Yes, I know
profanity is among
Everything's favorite pursuits (next to
sex and
noding itself, I would guess). However, I tend to find it a rather
simple, unoriginal way of going about expressing oneself. Calling something a
piece of shit or someone an
asshole really doesn't express much beyond the fact that you
dislike the thing in question.
Tone of voice carries the rest--and the tone of voice effect can be added to any
word, not just profanity. Especially when confronting someone, other words would be much more effective than profanity: using easy
curses and old
tried-and-true swears is likely to get you little more than
retaliation in kind. If, instead, you unload on someone the
longest insult in Shakespeare, or say something utterly
bizarre, they're likely to be
stunned,
speechless and wide open for further
attack. It also carries the
added benefit of making you
sound like Pseudo_Intellectual, something many a
noder aspires to.
wharfinger: I'm not necessarily saying to zap profanity. I'm merely bringing it to some people's attention that it is not as effective as they would like to think. True, it takes some degree of intelligence to use a more interesting turn of phrase, but as you said, if you're lacking that, you're in bad shape in the first place.