Last week a study was released ranking the american states by which state used the most curse words and who used the least. Texas came in 4th as one of the states least likely to curse. Good news for manners I guess.
While I admire the restraint it takes to speak in such a way that most of your audience can hear your words without any editing or bleeps I am in no way an advocate for censorship.
Human language, whether it’s written or spoken, is extremely limiting. Concepts and feelings are regularly lost in the written word and I find that people trying to make themselves understood sometimes have to resort to convoluted explanations and even inventing words to transfer meaning to the other party. Why then would we want to limit language by excluding words on purpose? Granted curse words have limited utility. But excluding any words is an artificial handicap that we must not accept.
Now all that being said, I am not a person that uses colorful language just because I can. Being able to use foul language means that I am free to use but also free not to use a certain words. As I said I want to be able to convey my message to another person. If I purposely use a word that may offend them and that’s all that sticks in their mind then how is the rest of my message going to reach them?
As a speaker, as a writer I have to look at my intended audience and think of how I can arrange my words, what words must I choose, and what tone am I trying to set? As General Patton once said “When I want it to stick, I give it to them loud and dirty.” In my case when I want it to stick I give it to them straight and simply and I choose the words that I want to use to get my meaning across.
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