Swearing and vulgarity.

I fully accept that bad language is a part of most cultures. And DP is not nor ever will be an oasis of virtue and purity. I also accept that colorful language can be used to accent a point or to demonstrate passion.
My beef is the gratuitous use of such words for no discernible reason. It would be nice to be able to come on here and not be forced to be accosted by the constant use of the "F" bomb and other disgusting words. I believe that a member's character can be assessed by what kind of language he/she utilizes.

Now I get that the mods don't want to be oppressive and wish to encourage freedom of speech and expression. Anyway my question is the following: Do you feel that the mods here are a bit too liberal and allow foul language more than they ought to? Should they clamp down a bit on this, or maintain the status quo and leave it alone?

 

You might be in for a rude surprise

 

I think that swearing is so much in today's culture that we get into the habit without even realizing it. I've caught myself at times swearing without intending to and afterwards felt uncomfortable because of the environment of the time.

Now that honesty thing - I don't know about that right there.

 

@Kerosene it is so good to see you here, we (speaking for myself of course) do miss your wit/humor. You really do need to come around a bit more often. An Aussie wouldn't be a true Aussie without a bit of blue language now and then but.....not here on DP and in writing.

@dcristo, thanks for the link, very interesting. But I disagree with the conclusion. If one needs to resort to gutter language, in what way would this be presumed to elevate one's overall intelligence? The impression left would be quite the opposite.

@JoeSpirit, you are right as to the honesty thing. Swearing is often used as a smokescreen. How many times have I witnessed members resorting to it when they realize that they have been checkmated rhetorically? Dishonest deceptive Neanderthal trickery, that never works.

 

I tend to be a free speech kind of guy when it comes to Forum posts (and most everything else) so I would be reluctant to impose limitations on people expressing themselves on DP. That said, I generally do not think highly of people that liberally lace their communications with expletives and, in fact, such overuse tends to diminish the shock factor or whatever other emotion the writer is trying to elicit. And I certainly do not view the communicator as especially intelligent -- quite the opposite, in fact.

The "smokescreens" that I most often run across are name-calling (expletive-laden, or not.) When a weak person feels that s/he has lost the argument, one recourse is to label the other side as being "something bad" as a way to defend the losing argument which, of course, never works.

 

Quite true, a trick of the "weak" is character assassination. In other words if you are a terrible person, your argument has no validity to it. I find it difficult and frustrating to debate stupid people as often they are blissfully unaware, that they are indeed stupid.

 

Who would you swear to? All sellers/Buyers of Websites and Services have disappeared from this forums and anyone is really making any purchase of digital stuff on this website. Hence all people who use to scam are no longer seen here and the forums is like few members searching for their holly-grail.

 

In an attempt to keep this thread on topic I'll ask you to scroll down to the thread entitled: Your mother and your wife are drowning. Who would you save? Then check out posts #57 & #58. I reported both of these posts and the mods took no action. Is this o.k. with you? It is not o.k. by me.

 

I agree. Not only is that kind of language uncalled for the sentiment expressed (especially #58) is way out of line.

 

It's a classic case of monkey see, monkey do. A member drops the F bomb in post #57. Awhile later another member comes along, sees that #57 got away with it and not to be outdone posts #58. That post was indeed far worse.
Odd thing is that these 2 posts are left as is while innocent posts are sometimes deleted due to being "off topic" or because of "chatting". Imagine having a post in General Chat deleted because of "chatting". I have had this happen to me more than once...very odd.

 

Yawn

 

I'm torn on how I feel about swearing, personally I don't swear much.

When I was younger I never swore at all really and found swearing offensive and generally looked down on it.

As I've gotten older, I notice I swear more (still not a lot) but the main thing is that I'm no longer offended or look down on people that swear. I figure why waste time getting upset, it's literally just words. Life is far too short, now I don;t judge people and try and take a more laid back approach to life in general.

As I said, life is far too short to get upset by words. It seems silly to get upset about something so trivial now.

 

As we age should we begin compromising our standards? If society rots from within, do we merely join in the rot or do we stand up and fight it? We ought to progress as we age and not regress.

 

You're having a very closed minded view to the whole thing in my opinion.

You're almost equating swearing to physical harm, they're literally JUST WORDS.

Over the years what has been considered a 'swear' word has changed with times and different cultures or parts of the world may consider what you see as a 'swear word' as OK and they may see words that you deem not a swear word as offensive.

It constantly changes and evolves and you have to look at it in the respect that it just becomes ridiculous in the end.

If someone swears it doesn't mean they're 'rotting from within' or society is failing in anyway, that's just extremism.

You may see me as very liberal but your view is extremely conservative and you often find that the best way and the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

I think you may have to consider opening your mind a little and compromising your views and opinions a little.

 

First off I don't have to do anything at all. Secondly this thread is about swearing here on DP.(written word) In real life if someone like you has a potty mouth then I can simply ignore you or remove you from my life...easy. But here in the virtual world if you write profane words and I happen to read your post not knowing in advance what you wrote, then I have no choice as I would to walk away. (as in real life)
So do go back and reread my opening post and let us not stray and incorporate swearing in society, which is not the topic of this thread.

 

I'm not sure I understand the distinction here. As you say, in real life you can ignore or remove a potty mouth but it seems to me you can do the same thing online. In either case you must first identify the individual who uses language that offends you. My thoughts are that once you identify that person you can then ignore her/him whether the language is spoken word or written word.

 

The fault is mine as I clearly have not communicated my thoughts on this properly. English is such a poor language to express oneself. It is a short clip-clip language that is low on expressiveness and harsh to the ear. Ah, cette langue barbar Anglo-Saxonne!
It's like this, in person if you are offended by swearing you simply walk away, end of story. Here online you scroll down and there it is. And everytime you wish to check out the thread, there it is again. It cannot be avoided, you cannot remove yourself unless you stay off of the thread. It is also there for prosperity and for all time.

Anyway back to the topic. We have our share of adult children on this site as with any other site. If the mods do not clean up in aisle 6 or in any other then what? These low brows will have at it and it could spread like wildfire. I recently had an incident where this creep got into the most foul language imaginable. I reported and nothing. Finally after about 5 or 6 disgusting posts by this mental pygmy he got banned. It ought to have been nipped in the bud and could have/should have been avoided.

 

If you put the user on ignore their posts will be hidden from you.
I know it's a personal thing and you have every right to find bad language offensive, personally it doesn't bother me having spent most of my working life on building sites where swearing is just second nature.

 

I've seen you and @deathshadow use language that one would not find in church. I have often had a good laugh at it and even dropped off a few likes for you guys here and there for it. Using rough language for humor or to display passion is something I get, I am not adverse to it. It's when morons use it gratuitously for no other reason than ignorance, to insult, stupidity, for shock value, to offend, or because like children they just want to get away with it.

How and why it's used makes a Grand Canyon sized difference in my opinion. I do believe that our mods who are intelligent people know the difference when they see it.