Carno

I seriously don't understand why some of yall think that cursing makes a person look less intelligent. To say that is just plain ignorant, in my opinion.

avhg1

In my opinion, there are very few instances where cursing even sounds remotely intelligent. As you stated in an earlier post, uneducated people tend to curse more than those who are educated. Therefore it is an easy deduction to make that one would sound less intelligent by cursing. It is not a statement of actual level of intelligence, only the outward appearance that you project.

The examples you used earlier "What the fuck are you doing?" and "I'm going to kick your ass" don't sound like the most intelligent conversations that I've heard lately. Perhaps if I am ignorant, you could give me a few good examples of intelligent cursing.

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I shake the devil's hand daily... I'd do it hourly, but my hand gets tired.

pig

I'll go with the pro-cussing group, but with the situational contingent. I certainly don't think it makes me (or others) look cool. Nor do I assume that someone is stupid or uneducated, on the sole basis of a couple of words in their speech. Like anything else, it depends on the context and the way they use the words. I know some people who curse so well that I can sit back and just listen to them go; and I would certainly rather listen to an interesting person curse well than some dullard use pristine language and express themselves with nary a monosyllabic word creeping into their vocabulary.

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avhg1

That really doesn't have anything to do with the cursing. That would be a debate about personality. Cursing doesn't make you more interesting or less intelligent. I personally don't see the need for it and think there are definitely times it is inappropriate. I just hear cursing every where and it adds nothing because of its overuse.

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I shake the devil's hand daily... I'd do it hourly, but my hand gets tired.

Redlemon

When I am around other people, I curse very infrequently. I find that people really pay attention to me when I curse, since they don't expect it.

Perhaps because of this, when I'm alone in an empty house, I swear out loud at the smallest stupidest things. Enough so that people might think I had Tourette's.

pig

I think I'm going to have to disagree with you. I meant to impart that some people I know curse so eloquently, in my opinion, that I enjoy listening to them curse. I think it adds to my enjoyment of what they are saying, and contrapositively, what they are saying would not be as interesting to listen to without their use of curse words. The phraseology would simply have a different texture, and I would find it more bland to listen to.

I agree that simply willy-nilly throwing in a bunch of curse words won't make a dull person more interesting. There I'll agree with you on personality - and perhaps I would say that for some people, the use of curse words is a part of their personality, in as much as it contributes to their conversational vernacular. I guess I would consider some use of curse words to be like verbal spice. You can't make a crappy dish any better with hot pepper (In my opinion, that's like throwing on pachuli to cover up your body odor...yes ye un-washed trustafarian, I'm talking about you); but liberal use of certain spices can make good chile great.

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Carno

A lot of ugly people wear blue shirts -----> if you wear a blue shirt you get uglier.

See how dumb that is?

And you *only* have intelligent conversations? It's ignorant to judge someone by their manner of speech. That's like judging how attractive someone is by the clothes they wear. "Oh well he doesn't wear Armani so he must be ugly."

frogza

Part of the reason that swearing is considered a vice of the base and ignorant is because of the topics of conversation that simply are not condusive to swearing. It's difficult to imagine talking about general relativity, chemistry, classic literature, quantum mechanics, etc. and frequent swearing. (So then there was this ***** huge explosion that tore the **** out of the universe. Now all we have are **** four dimensions. Sounds like some stoner trying to be deep while high.)

Swearing fits in perfectly when your discussing how to remove the wheels from you trailer home, telling locker room jokes, complaining about the diminishing quality of the drugs from your local dealer etc. So no, swearing doesn't equal ignorance, maybe it's just a byproduct of the lifestyle that breeds ignorance.

I don't swear, I don't need to swear to express myself. I am perfectly able to express displeasure, pleasure or anger in other ways.

Prince

I used to curse much more than I do these days. I was one Tony Soprano when it comes to cussing, but eventually I realized something... English isn't my native language, and I did my cursing in English. I did not fully realize the occasional offensiveness of those words because they did not sound like cuss words to me. Once I translated them to myself in my head and asked myself if I would say the same in Finnish (my native language), the answer was no. The word "motherfucker" doesn't sound so bad to me in English, but the Finnish translation raises my eyebrows.

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avhg1

I see you only selectively read my posts. Perhaps you missed this.

"Cursing doesn't make you more interesting or less intelligent."

Like it or not, many judgments are made by how you act and appear. For example, you can look poor because of the clothes you wear. That doesn't make you poor. Your blue shirt example is not a real stereotype, but if it were, it would be true that on first glance you could be taken for being uglier.

I am not judging anyone's character for cursing; only stating that in my opinion that cursing is viewed as a less intelligent form of conversation.

Wow, testy. As so well stated by frogza, I was only trying to make a point that cursing doesn't have a place in most intelligent discussions. To answer your question, most of the time I try to have at least half intelligent conversations and cursing isn't necessary.

Ever heard the saying, you never get a second chance to make a first impression? I don't judge people's character solely by their manner of speech, but I do get a first impression of people based on how they act. If someone can't express themselves without constantly cursing, I get a negative impression of them. Would you wear a tee shirt and jeans if you wanted professional business people to take you seriously?

In case you missed my other posts, I'm not offended by cursing. There are times it is very inappropriate and others where it doesn't matter. I don't really care if others do it. I don't and if I don't like hearing others curse, I can always choose not to listen.

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I shake the devil's hand daily... I'd do it hourly, but my hand gets tired.

Carno

Yeah, but if you automatically assume they're less intelligent because they cuss, then the point is kinda moot, isn't it?

I understand what you're saying, but I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.

Sorry, I didn't mean to come off as rude.

I don't agree with that.. If I was having an "intelligent" conversation, cursing wouldn't make me look stupid, maybe immature, but not stupid.

If we were having a discussion about airfoils, and I happened to say, "The only problem I have with the Y airfoil is how it stalls so damned sharply. I prefer airfoils that have much 'mushier' stall characteristics." I don't think that makes me look less intelligent at all. It may not be as professional, but I think it has little to do with appearance of intelligence.

I don't always feel the need to have serious, intelligent conversations; maybe we just don't see eye to eye because of our age difference.

Yeah, I have heard of that expression, but I just don't make that distinction when it comes to cursing. As far as wearing jeans and a tee shirt, I wouldn't wear that just because it's not professional.

I agree that there are times when it is definitely inappropriate ,but I don't think appearing intelligent is one of the reason cursing would be inappropriate.

avhg1

Great thing about this is that we can agree that we disagree. I don't think you're stupid and can see your point of view, however I still have my opinions about the first impression it gives.

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I shake the devil's hand daily... I'd do it hourly, but my hand gets tired.

Slavakion

Aw... there goes another thing I thought I knew.

Lak

Sorry to dig up such an old thread, but this is a subject which is very interesting to me.

Personally I swear simply because I like the aural effect. I consider myself an intelligent and articulate person, and I like to surround myself with other intelligent and articulate people. All of my friends swear. In fact, a few of them can converse with each other using barely more nouns than "shit" and "dude"(or dudes) AND actually convey a meaning to the other person. It's absolutely hilarious to watch.

Ive been known to use the following words on-the-fly, sometimes more than once:
"Browsifying"
"Brazilliant"
"Fuckery" (some of you mightve seen that one )
"Fantasmal"
"Pastrious" (yes as the adjective form of 'pastry')
and more. I even accidentally asked a customer if they were just browsifying when I worked at EB.
I just love the way particular words can be effectively used to jazz up normal speech, to add a bit of enjoyment to the act of speaking. I think its a rythmic thing.

Now, 'Fuck' has got to be one of my all time favourite words, simply because its distinct, concise, sharp, and it has to be the most versatile english word ever created. It's fun to use! I almost never use 'shit' or 'cunt' (except maybe as exclamations) simply because they're not as interesting to say.

