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[Roadgeekteen]

I think the phrase was "gratuitous use of profanity," and sure enough, it's no longer in the rules.

Back in my younger days, I had as foul of a mouth as anybody, but with age comes (or should come) wisdom, maturity, and discernment. To me, any use of profanity is gratuitous. Meaning it's unnecessary. If you're not literate enough to converse without cursing, well, I don't know what to say to you. There is absolutely no point that cannot be made without resorting to profanity. I'm not necessarily offended by it. I just don't think it's warranted.

I can accuse someone of being an illegitimate child who engages in sexual intercourse with their maternal parental unit and I can invite them to consume feces and assume room temperature, or call them a diety-cursed moron, without ever uttering a single curse word.

See, I've had the opposite experience. When I was younger, my parents strictly forbid profanity and I'd get spanked if I said so much as "damn". Then I grew up and realized they're just words, and, just like any other word, carry an unspoken connotation that sometimes makes it where choosing a swear word can communicate one's point with more precision than any other word. "That's very disgusting", "that's extremely disgusting", and "that's fucking disgusting" all communicate three very different levels of disgust by the speaker (and to me, at least, I read the first two as the speaker being less disgusted themselves and speaking in a more detached manner than the third). As someone who prides myself on my abilities with the written word, choosing to eliminate fucking from my vocabulary makes about as much sense as a painter eliminating orange from their palette would.

Part of my revelation came when I used to play a lot of basketball. I used a lot of profanity, dropped a lot of f-bombs, when I missed a shot, failed to grab a rebound, the other team scored, and basically at every opportunity when things didn't go well for me or the team on which I was playing. One day, a friend took me aside and noted that one of the people with whom we were playing was a minister. I didn't know that. I'm sure he was extremely offended and not at all happy to hear a constant flow of foul language rolling off my tongue like when Ralphie was beating up Scott Farkus. I don't remember if I apologized to him or not, but I made a mental note to behave myself better. Both my grandmothers would have been appalled at my use of such language, and my parents would have as well. It was also pointless for me to use such language.

It was a slow journey to cleaning up my language. One of the biographies I read about Johnny Cash when I was young made mention of the same process. My thought process now is that I don't want to use language that I wouldn't want my parents, grandparents, preachers or other very religious people, or others to hear me say.

I continue to be amazed at how casually people drop the f-bomb. I was in a meeting a few years ago where the presenter just used the word for no apparent reason. As I've said, I'm not offended by hearing the word, but I know that many people are. This guy didn't know his audience or who might not react well to just hearing that vulgarity used out of the blue. Turns out I wasn't alone. Several other people in the meeting later expressed agreement when I noted my opinion on the incident.

I know that my moral/political/societal beliefs are offensive to a lot of people (many of the forum members for sure, and most of the moderators should the truth be told). That doesn't bother me. I enjoy liberal outrage.  But even if my principles cause offense, I don't want my behavior to do so. So you will never hear me turn and say to someone else in a store checkout line, "I sure wish that cashier would hurry the fudge (only I didn't say fudge) up. What in the fudge is taking them so long?" It's disrespectful to anyone who might be in earshot who doesn't want to hear that language.

The f word is quite ubiquitous tbh. All of my peers probably wouldn't bat an eye at it. Adults can be a different story. And what does being liberal have to do with any of this...

[tolbs17]

High school and college kids swear a lot. I don't mind.

[Roadgeekteen]

High school and college kids swear a lot. I don't mind.

All my friends swear a ton. I swear a bit less but still a decent amount.