Yeah he was apparently a great guy.

Swearing was taken as more severe back then. The F word was legitimately nuclear in polite company in the 1960s. But these things evolve. In Puritan times, “damn” would have gotten you two days in the stocks but “shit” and “fuck” we’re just uncouth.

Today it’s identity slurs that are untouchable, which is an improvement because a lot of those words are legitimately hurtful and really shouldn’t be used casually.

And there are languages like Korean and Japanese where there are no profane words at our level of severity but there are ways of saying things that will end your career, e.g. certain second person pronouns and verb inflections that no one uses these days but are still recognized as viscous attacks.

Yes, as any old person will tell you, everyone is rude and disrespectful these days (by comparison).

You've removed them from your speech but I worry you've still given them some special power over you in your mind with that sensitivity. It would be freeing to treat them like any other word and not react to them so strongly for you, I think.

> Then I entered the military and very quickly cursing became deeply ingrained in my speech

Same. Never cursed before military. But military stress combined with surrounding fellows cursing made it difficult to filter it out from my own language.

They're just words. If you want to give those words so much power over you, that's your own problem to deal with. What right do you have to demand the rest of society cater to your particular hangups?

When I hear curse words, they elicit exactly the same emotional response as any other word. There's nothing magical or inherently special about them, it's all in your own psychology.

IF YOU SPENT A LOT OF TIME ON THE EARLY INTERNET MAYBE THIS WILL HELP YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THOSE WHO DISLIKE SWEARING EXPERIENCE WHEN THEY HEAR PROFANITY

Now, why they react that way is a lot more complicated... Much like why I and many others find the above almost physically painful. My own personal take is that avoiding swearing in public, like avoiding all caps in the Internet, is a matter of courtesy and respect for others. And while I find the discussion of why interesting, ultimately I believe that respect for oneself and others (something I have watched diminish for decades) is a good thing, and ought to be practiced. It's... being a good citizen and fellow human being, I guess.

The linguistics of swearwords are interesting I think. They need to be taboo or they don't work. A certain amount of offensiveness is needed for their function.

I think swearwords are very useful. Both when used of emphasis, comedy or (their original use) venting frustation or pain.

And they have secondary uses as well. When someone swears a lot in inappropriate situations you can tell they are generally inconsiderate persons. And when somebody gets very upset by swearwords you know they are probably overly religious. For both things it's nice the be forewarned ;-P

If you ever get a chance to talk to a linguist, ask about pejoration, melioration, and the euphemism treadmill. It really is interesting how we convey culture through not only what we say, but what we don't say. In especially elite circles, the rate that words go in and out of fashion can be astounding, and using even a newly pejorated word can get someone instantly and permanently rejected by the group.

The offensiveness of many comes from the original intention of the word, which was generally some sort of a condemnation of another person (or perhaps sometimes some other taboo). To repeat it is to repeat some of that original intent, at least at times... But I think now a simple "fuck" has all but lost that meaning, and I would say it's not really inherently offensive. And well placed, sparingly used, it can be a good way to extend your range of emotional expression. Well, as long as it's not at cost of everything else.

i am not offended by swearwords, i am annoyed by them. it makes absolutely no sense to me to use a term that suggests sexual intercourse to describe anything else but that act. likewise it makes no sense that someone is told to have said sexual intercourse as a way of suffering. not only because there should be no connection, but also because the whole idea that sexual intercourse is something you should suffer from is completely alien to me and also demonstrates a very skewed view on what it is supposed to be about. it proliferates the idea that sexual intercourse is something bad.

i understand that the use of that word in that context should be seen as completely disconnected, but that only works if the original meaning is no longer in use. like the original meaning of the word gay. using gay as a swearword annoys me just as much. and it hurts the people who identify themselves as such.

if you want to use swearwords, use those that are objectively bad in all variants of their meaning. like shit. but here we have the reverse problem. shit is good: https://youtu.be/igh9iO5BxBo

so maybe we can find new terms that we all can agree on are bad, like SUV-driver ;-)

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A significant chunk of the population thinks they'll get tortured for eternity if they do it too much, and finds it distressing to be exposed to it as a result.

They're not inherently offensive. They're vulgar, but that isn't the same thing as offensive. Vulgarity is nothing more than a classist concept anyway. This is just another case of religious extremists making everything in this world worse for everyone else.

Using profanity indicates a weak vocabulary. A lack of discipline. A degree of unrefinement unbecoming of astronauts representing the "best" of humanity and their country.

Depending on the type of profanity it can divide societies by reinforcing social schisms/prejudices. Such words typically cluster around areas of cultural discomfort such as religion, sex, and hygiene, causing polarizing emotional reactions. It's biological as well as cultural.

Seems like the "best and bravest humanity has to offer" can probably represent a little better than that for one of the most significant feats of history.

I was a pilot for many years. It's a profanity laden profession. You don't do difficult and dangerous flying of any kind without a few f-bombs here or there. As is tradition.

I couldn't help but think of this when I read your comment: https://theonion.com/july-21-1969-1819587599/

"Neil Armstrong on the surface of the fucking moon."

Everyone in this thread is bashing on religious causes but cursing was one of the very few obvious social class signifiers in 20th century America, which was part of why it was so harped on by parents and schoolteachers of that era.

It's funny as a parent, because I'm expected to tell my son that he shouldn't curse even though his mom and I do. And all of our friends. And coworkers. And my boss. And his boss. And our CEO. And the fucking president.

It's ridiculous.

Can you give an example of a country where this is the case? (I suspect there are other taboos there, but am genuinely unsure.)

your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries