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On a sidenote, if swearing was as effective as some would have us believe, don't you think we would see more of it in political debates, advertising or history changing speeches?
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Yes, but politicians and the like have to placate to the rubes out there who are afraid of words sending them to hell.
A word is only as good or as bad as it is in making the user's meaning clear. Fuck, for example, can sometimes be used where no other word would be as eloquent or appropriate. "I fucked Suzy last night." implies sex of a somewhat dirty or violative nature with a lack of love or social grace. Perhaps you don't fuck people, you make love to them, but I assure you people do fuck each other all the time. What other word would work as well in its place?
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Read the posts in this forum alone and substitute the word dung or defecation for the word shit and you'll see the emptiness of that argument.
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The same with shit. Defecation sounds serious to me, it's the kind of word a Dr. might use. I've always thought of dung as referring to animal feces. Perhaps these associations I have with these words are limited to my mind, but I think others are at least aware of these associations, whether they make them or not..
Shit, on the other hand, implies grossness, messiness and unpleasantness. Additionally, shit has taken on other meanings that defacation and dung have not, at least in informal speech.
"This new M.C. Hammer single is the shit!" has a meaning that "This new M.C. Hammer single is the defecation!" does not. Again, this is best used in informal speech, not because the word is bad, but because of the effect it would have on the audience.
As others have mentioned, expletives can often add emphasis to what a person is trying to say.
They may also function as a sort of shorthand where it isn't worth the time or effort to produce something more complex (contrast "Man, that used-car salesman down the street fucked me!" with "Fellow human, I must express my disatisfaction with the treatment I received at the Previously-owned motor vehicle retailer establishment located at 1313 Mockingbird Lane." Both convey the same information, but one is more complex than the other.) or it may function as a form of informal speech, similar to contractions. Granted, it would be inappropriate to use such informal language in formal speeches or presentations, but that isn't due to the evilness of the word, but rather to the social structures we place on speech in such contexts.
That you may have elitist problems with informal language is a result of your upbringing. Yes, the poor or the poorly educated may use expletives more frequently than the rich, but I submit that is due to the generally informal nature of employment and life the lower classes become accustomed to.
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Chances are, a person isn't really worth talking to if they're so fucking uptight to actually believe that swearing degrades an argument or makes one appear less intelligent.
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I agree that the use of expletives does not degrade an argument (at least, not any more than other unecessary adjectives or adverbs do.) However, you should accept that you live in a world with people who are still afraid of an all-seeing invisible man in the sky watching their every move. It will take several more generations before we can begin weaning them off their superstitious fear of words. In the meantime, should you ever require a mormon or rotarian to help you fix a tire or assist you with your homework, you should speak with that person in a way that makes him/her comfortable, and thus, more likely to help you.
Don't curse at mormons if you want them to help you mow the lawn just as you wouldn't speak in spanish to convince a 5 year old to do the same (assuming of course that the 5 year old does not speak spanish).