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No, generally you don't have much to say. When people curse they make it clear that they have too much emotional investment in what they're saying to be reasoned with.

Cussing in itself isn't bad except when people are actually using the words with emphasis. When I call my friend a dumb fuck because he forgot his stuff at his parent's house, that's not an issue because the word's being used ironically.

When people get angry and curse someone out, the person forfeits the validity in their words.

edit: Cussing is a form of lashing out. Sam/Spock you're no better by giving them snide remarks in substitute of an F bomb.

Originally Posted by Nory The majority of muslims are perverts, uneducated, filthy, and are changing Islam into a religion which represents them, amateurs.

This is an ah... interesting thread, but let's get it a bit back on topic, shall we?



I can see where you're coming from, but I do not agree. Some people do resort to swearing and cussing at people instead of arguing their point, but that is not an issue with swearing; that is an issue with their ability to argue. Just because some people use swearing in an illogical and inappropriate manner does not mean that swearing is necessarily inappropriate. In the same way, an individual might be perfectly able to argue persuasively but may find that swearing helps them make to their point (which it often does- sometimes it can be difficult to express exactly how you feel without swearing and without sounding pompous).

Here's one for you- what makes a "swear word" different from a "normal" word?


Now, I know some people might find swearing offensive. This is, arguably, irrational, but I don't think that that means that we should just ignore what they feel. If someone around me doesn't like swearing then I will not swear; otherwise I will swear when I think a swear word is the best word to get across what I'm trying to say. Every word in the English language has slightly different connotations and sends out a slightly different message: sometimes it's just inappropriate not to curse. There are very few words that are exactly synonymous with each other.

Oh, but I don't agree with cursing at people btw... But not because it's cursing- attacking someone personally without cursing is no better than cursing at them. Often, it's just a devious little trick to make the other person feel like you have the moral high ground... I won't go as far as to say that it is immature, but it is often leaning that way.

Jam, you're absolutely correct with your first statement.
In every debate there are truths about the topic that everyone needs to acknowledge for a debate to be constructive and critical. For this topic those truths are 'some one isn't dumb simple for saying a word' and 'the use of a word is much more important than the word itself.'
Everything else is up for debate.
Using those two truths you can easily come up with the compromise that people who lash out are the issue, not necessarily the mediums themselves since they aren't specific to that purpose.

However, to make this debate controversial, I'm claiming that since it is those irrational people that are drawn to cursing, we can generalize people who curse as being irrational or, as the one chick got pissed off at me for saying, 'having nothing of worth to say.'
The exception I give for this is when people use it for an ironic or exaggerated purpose. However, when people use cussing in its actual context or use it for emphasis, that's when they forfeit worth.

Swear words are different from normal ones because we single them out. Words have meaning because we give it to them. It's perfectly rational for someone to be offended by racial slurs since the meaning behind them paints a bad image. Because we remark F-bombs with as taboos, they gain power and people learn to be offended by them. That's why cuss words don't affect people who are used to hearing them- Unless they hear it from a source where they don't normally. There's shock factor in those words, and that's what makes them different generally.

Originally Posted by Nory The majority of muslims are perverts, uneducated, filthy, and are changing Islam into a religion which represents them, amateurs.

I'm going to have to disagree with this though, I'm afraid! Generalisation is not logical: simply because we see a negative correlation between rationality and use of curses does not allow us to infer cause and effect; nor does it mean that we can pick a person of a given "curse usage" and work out how rational they are. For that to be the case, we would have to find a perfect correlation (coefficient = -1) - which we do not. This is essentially what you are saying we can do - indirectly determine rationality by directly measuring usage of curses. We cannot.



Now this is a point I'd like to draw attention to - swear words are different because we make them different. They are only offensive because our society/community dictates that they are offensive; the offense associated with curses is subjective. This is partially what drew me to my earlier conclusion about not swearing in front of those who find it offensive: if the company in which you find yourself does not find cursing offensive, then the curses are not really curses! If we are defining curses as being found offensive by the community, then curses cease to be curses when our company does not find them offensive. What think you?

I was hoping you'd disagree. A debate's awfully boring if someone doesn't.

Generalizations aren't inherently false, simply not purely true. I'm not arguing if x then y, simply that the two (irrationality and heavy use of cursing) coexist frequently. Take this for example: A man's money doesn't necessarily correlate to his dental hygiene. However, a rich men often has better teeth than a poor man. This isn't to say the rich man has more time out of his day or that the poor have lesser jaws, but simply that there's an untouched variable that links the two. Identification of that variable isn't important in simply observing a correlation.
There are of course people who have bad teeth and are well-off, but this can be used in the analogy as well: some people who curse heavily can be well-mannered, but they won't come across as such since the majority generally aren't.
Ultimately the language is dictated by how people perceive it. If everyone started referring to guns as rooty-tooty-point-and-shooties, the term would probably seem less ridiculous over time. However, we can't argue idealism and status quo at the same time. The appeal of curse words is that they ARE tabooed. If we stopped finding them offensive, then another term would their places. Curse words can't be eliminated by everyone accepting the set because a demand will always exist.

Originally Posted by Nory The majority of muslims are perverts, uneducated, filthy, and are changing Islam into a religion which represents them, amateurs.

Depends on the context. If it's meant to be hurtful, then no. But I mess around with my friends calling them bitch, whore, slut, asshole, jackass, fuckers, shitholes, things like that.
They call me bitch, jackass, asshole, temperamental fuck, things like that.

It's rarely ever serious. We can say it like we're dead serious but we always end up falling to the ground laughing. XD

I have cursing at my friends, it's how we play. But seriously speaking? No, although we've all done it before but in the end we apologize.

And for the record, you did my arguing for me. So thank you. I agree totally.

Correction, I said more than half a bottle. It was to show that it wouldn't kill them. You have to take a hell of a lot of Advil for it to kill you considering it primarily works against swelling of the brain.
...I never claimed it was an accomplishment or strength for that matter. See any of it? When you open your eyes and realize it.

Long story short, you said something stupid, I called you out, you got your panties in a twist, it dissolved into a personal fight. Yup, that's the gist.

I can be as fucking obscene as I want, it's you're own foolish ignorance from seeing what I really have to say. Strength is about taking people head on regardless of anything. That includes how one speaks. Weakness and ignorance is brushing those people off because of your misconceptions.
I'm an obscene person, that's just how I am, I don't want to change so you're just gonna have to put up with it like how I've been putting up with your stuck up, arrogant, self-centered ass. It's called life, and all sorts of people live in it. Not everyone is gonna be how you want them to be. Learn to fucking deal with it. People are not how they choose to speak or communicate. Try looking at them for who and what they are, not how they speak. It's ignorant and awful arrogant of you.
Yes, you can take a lesson from me now, learn to deal with people as people, not deal with them based on your misguided misconceptions.

Thank you and good day.

I'm gonna close this thread guys as I believe a simple topic has gone too far and has started to get a bit too personal.

If you have any problems please feel free to PM.

Cheers.