> > Why does everyone swear now? It makes me wish I lived in a box. Why can't people just say Darn or Shoot or Friggin? Why?
>
>
> I dunno...when you're trying to put together an application to study abroad, and the final deadline is in fifteen minutes, and one of the professors who's writing a recommendation for you has justcalled you back to say it's finished, and you're literally running all the way across campus and back to try to turn everything in on time, it just seems like the thing to do. It's a way to express aggression or stress without actually doing anything; it's like hitting a pillow.
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> Unlike a lot of the people who've responded to this thread, I don't have an intrinsic problem with profanity. However, I think it's important to consider your audience, especially when there are children around -- my stepfather likes to swear no matter who's around or how old they are, and I don't hold with that -- and I think an overabundance of profanity tends to be counter-productive. But I don't think that swearing is due to a lack of imagination or a small mind; that's more the kind of argument people who don't swear, for whatever societal or cultural reason, use to make themselves feel bigger than people who do.
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> Tom
> tmschm@wm.edu

I'd have to agree. I don't really see any reason to believe that some words are objectively offensive. It's more of a socal/cultural thing. Of course, out of respect (a completely different concept from manners) for the wishes of a particular social group, such as the Forum or Rinkchat, I will restrict my language usage. That doesn't mean that the words themselves are objectively offensive. (I am speaking here about "bad words," not "taking the Lord's name in vain")

I think here you're describing more of a change in manners than a decline in decency. The second I would consider serious; the first I would not.

(By the way, I also fail to see a reason why women shouldn't be able to swear as much as men)

My $.02,
Bal "In college, 'please' begins with a 'b'" anthalus