Obscenities: Why are people so upset by them?

Swear words change even within the context of a single language. For example last night I went out and got ****faced. Now everyone in Britain knows this is a euphamism for getting drunk and noone is offended by it. But is that term considered offensive on this forum?

 

Snowdog, that's a contradiction I have never heard a good answer for.

Just the other night, flipping channels, I saw a scene in the Breakfast Club where "Eat my shorts" dubbed over with "Eat my socks". Then I flipped to another channel where I saw a home intruder pull out a handgun and shoot the wheelchair-bound homeowner in the chest - blood, screams, and all.

That's logic beyond my comprehension.

 

I've just seen Kesselrunner's reply in the 1992 election thread and he uses the term crap. Is this any different to the word ****? after all both are 4 letters long and describe the same function.

 

Yeah, that is one of the other things I don't get.

Again I am going to complain against christians. I appologize early.

Christians believe that "god" knows the mind and that the intention in which something was done is what they will be judged upon. So they don't swear because its wrong. But they will say crap, heck, gosh, dang, darn, crud, beotch, and other words that mean the same thing. So wouldn't their "god" see it as the same way? Just something I was thinking about.

 

Anakin- that is a good thought, an f word by any other name is still an f word.


Seriously the words would lose most of their meaning if people did not get offended by them

 

Anakin, you don't see a distinction between intentionally offending someone, vs. refraining from offending someone?

"Seriously the words would lose most of their meaning if people did not get offended by them "

Why would you want that to happen? What's wrong with having offensive words in the language?

 

Obscenities do NOT have the sole purpose of offending anyone! If an apple hits my head and I say ****! am I offending anyone? I should hope not.

Whether or not I'm offending anyone with ANY words always depends on voice inflection and context, and how I use my words. I think it's stupid that if I say "damn" some idiot might go clap the back of their hands to their forehead and go "Oh! I'm so offended!" while at the same time if I call someone "bantha poodoo" or something they wouldn't care.

And that also ties in with the "replacement cuss words" like fluff, beotch, and so on.

As for the exact origin of obscenities, they're probably stuff that people made obscene and everyone kinda went along with it. Like the word a** - it's referring to a donkey, and somewhere along the line maybe someone thought people would be offended if they were called donkeys, or something. How words become obscenities is stupid and almost arbitrary, but the words themselves are useful for conveying emotion or just venting off some steam.

I think the newest emerging swear word is "gay". I hope that in 50 or 100 years, the word "gay" will be looked upon the same way the "n word" is looked upon today.