Thursday, January 01, 2009

Bravo to this guy

I love what this guy said regarding the profanity debate.

The reason you can't begin to understand is that you're misreading what I wrote. I said "swearing is a habit that lazy people *CAN* fall back on...".

This does not mean "lazy people ALWAYS swear."

This does not mean "all swearing is done by lazy people."

There is no prejudice, except in your mind. It's a very simple statement. If one doesn't want to take the time and effort to think of the right word (e.g., one is linguistically lazy), then swearing is an easy way out. Do you *really* disagree with that?

And, by the way, you said "People who swear do it because that's the way they've always done it; that's just how they talk." How is that not the definition of "habit"? How is that not "remotely similar" to my point?

Again, read the argument. Swearing *IS NOT* equal to lazy. Swearing is a tool for lazy people. It's also a tool for intelligent, erudite people who know just the right time and place for a good profanity, and they can make it really effective.

And some people use it as filler, like um, er, ah, and like. When someone says, "I f*ckin' went to the latest fuckin' Jean-Claude Van-f*ckin'-Damme movie at the f*ckin' theater night before f*ckin' last, but I was so f*cked up I can't f*ckin' remember the f*ckin' plot," the profanity adds nothing to the sentence (not even emphasis, because it's so overused). When such a sentence is uttered loudly in a public place I consider it rude, thoughtless, and obnoxious.



Mind you, I'm not trying to justify the use of profanity. I don't think we should use it. From a purely literary perspective though, I think this guy is exactly right.