More on profanity

The following statement from another acquaintance is also worth repeating:

“My husband swears a lot and it’s really getting old. Shit, damn, ass and an emphatic fuck (she dreamed!) don’t bother me at all. But he CONSTANTLY uses fucker, cocksucker and motherfucker. If you say cocksucker or motherfucker when you drop a piece of bread or burn your finger, you’re tapped out. There really isn’t much worse that you can say. What if you get hit by a car, or your house burns down, or someone shoots your dog? You’ve already used up the worst words. Believe me, I can swear like a trucker IF PROVOKED, but overusing curses just makes one sound unintelligent, like you can’t think of a smart thing to say. It’s like getting into a physical fight (unless you are in danger, someone is attacking you or a loved one, etc.) Gee, I really have nothing intelligent to say, I think I’ll just punch this guy or say fucking cocksucker because my pills fell on the floor. When you swear a lot, you rob the words of their impact and you just sound like an impatient, short-fused ass. When you hear it every day, it gets old really fast. “

Profanity

An acquaintance of mine made the following comment recently. I think it’s worth repeating.

” Swear words are a net minus for society and we’d be better off without them. They are definitely lazy. One could, I suppose, have an academic debate of whether they’re theoretically useful for “escape valve” or “code switching” purposes. In reality, it’s gone way past that point. There are now a lot of people who spout profanity in every single sentence they use, for no reason whatever except that they can’t be bothered to speak English correctly.”