What gets me is how some people react to swearing, particularly if English is not their first language. If you say "duck" nobody gives a duck. If you say "truck" nobody gives a lorry either. As soon as you say "fuck" though they're all red in the face and full of apoplexy, as if you've just offered them a virgin goat or something. Humans are funny.
Then you have people who learn English as a second language. This means they aren't culturally programmed from birth to react to English swear words. Bob's mum-in-law is a good example. She's blissfully unaware that she is supposed to be offended. Before someone like that can choose to be suitably offended they first have to learn which words they are going to be offended by, then they have to learn the meanings and connotations of those words, then they have to make a (usually unconscious, I suspect) decision to be offended. After that they can merrily join the ranks of the upholders of decency and react with shock and horror whenever they like. It all seems a bit daft, quite frankly.
I dont like swearing either, but dont mind if people choose to. Its just that there are so many words to choose from. Particularly those who are unable to formulate a sentence without swearing in it 3 or 4 times - thats just naff.
I agree up to a point. I'm all in favour of judicious, or sometimes injudicious, use of expletives as sometimes they are just the best words for the job. Overuse of them is rather boring though. I remember when I was working in Queensland years ago and the blokes in that factory were passionately in love with fuck and its derivatives. They'd use it everywhere. Instead of saying "umm" or "errrr" when they were tying to think of the next bit they'd use "fuknnnnnnnnnnn". Seriously. Everything was fucked. Everyone was a fucker, or a fucking fucker who was fucked and therefore fucking things up which was, need I mention it, fucked. I found myself thinking one day that it'd be fun to rock into work one day and do complete conversations using absolutely nothing except fuck and its derivatives combined with suitable delivery and phrasing for the purpose at hand. They totally would have missed the point.
Topic: FUCK!