cursing

I remember when I was a kid, my parents would never let us curse. Not that we wanted to anyway. There were plenty of non-curse words that worked well when needed. A couple of classics.

“For cryin’ out loud!”

“Dog-gone it!”

“For Pete’s sake!”

Now, it was relatively easy not to curse because neither my father nor my mother did. They were consistent in modeling what they expected of their children. Once I heard my dad say, “Ass,” and I totally freaked out. I can still remember it today.

So, what has happened that civil language has taken such a dive? There are way too many suspects for this crime. But there is one that seems most rampant and most illogical.

People use cursing to aggressively stifle healthy debate. If I have made my views known, I am not interested in what you have to say. I have already formed an opinion without examining the evidence that you may bring up and so the last thing I want is for you to provide any reason for me to have to do further work in my thinking. So, f@#% off! Or something to that effect.