Live data from Hacker News

Why swearing is good for you

qz.com

21–30 of 101 posts

Re: Why swearing is good for you

#23
My username checks out.

Fuckin' oath swearing is good for you.

I'm British, raised by an ex-military Grandfather turned Civvy Engineer who ate his cornflakes with a side of profanity and then I. As a young adult, I moved to Australia. I swear alot. Even for fucking Australians.

It's the perfect stress release mechanism.

'Why the fuck doesn't that work? Why the fuck DOES that work?'

Re: Why swearing is good for you

#24

Valorizing language is silly. I remember in like 5th grade they moved the goal posts on us and made 'sucks' a 'bad word'. I was so thoroughly confused. How did a previously okay word become bad? They're tools in a box. They aren't inherently good or bad - the intent and meaning created by them are what matters. I similarly think it should be impossible for a word to offend someone. I think it's possible for meaning t…

If swear words weren't offensive they'd be useless.

Re: Why swearing is good for you

#25
Tossing wanker slag cheese eating surrender monkey bastards of daft cow arsehole barmy chav dodgy gormless git of a manky mingers. Muppet naff nutter pikey pillock plonker prat scrubber trollops uphill gardener twit knobheads. Piss off you bell end lazy sod skiver knob wazzock ninny berk airy-fairy ankle-biting arse-licker arsemonger chuffers, daft as a bush, dead from the neck up, gannet, gone to the dogs ligger like a dog with two dicks, mad as a bag of ferrets maggots who only bugger plug-ugly mingebags not batting on a full wicket.

Re: Why swearing is good for you

#26
post #25

Tossing wanker slag cheese eating surrender monkey bastards of daft cow arsehole barmy chav dodgy gormless git of a manky mingers. Muppet naff nutter pikey pillock plonker prat scrubber trollops uphill gardener twit knobheads. Piss off you bell end lazy sod skiver knob wazzock ninny berk airy-fairy ankle-biting arse-licker arsemonger chuffers, daft as a bush, dead from the neck up, gannet, gone to the dogs ligger lik…

I tried to translate this to American slang, and failed miserably.

Thank you, I laughed so hard

Re: Why swearing is good for you

#27

>While sometimes viewed as lazy or boorish, swearing actually requires substantial verbal facility and skill. When used correctly, in other words, profanity is expressively complicated I'm glad they pointed this out -- as I always say, swearing is the inevitable linguistic crutch of the inarticulate motherfucker. However, this article missed out on one of the more important beneficial aspects of swearing, namely pain…

Is this comment considered as sarcastic or ironic? To be specific, the "inarticulate m *" bit.

I sometimes have trouble telling the difference these days.

Re: Why swearing is good for you

#28
post #20

Valorizing language is silly. I remember in like 5th grade they moved the goal posts on us and made 'sucks' a 'bad word'. I was so thoroughly confused. How did a previously okay word become bad? They're tools in a box. They aren't inherently good or bad - the intent and meaning created by them are what matters. I similarly think it should be impossible for a word to offend someone. I think it's possible for meaning t…

> I similarly think it should be impossible for a word to offend someone. I think it's possible for meaning to offend and really only if you respect the person enough to provide some weight to that meaning. This strikes me as curious, as offense is a feeling, and thus not much "thinking" must be involved. If by 'should be impossible' you mean everyone should not allow themselves to be offended, that is a very differe…

I think the feeling is more a result of the perception. I.e someone forcefully communicates an idea you find painful to think about thus causing you pain. Better to confront the idea - understand and heal the trauma - rather than fixating on the mechanism of how you were reminded of it. You might find that the idea can no longer harm you - much less by someone trying to force it upon you - because you, at that point, understand it far better than they do.

Re: Why swearing is good for you

#29
post #4

Swearing is like putting a spice on your sentence. Overdo it and you'll come across too bold and brash. Use is carelessly for anything and it loses its significance. But use it just on things that deserve emphasis, and it shines in a pretty good way.

There's a SpongeBob SquarePants episode that covers this. "Sailor Mouth". Highly recommended. The swear words are bleeped out with dolphin chirping and other maritime sound effects.

Patrick: Hmm... [dolphin chirp]! Oh, hey! I think I know what that means. That's one of those sentence enhancers.

SpongeBob: Sentence enhancers?

Patrick: You use them when you want to talk fancy. You just sprinkle it over anything you say, and Wham-o! You've got yourself a spicy sentence sandwich!

http://spongebob.wikia.com/wiki/Sailor_Mouth_(transcript)

Re: Why swearing is good for you

#30
What a load of crap. It's good because it carries 'risk' and can be used as a sign of trust? In what universe does swearing carry 'risk'? Might a puritan cultural thing. In which case the 'benefits' probably don't carry over to less puritan cultures.
Post reply on HN