Vulgarity

Yes, big-time. So are the Greeks and many Middle Easterners.

 

That's also true. But where are the borders? If I say "This is a ******* awesome car", should I really be saying "This is a really fly car" not to offend? I wouldn't dream of thinking of the first sentence as offending although it contains a cuss word.

There's of course no reason to deliberate offend the other person, but it all comes down to culture - something here might be offensive to you and easily the other way around. Without one of us having the intention to offend.

 

Being a high school teacher, I am very aware of my use of language. We do not find it acceptable in our offices or classrooms, to use curse-words. If students get vulgar, their parents will get a call from me.

 

I was so against the "man" back in 06-10 I didn't care who or what heard me. I was such a little prick I hocked a lougie on the wall in front of the principal. I mean he was a serious well, vulgar insert here. I'm glad I have changed!

 

To answer your question, yes, the first statement would offend me. Maybe not others, but as you've seen by the responses, everyone is different. So the safe thing is to not use any vulgarity, thereby offending no one. The second statement gets your point across just as well.

I used to curse quite a bit in the military. Most of it was at work. Seemed like when I got home and walked in the door a switch was flipped to turn off the cursing; I didn't want my kids picking it up.

Now I choose not to curse so I don't offend anyone, especially the Lord.

 

I'm amazed anyone would find that offensive. I knew it, prior our previous convos, but I'm still amazed. I don't think I'll ever understand it. But that doesn't mean I can't accept it and work around it. There are a lot of things I don't understand but easily live with - this one goes in the bag.

I don't normally curse either but I do say "****** awesome car" and that's not cursing. In a heated argument I curse sometimes - not by choice I think, but just out of bad habit. Habits are hard to break sometimes. I don't curse so much more than I used to - primarily because I think it sounds ugly. It doesn't make a person better or worse by cursing or not.

Also I try not to get offended easily and I encourage others to do the same. I pick my fights in this world and getting offended by normal language aint one of them.. as long as it's not directed personally against me or my family. If I should be offended by the fictional sentence above I wouldn't have time to live a happy life - I'd be offended all the time, if not here, then other places. And if not those places then some third places and so forth. I choose not to curse here because I like it here. Not cursing is mandatory to be here. No problems at all. But out in the real world I don't pick and roll every word in fear of offending the person next to me.

I'm not trying to change anything here, but now we're having the discussion, that's my opinion.

 

I restrain myself almost everywhere I post , unless the populace of the site in general aren't looking down on a few swear words or a dirty, dirty joke or two...or three . But I am in general against censorship, as my Croatian language and literature teacher said "Swearing is a part of a living language, that is used in everyday life, and should not be frowned upon". Nothing bugs me more than seeing a movie packed with dead bodies and blood but you can tell effort has been put in not to let an inappropriate word pass through or god forbid some frontal nudity As for a place being a family friendly, families are the ones that should teach their children how to interact with others and what sort of language is appropriate in what situation. I have never in my life used bad language outside the circle of my friends, never used it to insult someone or mock them, but I was never protected from influences of vulgarities, my grandfather used so many swear words sometimes I'm sorry I didn't write them down (all slavic peoples are known for their colorful use of vulgarities , especially south slavs ). So do I think vulgarities should be used to express a sentiment or convey a thought, no. But should they be frowned upon when they do appear ...no

 

You guys write so much.... I'm sitting here feeling brain dead for only providing a paragraph.

 

This has been an interesting discussion. I know that so much of language is culturally-dependent, that words only have the power which we give them, and words which are considered curse words are often considered no big deal, but I appreciate the efforts of the mods and the civility of the members in keeping TSD family-friendly.

 

There must be some recognition of offensive speech by TSD. We have the "No Holds Barred" area.

 

This. Or people glorify shows like Teen Mom, 16 and Pregnant and other garbage.

 

This is the way it should be. Give everyone the freedom to make choices for themselves. I like that.

 

Too bad the world isn't like TSD.

 

You can say that again!

 

Just kidding!

 

That's clever coding. Thumbs up!

 

I was taught that having to resort to vulgarity just revealed that your vocabulary was not diverse enough to properly express yourself. When people swear the same way that the Smurf's said "smurf" for everything it makes them come off quite unintelligent. So the more important question isn't who else are you offending but why are you choosing to offend yourself.