Posted on 09/23/2010 4:10:41 PM PDT by don-o
The increase of vulgarity and profanity on this board is troublesome to me. It was not always so. I can remember the “olden days”. There was no profanity. None. And there was no chat. None. The first Freepers held one another to a high standard of discourse.
I wonder why and how the profanity has become so common? The rule in the reply box includes “no profanity”. Do we have a problem of definition as to what constitutes profanity? Does replacing one of the letters in the “F” word with %## or ! mean that we have not used profanity in our posting?
I’m not really sure where to go with this. Certainly the site owner and his empowered moderators are the arbiter of what is to be allowed. I guess the best I would hope for is to encourage us all to think just a bit more about trying for forceful language without gutter language.
That is all.
I’m on my soapbox again. Thank you for providing it. I want it to be better and better and an inviting place for all.
Wtf?
As someone who has been guilty of this I pledge to refrain from this in the future.
ping
My grandmother always told me profanity was how the feeble minded express themselves with force... I miss her dearly.
The use of profanity is evidence of passion, not all of it misguided. However, the English language is rich enough to offer better and more profound alternatives, and those who seek them will usually win the argument.
Thanks, and your thread title is so good I’m saving it for future use....
What do you mean?
Not necessary ... time to clean it up a little. If we want to be potty mouths over here, we just emulate the Daily Koz ... been over there lately? It’s a cesspool. We can make intelligent statements here without shouting from the gutter. Hopefully, we’re a “notch above” DK. IMHO
yer so vain.
Honestly, its many of the same freepers here. But technology and texting language has grwon exponentially in the 10 or 12 yrs since we started. Vulagarity isn’t the problem. Its just plain nastiness amongst its members. Besides, we aren’t the mods and the deserving few get zotted.
1. It pleases mother so much.
2. It is a fine mark of manliness/ladiness.
3. It proves I have self control.
4. It indicates how clearly my mind operates.
5. It makes my conversation so pleasing to everybody.
6. It leaves no doubt in anyone's mind as to my good breeding.
7. It impresses people that I have more than ordinary education.
8. It is and unmistakable sign or culture and refinement.
9. It makes me a very desirable personality among men, women and children and in respectable society.
10. It is my way of honoring God who said, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."
-PJ
Thanks. We make fun of the DUmmies and the KOS kiddies for the streams of sewage found there. We intuit that it’s a lack of coherent ideas that relegates them to the street language. We are nowhere near like those pits; let’s work to make the demarcation even more striking.
I completely agree.
Pretty much every time I see obscenities, I ping the mods to it. FReerepublic does not need to descent to a DU lookalike.
Now I myself on occasion will use a “don’t give a damn” or “What the hell...” but in my mind, that’s something I don’t think a parent would bristle over if their nine year old read it.
But the various slang words used to describe male and female anatomy seem to be showing up more and more. I even see threads that have words describing self-gratification in the title, I can’t help but think they are not really needed and posted just to push the envelope.
Overall, I would have to compliment the mods on doing a pretty stand up job. FR is not a day care center by any means, but it’s not yet turned into a biker bar!!
Your grandmother was right. I never heard my grandmother use even the mildest of epithets. She was a lady, a concept that is foreign to some these days.
I’ve been guilty myself because some of the issues we deal with are hot topics that get the blood boiling. Is cursing worse that some of the blatent scurting of other rules? IE- islam, homosexuality, or race? Those posts can be nastier than cursing IMHO.
That is a good thing. I consider this thread a success based on that one post alone!
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