bomb over crappy cell phone reception, I really couldn't bring myself to care.

Context. It's all about context. Censoring words themselves sets a frightening precedent.

Personally, I don't see why profanity is needed. What are people gaining by using it? Nothing.

freedom of speech ... but, I agree ... time and a place for everything ..... you can express words in better ways ...... I believe there are thousands of words in the english vocabulary ...

Personally, I don't see why profanity is needed. What are people gaining by using it? Nothing.

But that's not the point. If say "What the @!$%#?" when I'm confused, I'll grant you it's not functionally any different from saying "What's going on?" The difference is that, perhaps arbitrarily or perhaps from the company with which I associate, I choose to use the word "@!$%#." I'm not gaining anything by any more than you're necessarily gaining anything from the way you frame your sentence.

But it is my choice - my sentence, my expression, is my creation. I said it intentionally, so whether I "gain anything" through my word choice or not is immaterial is far as you're concerned - it's none of your business. My contention is that if profanity offends you, the burden is on you to become a person less easily offended.

To maintain taboos - to fight against the acceptance of profanity - is to fight for the ability to get offended. That seems to me irrational - wouldn't you be happier if you weren't offended? Then get off your high horse and accept the fact that different people use different words. To get offended by my use of the word @!$%#, to put the burden on me and imply that I shouldn't use it because you can't understand what I gain by it, is to miss the point entirely.

I'm not picking on you personally, understand - all of my second person pronouns refer to an abstract hypothetical person who gets really offended whenever he/she hears a dirty word. I just don't understand why s/he lets it get to him/her. Ya know?

Wolfanoz wrote:

Peter Filias:

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. :)

Actually, when I write, I try to make sure it can't be criticized against for illegibility or being hard to follow; that's just me, though. One of these neo-critics, who goes around looking for things to criticize and harp on. Actually, it blended right in with the whole profanity article and it struck a chord. Pardon me for using your comment's diction as an example of the type of profanity I found offensive.

You went to college, Wolf? Good for you. Higher education is a commendable undertaking. Finishing that education is even more commendable, maybe even respectful.

Oh, and if this were a public forum, where we were all standing in a room, and you spoke as good (or bad) as your first comment, I'd most certainly have shared the exact same opinion I shared with everyone here tonight. :)

Love, Peter

Maxwell Despard wrote:
...Kramer guy...

Actually, when I write, I try to make sure it can't be criticized against for illegibility or being hard to follow; that's just me, though. One of these neo-critics, who goes around looking for things to criticize and harp on. Actually, it blended right in with the whole profanity article and it struck a chord. Pardon me for using your comment's diction as an example of the type of profanity I found offensive.

You went to college, Wolf? Good for you. Higher education is a commendable undertaking. Finishing that education is even more commendable, maybe even respectful.

Oh, and if this were a public forum, where we were all standing in a room, and you spoke as good (or bad) as your first comment, I'd most certainly have shared the exact same opinion I shared with everyone here tonight. :)

Dude. I got to this party a little bit late, and when I was reading through these comments your first one made my head hurt a little bit. But there'd been nearly twenty more comments after it, so I figured it'd be best to let it go. But this is just craziness now, and I can't sit idly by any longer, if for no other reason than that I consider myself to be one of the grammar/syntax/spelling hawks around here, and I think someone needs to defend our purpose. I try to point the errors of others out only in situations where it's constructive or helpful. This is downright rude. And way over the top.

Let's go back Wolfanoz's original comment, shall we?

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

That comment was succeeded just three minutes later by this one:

That would be:

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

If I'm reading this correctly, Wolfanoz omitted a word (one, single word!) in his original post, and then he corrected himself less than five minutes later. Am I missing something here? Does anyone agree that that warrants this:

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.

This isn't even an error of grammar. It's a word omission. And then he corrected himself. Good lord. And then you keep dragging this out?

I'm not even going to get into the corrections you might want to make in your own writing. Well, just for kicks, here's one: You might want to read up on the situations where are adverbs are appropriate and adjectives aren't. That should get you started.

peter,

spoke as well?

Actually, it blended right in with the whole profanity article and it struck a chord. Pardon me for using your comment's diction as an example of the type of profanity I found offensive.

Understandable. And pardon accepted.

You went to college, Wolf? Good for you. Higher education is a commendable undertaking. Finishing that education is even more commendable, maybe even respectful.

Not only that, an expensive one. One only wonders what future generations will have to pay. Some feel it's a failure to even venture for such an undertaking in higher education when experience gets you further. I say both go hand-in-hand very nicely.

Oh, and if this were a public forum, where we were all standing in a room, and you spoke as good (or bad) as your first comment, I'd most certainly have shared the exact same opinion I shared with everyone here tonight. :)

Everyone has an opinion. Not that you don't have the right to express it but most would take offense to it because being corrected by peers can be just that, offensive. That is, of course, unless it's happening to you and it's either up to you to take it as an attack or constructively. I prefer mentioning beforehand that it's to be constructive and not inflammatory. :)

Peace.

The idea that a word could be profane is just ridiculous.

I completely agree.

A word just represents an idea. If a word is profane, then the idea it represents should be considered profane. The word s*** is profane, while poop is acceptable? That just doesn't make sense.

Let's try and stay on the topic of the article. :P

Everyone has an opinion. Not that you don't have the right to express it but most would take offense to it because being corrected by peers can be just that, offensive. That is, of course, unless it's happening to you and it's either up to you to take it as an attack or constructively. I prefer mentioning beforehand that it's to be constructive and not inflammatory. :)

Wolf, I went over the top. I'm actually surprised that I couldn't see that simple word omission you made. :(

I actually have two college diplomas (degrees) my damn self.

Cheers.

I was reading this article, and all the sudden it occurred to me--people worrying about this is really silly.

I actually have two college diplomas (degrees) my damn self.

And do you have less hair for it as well? LOL

yep

And do you have less hair for it as well? LOL

Nah, not from school...just age (32).