Awwww, fuck....thanks. ;)

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.

I would say that everyone has a right to curse and use words that they deem appropriate in appropriate situations. Everyone who is old enough to quote and value this perceived right, should also be old enough to understand that you CANNOT (in good conscience) use your rights - to trample someone elses rights. If your cursing can be heard by my mother (or my kids, etc), I know that it will offend them. That is using your right to curse without consideration for the consequences and that is disrespectful and rude.

No one that I have read in this thread was saying that cursing is just plain wrong, nor were thay saying that it makes you less of a person. Most of what I read were posts explaining that there are certainly situations that require restraint for the common good.

Failing to acknowledge someone else' rights - just so you can exercise your own rights - is a pretty one-side viewpoint for life. And when I use the word 'you' I don't mean any particular person; I mean anyone who is wearing the shoe that I am describing.

If you want to be respected, be respectful. :thumbsup:

I take exception to this as a rule, although I certainly understand where you're coming from. A person must learn to speak properly and have a vibrant vocabulary in order to really cuss with style. But cursing, in and of itself, is not indicative of a lack of intelligence. IMO, and in my observation.

This thread seems like it's JinnKai's campaign for free expression vs. everybody else's campaign for civility and politeness. It reminds of when Noam Chomsky sided with a French author who claimed the holocaust didn't happen, and the offending book was subsequently removed from press. Chomsky wasn't defending the author's ideals - on the contrary, Chomsky believes very much in the events of the holocaust - but people quickly ran stories of him being a neo-Nazi, anti-Semetic etc. They didn't understand that he was simply defending the man's right to freedom of speech, regardless of the content of the message.

At what point is one freedom sacrificed for another? It's difficult to say that one is more fundamental than the other, especially when considering something as seemingly fickle as mono-syllabic words. It's a very tricky debate and I'm sure it will never be satisfyingly resolved.

I have to admit, I cursed more in my younger days. I knew more words than my friends then. Today I take satisfaction in knowing words they don't, but have the same meaning. You swear - you go down. Don't swear, don't go down.

For part of my childhood - I went to a school were we said f*** in pretty much every sentence.

So that's no big deal to me. I work in white collar-environments - where I don't generally swear because I know it bothers my collegues. Usually I'll swear if I'm particularly surprised by a nasty technical issue and I haven't caught myself in time. I also swear when I'm in physical pain, after hitting my head or whatever.

God and jesus aren't used here in my experience, teenager drama queens and watchers of US soaps. We generally say f***, p***, s***, and c***. If we intend to be negative about somebody we really have to mix-em up together and combine with other verbs.

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.