A previous thread, now closed, veered off into a discussion of cussing. Want to put in my two thoughts.

Grew up in a family where cussing was not modelled or allowed. Started cussing at college and loved it.still cuss.

Despite that, sometimes cussing gets to be too much.

I see cussing like salt. It adds a little zip to the conversation but pour on too much and it spoils the conversation.

A previous poster defended their right to cuss as much as they wanted to and that friends were wrong to be put off by it.

I work at a college and sometimes when I walk along the halls I hear conversation after conversation of a long stream of cuss words. It is a little off putting to say the least.

IMHO a little cussing is fine but too much is reasonable grounds for wanting to interact with a person on a less frequent basis.

I have no objection to it but It can become annoying when over done. I used to listen to the Merseyside skeptics podcasts but soon got sick of it because of the swearing. It just made them sound like smug self satisfied adolescents.
I would try not to do it with people who don't like it particularly if I want their friendship or them to like me(reference to derailed threads).
I have trouble not blaspheming however because I have never believed God or gods ( on Koloa or mt Olympus) ever existed but I still try not to do it when I have been with believers.

I sometimes wish I was better at cussing. I blame growing up Mormon and being a primary teacher for my poor ability. DH sometimes asks if I said f-u if someone is mean or offensive to me. I always have to admit to not coming up with the idea in the moment.

I have always believed that the offense people take to words and phrases are programmed responses, not something which is naturally human. I swear as much as I can out of disrespect for the ideas which are trying to control the offended and me.

I chose to cuss to get a point across in a family setting where members range from TBM's to, you know, those who are going to hell. The reactions were priceless.

What I murmured was "I don't give a damn". One TBM family member called me out saying that they had not heard me, the parent, using 'such' words when they were growing up. Why now? I replied that infrequently I did cuss back then, they just hadn't heard me.

I went on with the conversation saying that in my book it is healthy to be angry when you need to be. I was then told by said TBM family member that anger is not useful.

Well, perhaps that sounded too much like one of the 15 Black-Suit Doofuses lecturing me, so I responded with, "That type of thinking, is plain fucked up in my book." Then I got hit with well, if you are going to talk like that I will have to protect my family and myself from such talk.

I responded with, "So you believe in censoring? Kind of like the wonderful sweet country of North Korea? I can think of a lot of ways more worthwhile to spend my time, rather than doing this."

In my book singling out cussing as the church/cult does is just another silly way the church blows the importance of acts like this (drinking coffee, masturbation, etc.) way out of proportion as to what they actually are. They are things that can be seen easily, not like major fraud or abuse.

These things they choose to label as evil are then able to take the spotlight and let the church/cult seem like the Moral King for pointing out the "danger" of these things to its members, all the while making the atmosphere free for the church?cult to take advantage of the members by way of indeed dangerous and real evil which is much harder to detect, such as fraud, silly-pie-in-the-sky-promises, manipulation, and control.

JUST ANOTHER WAY, ANOTHER ANGLE, TO KEEP THE MEMBERS SO BUSY WITH BULLSHIT, THEY MISS WHAT IS REALLY HAPPENING IN THEIR LIVES.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2015 04:29PM by presleynfactsrock.

My roommate in college said the word fi/uck in every other word. It got so tiresome that it lost it's provacativeness. I rarely say it but when I do, it is for its forcefulness in a point I am trying to make. Funny how a word like that means what we like to do, but rarely say it in its context.

When I was little, my dad cussed a lot. He was a cowboy. I cuss to myself and when among certain company, but know full well when to squelch it. TBM DW will have none of that! Even words like crap, "that sucks," poop and butt are profanities in her book. I said "titties" once when we were alone. Nope. Profane. Just one of those quirks married folks have to tolerate!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2015 07:09PM by rationalist01.

If so, what on earth did she use for "butt" and "poop" with the little ones?

"Bottom" and "waste," usually. Or number 2. She has four kids by her first husband. I have seven by my first wife, who, although TBM, was less of a prig. It was "poop" and "bum" for her.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2015 07:25PM by rationalist01.

I really do appreciate your answering my question. I saw your definition of "prig" in a new thread and just KNEW you'd answered.

BTW, "crap" was considered a cuss word when I was growing up in my parents' house. And if one referred to a woman's upper anatomy at all, it was "bosom." Rolling my eyes in retrospect.

My mother bawled me out for saying the word bum. Only the words bottom or seat were allowed.

For girls parts, the term was "down there".

My mother's approved term was "downstairs"!

I grew up in a Navy family and joined the Navy. I spoke what I call "Navy speak" and still do on occasion. Remember the old cliche "cuss like a sailor", it's not a cliche. Sailors cuss big time or at least they did back in the pre-PC navy. It may be against the regs to cuss now.

The Navy still cusses. It isn't against the regs (although some idiots might try to ban profanity in an attempt to make the Navy look more "professional." It's a branch of the military, not a fucking insurance company if you ask me.)
Source: I served some time in the "new Navy."

Actually, it's kind of cracking me up to see that a young TBM family member who recently wed in the temple is cussing openly on FB etc. This person also is a singer and cusses in song as well. Hilarious! I wonder if that's pretty common for Utah TBMs? I know it was not acceptable where I grew up amongst TBMs.

hem-hem...




fuck




...that is all.

I still find it difficult to cuss. Though it's coming easier.

However... I did have ONE memorable moment in church. I was helping another woman to unpack a box of new hymnals for the chapel at the time. When lifting a couple of the books out of the box, they slipped & peeled back one of my fingernails (quite painful, you know); "Sh*t!" I gasped.

"Sister ______!" The other woman exclaimed, "I'm so PROUD of you!"

Yeah... so there's that.

I noticed recently that even my thoughts are cuss words.

I'll see all of you in OD

Someone shared this some time ago here. It conveys my thoughts about cussing and other things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sph8Qu8wLAk

Your conditioning influences what you are and aren't comfortable with. "Cuss words" aren't bad in and of themselves. The intent behind words is far more important than whether or not they're considered profanity by the society you were raised in. People who grow up swearing aren't necessarily rude or intense people, and those who grow up without swearing aren't necessarily being nice or respectful when they open their mouths.

If they are the go-to words, the person may have no others of their own. Never did it in high school, did it to fit in at college but saw its threadbare nature (unless used originally by really intelligent people, who could come up with shocking strings and images and not just rely on button-pushing words). I always wondered at accounts of some famous persons who could "swear a blue streak," and wondered what they said, and why.

Non-stop cussing must be a sign of ambient anger, and I'd consider people who did this to be potentially dangerous.

between expletives uttered in anger or frustration and cursing at people. When James Lipton asked his guests on "Inside the Actors Studio" the Pivot question "What's your favorite curse word?" all the actors I've seen responded in the first category.