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Originally Posted by warrrreagl
One of my great heroes, comedian Sid Caesar, once said that cursing is mostly for people who lack the intelligence/skill to find a better word. Since I have taught school for 20 years, I've found that he's right in my case. Whenever I'm in front of students, no matter what their age, I am always able to think fast enough to come up with non-profane language. My profanity usually comes out only when I am alone and it doesn't matter.
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Yeah, I've heard that, and I've also seen a few people on TFP say this as well. I think it's just not correct. We use cusswords because we know the reaction they will get from people and to give a sense of importance to a situation. Using a cussword doesn't portray a lack of intelligence or skill to find a better term unless the person doesn't know when to stop or uses them recreationally in public without caring what others think.
Say you're in a hurry and you stub your toe. "Ow, gee, that smarts!" just doesn't portray the same importance as "that hurt like hell." When your 16 year old daughter comes in at 3 AM drunk, "what were you doing?" doesn't portray the seriousness of "what the F were you doing?"
Cusswords may be stupid in theory, but our society uses them and <I>understands them</I> as a part of the human language in relation to the power and importance of a situation. Saying that the words are a guideline for a lack of intelligence is just silly and somewhat rude.