I have seen so much aggressive anti-swearing of late that I am officially peeved (which is a departure from my homeostatic irked). In order to return to my healthier irked state, and since I don't believe that reporting would be an appropriate measure at this time, I have decided to write an essay to draw attention to the issue of aggressive language policing, in the hopes that this ludicrous inquisition, when faced with logic, will falter somewhat. I know from experience that this will not be the case. But I am great at harnessing the power of false hope-- I live in the same city as the US Federal government and the Washington Wizards, so I have lots of practice.
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There are differing opinions on swearing. Some people believe it to be evil. Some people don't give a rat's ass about it. Some people swear for rhetorical reasons, as I did in the previous sentence. Some people just like swearing. Whatever your personal opinion of swearing is, we can all agree that some people do, in fact, engage in the occasional expletive laden tirade.
There are a number of polite responses to encountering such statements, provided that the profanity is not meant to insult. You can:
-Join in on the swearing, since the artificial concept of linguistic taboo has been thrown out the damn window.
-Refrain from swearing and ignore the use of profanity, since some people believe swearing to be bad, but want to remain involved in conversation; or feel there is no need for swearing at this particular time.
-Leave the conversation, since apparently, your eyes are too delicate to see words that are used in such adult-oriented media as the Percy Jackson novels and the Goonies.
These are all solid options. I highly recommend them.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a sense that the proper reaction to seeing a "bad word" is to demand apologies, order the swearer to desist, or to start a goddamn lynch mob. Now, I love a good goddamn lynch mob. They are very useful in horror movie plot lines. But think for a second:
-The cause of your anger is seeing a written word.
-You had to learn that word somewhere, or else you wouldn't be angry.
-Thus, that word is already embeded in your memory.
The more logical thing to attack would be your own brain for storing whatever knowledge of the word in question that you find "offensive".
Now, this isn't to discourage being upset at legitimately offensive language. If there's any type of language that you should be offended by, its the offensive kind. But if it's not actually offensive? Don't launch a freakin' crusade.
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PS: Believe it or not, this is the abridged version. The original had some stuff about entrapment.
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There are differing opinions on swearing. Some people believe it to be evil. Some people don't give a rat's ass about it. Some people swear for rhetorical reasons, as I did in the previous sentence. Some people just like swearing. Whatever your personal opinion of swearing is, we can all agree that some people do, in fact, engage in the occasional expletive laden tirade.
There are a number of polite responses to encountering such statements, provided that the profanity is not meant to insult. You can:
-Join in on the swearing, since the artificial concept of linguistic taboo has been thrown out the damn window.
-Refrain from swearing and ignore the use of profanity, since some people believe swearing to be bad, but want to remain involved in conversation; or feel there is no need for swearing at this particular time.
-Leave the conversation, since apparently, your eyes are too delicate to see words that are used in such adult-oriented media as the Percy Jackson novels and the Goonies.
These are all solid options. I highly recommend them.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a sense that the proper reaction to seeing a "bad word" is to demand apologies, order the swearer to desist, or to start a goddamn lynch mob. Now, I love a good goddamn lynch mob. They are very useful in horror movie plot lines. But think for a second:
-The cause of your anger is seeing a written word.
-You had to learn that word somewhere, or else you wouldn't be angry.
-Thus, that word is already embeded in your memory.
The more logical thing to attack would be your own brain for storing whatever knowledge of the word in question that you find "offensive".
Now, this isn't to discourage being upset at legitimately offensive language. If there's any type of language that you should be offended by, its the offensive kind. But if it's not actually offensive? Don't launch a freakin' crusade.
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PS: Believe it or not, this is the abridged version. The original had some stuff about entrapment.
