Yarhaarrharrr ye facist curr

  • Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca
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    21 hours ago

    I feel like the days of pearl clutching over profanity are on their way out. There is always a time and a place for it, but I grew up hearing “fuck” come out of my drunken relatives every other word. My parents didn’t say it, and they didn’t let me say it, but the only real weight the word ever had was that it was cool and exclusive to adults.

    One of the biggest culture shocks I had when moving from the US to Canada was how much more laid back everyone is up here over profanity in general. Almost everyone uses it, very few people (save for maybe the elderly) get uppity when they hear it, and I’ve heard it used freely on FM radio many times. I still think it’s trashy to fly a FUCK TRUDEAU flag or decal on your car for everyone to see, but nobodies up here clutching pearls. They just think you’re a dick.

    Not sure why it’s still such a big deal in many parts of the US.

    • GreenShimada@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      What’s interesting is, traditionally in language, once forbidden words got ran out, there were still other bad words left to enter the lexicon. “Damn” used to be a genuine curse. My grandfather survived WWII and proudly told be people of all the bombs he dropped, he never dropped the F-bomb.

      What’s next? There’s no new forbidden words. Nothing left in the back of the store. Our ability to run through words outpaced our ability to make bad ones.

      • MamboNo5@lemmings.world
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        15 hours ago

        My grandfather survived WWII and proudly told be people of all the bombs he dropped, he never dropped the F-bomb.

        I killed a lot of people, many probably innocent, but I’m a good person cause I never swore!

        • GreenShimada@lemmy.world
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          7 hours ago

          Not quite. It’s that he was flying a plane and being shot at 6 days a week, and yet still didn’t need to jump up to a new bad word. Whatever he already knew is the language he used.

    • NateNate60@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      Words become more acceptable over time. In centuries past calling someone a devil or saying that they should go to hell would have been deeply offensive. Today these insults are so mild that even schoolchildren say them to each other. Even twenty years ago the word “fuck” was viewed with nearly as much taboo as racial slurs. Now, it’s a very common word that people will throw around in a casual context.

      Even the word n****r (means “black person”) and its non-hard-R variant are starting to lose their offensiveness. In African-American Vernacular it has taken on a variety of inoffensive meanings. It is now only offensive in certain contexts while fifty years ago it was pretty much offensive in all contents.

      At the same time, new words emerge and get labelled profane. For example, the word t****y (means “transgender”) would not have meant anything twenty years ago, and now it’s one of the most offensive words in the English dictionary. Similar story with the word f****t (means “homosexual”).