I AM able to convey my meaning and express strong emotion without using curse words, and indeed I usually find I can express ideas and feelings better without them. Some of the coldest, most hate filled insults I've ever heard (or said *guilty look*) have no swearing at all. I do agree that abuse of these words is stupid andmakes them boring.
Billy Connelly said that it's perfectly alright to swear, as long us you can swear WELL. Billy himself happens to hold the opinion that he can swear brilliantly.

Personally I have never taken offence at curse words of any form, and I had this idea:
If I mean no offence when I use a swear word, (in fact, maybe the opposite case, say I am conveying a compliment and happen to swear as a rythmic device) and someone else takes offence to my using it...
is it my fault for using it, or are they 'choosing' to take offence?
Hmmmm....

Oh, and just for the hell of mentioning it, I happen to think that the most entertaining (friendly) insult ever has to be
"Fuck you, fuckball." Can't get enough.

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ignorance really is bliss.

Glory's Sun

this is an interesting subject to me as well. The way I look at it is this: A word is a word no matter how you cut it. Swear words often put some sort of emphasis on things. Also let's take shit for example. What's the difference if I say feces or crap or shit? It's the same thing. Sure there are slang uses and such but the bottom line is that words are words. It's interesting in itself that I look at it like this because I loathe the ebonics stuff (this is not a personal attack on any one or any group) I just don't like the way it sounds. I also have to look at it from another view point that shows how language and terminology changes from generation to generation. I mean.. do you really want to still be talking in Anglo-Saxon? I know I don't. SO I guess the real point here is that people talk how they feel accustomed and how they like to talk.

dman2

Cursing should not be abused. It should be only for extreme cases. If you grew up with parents who did not cuss and then you heard them cuss, it was for a good reason. They had to be pretty pissed to do so. I dont' think it should be everyday vocabulary. If you are pissed off at the world and are uptight, you may be inclined to cuss more often. Most people I hear cussing seem mad all the time. The exception being comedians. A lot of them just cuss for the laugh.

Cuss or not, we all have our opinions.

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Paul67

Using naughty words is a common practice of mine. On the tennis court, "shit" and "goddammit" will be emitted according to how badly my game is going that day.

But I will also use those and worse words deliberately in front of those holier than thou types if I notice they are sticking there nose up to something I've said, variations of "fuck" may erupt seemingly spontaneously, especially if the saintly one is male. To add insult to injury, its even more effective to use such verbal language while letting a loud fart while crossing in front of them. One must grab inner pleasure where one can!

Suave

Beats me. I swear less than my parents do, and that's saying quite a bit. Occasionally I'll throw one out or whatever though, normally either in fun, or because I'm having a vocabularic blockage. I don't think there's much of a moral or annoyance component to swearing though, and it stops being done for the "coolness" factor after about grade 8 with most people. After that it's just force of habit and limited vocabulary, combined with sporadic cases of proper usage.

Stompy

One thing I've never understand is why people are so compelled to complain about people who use words like Fuck, Shit, Damn, Ass, Bitch, etc.

They're just words. They are meaningless.

They're only bad because your mom told you it was bad to say them. The end.

Like someone else said above, the other words mean the same thing. If one is bad, then the other has to be bad as well. Vagina? Pussy. Penis? Cock. Sex? Fuck. Poop? Shit. Rear end/butt/gleuteus maximus? Ass. Donkey? Ass.

Think about it: one can NOT be more "bad" than the other if it means the same thing. It all goes back to people making a stink about them to begin with, which really needs to stop.

Same thing. Different words. I don't get mad at someone for calling my tires "wheels", or for saying "hot" instead of spicy.

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Mass_Hysteria

I recognise that swearing has its time and place (basically most of the time and almost all places), as in i wont use it in front of people who i know it will offend and who's opinion of me i value.
However i do relish walking down a crowded street with a friend not necessarily going out of my way to say particularly offensive things, but instead merely allowing them to come out. Especially when its one of those particularly animated conversations where you might happen to loudly mention something of a taboo nature and you just know that at least one person in the crowd heard and was absolutely horrified.