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End the Ricochet Code of Conduct!
For the past few years, whenever I’ve made a pitch for new members, I’ve always included something along the lines of this:
The internet is a swamp. The “comments” on most webpages are disgusting nonsense. We’re different. We have standards:
No crazy talk, no insults, and — especially — no foul language.
The last one is hard for me during podcasts, because my day-to-day language is (I’m not proud to say) a little on the salty side. The old adage is, those who resort to profanity do so because they have small vocabularies.
Now, though, comes word that it may be the opposite. From Shortlist:
A new study published in the Language Sciences journal, which saw participants say as many swearwords as they could think of in 60 seconds, then name as many animals as possible in the same amount of time, found that the most verbal dexterity was associated with those who cussed the most.
….psychologists Kristin and Timothy Jay conceded that being foul-mouthed doesn’t equate to being uneducated, but rather the opposite:
‘Unfortunately, when it comes to taboo language, it is a common assumption that people who swear frequently are lazy, do not have an adequate vocabulary, lack education, or simply cannot control themselves,’ they wrote.
‘The overall finding of this set of studies, that taboo fluency is positively correlated with other measures of verbal fluency, undermines the [normal] view of swearing. Speakers who use taboo words understand their general expressive content as well as nuanced distinctions that must be drawn to use slurs appropriately,’ they added.
Whaddya know? I’m a [expletive] genius!
That said, I don’t feel like a genius when I use words in speech that we don’t allow here. I feel like a dumb[expletive]. Which is why, despite this new study, we’re keeping the Code of Conduct.
Published in General
On the other hand, there are some VERY clever uses of obscenities.
I could not stop laughing at this one. An entire crime scene analysis using nothing more than ONE root obscenity in all its forms. Genius.
Bravo! I use lots of curse words in my daily discourse, especially when I am addressing my Windows computer (most of my computing is on my iMac), but it is refreshing to be on a site where I don’t have to read that garbage in every thread of comments. Hold to your standards. There needs to be one place on the internet where civilized behavior remains de rigeur. (I hope I spelled that right!)
This is so obvious I cannot understand why the reviewers didn’t catch it. The common assessment is that people who resort to expletives to express themselves are doing so because -being uneducated and incontinent -they cannot express themselves otherwise.
This study merely proves that people who have large vocabularies in one area have large vocabularies in another.
Also, I imagine zoologists necessarily have a lot words for scatalogical descriptions, which may have stacked the deck a bit…
“Certainly illustrates the diversity of the word.”
:-) https://youtu.be/OBt-nirXQDE
Mine was so much more thoughtful.
I try very hard to never curse. My family has perfected things that sound like obscenities for exclamation – but aren’t. Even when we drop a hammer on a toe, what tends to come out sounds a lot more like FUDGERIPPLESHNECKEN!!!
I once convinced a foul-mouthed 7 year old in summer camp that the worst word of all, the word that must never be spoken, is “toast.” He said it with such relish and glee. And it was much less jarring on our ears.
I am wholeheartedly in support of the CoC. Foul language is not classy. And there is an art form in the “clean” takedown.
Because of my son’s love of animals, I know a lot more animal names than I used to. Because of his attitude, I find my self swearing much more than I used to. So if this study is right, kids make you smarter.
Oh, fudge!
Mother#$%^$. We were so close to going the Full Rudert.
Never, ever go full Rudert.
I thought it was a perfectly valid question, frankly. I have a post brewing that I need to put down some time regarding some things we have seen here in Virginia done by Governor Terry McAuliffe that would have been considered as kookery not very long ago if someone would have suggested a governor would try such a thing. Then again we are dealing with people who do not care about citizens or the law.
For those interested here is Stad’s post we’ve discussed.
Usually, most people agree that a conspiracy involves more than one person; therefore Stad’s post should have been acceptable. :-)
I once went to some effort to describe something as similar to what one would find on the soles of one’s boots after a random walk through a well-populated cow pasture.
You can always make your point if you are resourceful and determined.
Rob,
When I was a boy in school, I think it was the late ice age as the dinosaurs had already perished, [expletive] was a very popular word. It was an all-purpose word. It was used as a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb, a gerund, and an infinitive. People seemed to find new ways to use [expletive] all the time.
For some reason, I chose to stop using it in my speech to extent that concentration could allow. Perhaps it was too much of a good thing. Perhaps it was just boredom as it was annoyingly repetitive. Perhaps there really is verbal violence one can do. Who knows.
[expletive]
Jim
LOL, I didn’t know there was an Effen Vodka. Never too early. ;)
Sempr*n*.
(It’s a Monty Python thing…).
Yes, this is very good news for me as well!
I don’t know if the vodka’s any good, because how do you ever know if vodka’s good? It’s a cleaning product, basically. But the ads are cool.
What immediately struck me, aside from fluency-is-fluency was also, as Tuck alluded to, restraint-is-restraint:
There is an art to not saying what’s on your mind, and some people still have this art drummed into them from an early age: “Think before you speak!” Even clever people are slowed down by taking “Think before you speak!” seriously – indeed, one of the reasons to teach this rule to clever people is to stop them up a little and make them more bearable to everyone else!
In theory, expletives exist to express extremes of emotion.* In a polite society, swearing means something. It acts as a signal. The man who drops a barbell on his toe has every right to yell “[Expletive]!”
In our society, though, swearing has lost this meaning; instead of signaling pain or anger, it signals membership in a particular class or group.
* Yes, the alliteration is intentional.
“Caca”? Can I say “caca”?
Calling that post a “conspiracy theory” is a bit over-the-top. Even a liberal friend of mine suggested that since Obama doesn’t seem constrained by the rest of the Constitution, why should he be bothered to follow the 22nd Amendment? He said this with concern, btw.
So you’re one of those silent swearers.
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not [curse].’ But I say to you that whoever [curses inwardly] has already [cursed] in their heart.
The best-looking full Rudert yet!
I think it is pronounced “Macaca.”
Nah. Totally unrealistic. Airplane seats are never that white and clean.
It is a good thing when a full Rudert is unrealistic!