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The F-Word Is Going the Way of Hell
The Atlantic ^ | 9/6//2019 | John McWhorter

Posted on 09/06/2019 1:36:14 PM PDT by Borges

The old sensitivity about damn and hell was rooted in medieval discomfort with swearing to or about God and Jesus, or daring to take part in actions consecrated to them, such as damning people to hell. However, across the 19th century a new concern with euphemizing matters of sex and the body gradually overran these old anxieties.

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: corruption; fword; immorality; profanity; vulgarity
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1 posted on 09/06/2019 1:36:14 PM PDT by Borges
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To: Borges

Zounds!


2 posted on 09/06/2019 1:38:16 PM PDT by fruser1
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To: Borges

Naturally an article about the f-bomb.... focuses on Beto.


3 posted on 09/06/2019 1:39:52 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
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To: Borges

found under carnal knowledge


4 posted on 09/06/2019 1:41:18 PM PDT by teeman8r (Armageddon won't be pretty, but it's not like it's the end of the world.)
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To: fruser1

Blast! Blast I say!


5 posted on 09/06/2019 1:44:19 PM PDT by Sirius Lee (“They are openly stating that they intend to murder you. Prep if you want to live.”)
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To: Borges

I fear I am going to wind up hitting the report abuse link on some of the forthcoming replies.


6 posted on 09/06/2019 1:44:53 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("...a choice between Woke-fevered Democrats and Koch-funded Republicans is insufficient."-Mark Steyn)
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To: Borges

Gosh Golly by Gum!


7 posted on 09/06/2019 1:47:14 PM PDT by kaehurowing
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To: Borges
The F-bomb used to be used for its shock value in the barracks.

It is way over used in current hollyweird and netflix offerings.

It always has been the word of choice for those of limited intellect and limited vocabulary.

8 posted on 09/06/2019 1:49:13 PM PDT by pfflier
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To: Borges

Cursing and swearing is Hate Speech. Pure and simple. Idiots that have no qualms about dropping f-bombs and s-words in public, but would never use the n-word or fa&&ot, are well, idiots.

F-bombs are usually directed in anger with hostility toward the person on the receiving end.

“F**k You” is meant to be cruel. Calling someone a Mother ****** is, well, hateful.

Even casual use of these words leads to a worsening of our culture and a deterioration of how nice America used to be.

Hate speech. Not defined by racism. But by vulgarity.


9 posted on 09/06/2019 1:49:28 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
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To: Dr. Sivana

The only place that still has good standards of language is Free Republic. Contrast it to what you see on Dummy Underground or any liberal site.


10 posted on 09/06/2019 1:49:44 PM PDT by kaehurowing
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To: Borges

The author is a prof at Columbia. It figures. His argument is a pseudo-sophisticated way of denying that the coarseness of pop culture is getting worse by the day.


11 posted on 09/06/2019 1:50:08 PM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: Borges

The F word is overused, especially by women.


12 posted on 09/06/2019 1:52:03 PM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: pfflier

“That’s one of those ‘sentence enhancers’.....”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB5cWVPd3mA


13 posted on 09/06/2019 1:53:41 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Borges
One of my main complaints with the F-bomb is that it's stupid. I'm not shocked by it, but its constant use by someone is a sign of a limited vocabulary and/or of any sense of the meaning of words. It's use as an adjective or emphasizer for just about anything always strikes me as low-class.

Some people seem to think that using it all the time shows that they are either "real men" or "tough, no-nonsense women." To me, it just sounds lame, lame, lame.
14 posted on 09/06/2019 1:56:05 PM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: Borges

What the Feck?


15 posted on 09/06/2019 1:56:50 PM PDT by DannyTN
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To: pfflier
The F-bomb used to be used for its shock value in the barracks. It is way over used in current hollyweird and netflix offerings. It always has been the word of choice for those of limited intellect and limited vocabulary.

True. It used to be the ultimate, the nuclear weapon in discourse. Once you dropped the F-bomb you had reached bottom (or top). Now, it's entered every day discussions. I went to the ball game Tuesday night for the first time this year. Some idiot fan two rows behind us was yelling the whole game, half to the players and half into his phone, and it seemed every other word was F**K or its derivatives.

16 posted on 09/06/2019 1:58:56 PM PDT by Rummyfan (In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel.)
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To: 1Old Pro

One of the reasons I will have nothing to do with American women. Totally coarse and vulgar, they look and act like prostitutes.


17 posted on 09/06/2019 2:01:59 PM PDT by kaehurowing
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To: Borges

In the late 19th Century in the US, when people cursed they tended to use blasphemous words and words like ‘hell’. Over time those phrases lost their impact (as would any curse words used frequently over time) and the language shifted to where the “7 words you can’t say on TV” became shocking to use in polite company.

Now... ah heck, even being called a fargin’ racist has no impact.


18 posted on 09/06/2019 2:03:17 PM PDT by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
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To: Rummyfan

True. It used to be the ultimate, the nuclear weapon in discourse.


It’s sort of like Reductio Ad Hitlerum, which used to be the sign you had lost an argument. Now the entire argument of the Left is one form or another of Reductio Ad Hitlerum.


19 posted on 09/06/2019 2:03:52 PM PDT by kaehurowing
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To: teeman8r

Stack High In Transit.

(I do think the story of the origins of that word is just a myth, but it’s a funny story).


20 posted on 09/06/2019 2:04:14 PM PDT by monkeyshine (live and let live is dead)
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