Dropping The F-Bomb All Over The Whole F-Bomb-ing World

From Presidents on hot mics, to every child in every home, it’s normal now, but is it good?

“Stop Hate, Give Love, Just Stay Nice ”and other four-letter words

I may be the last person left on earth who doesn’t use profanity, particularly, the F-bomb.

President Biden was caught using it last week. Critics who criticized him use it too. Children use it freely at the store. There is no nice restaurant or polite place online you will not hear it.

In the family in which I was raised, we were taught it was rude. We learned it was non-creative, displayed no discipline, hurt other people, expressed hostility, and was a sign of social incompetence.

To this day, my brother and I are the only people I know who have never used this, and a few other, select words. They were once considered very rude.

None of these seem to apply anymore.

Psychologists and linguists, however, have shown that if it is not “forbidden” it loses all power.

The power may be gone, but there is an extreme accumulation of sheer volume that is here. If it loses all power, then why, I wonder, is it still powerfully spraying all of us every day, everywhere, and in every context?

People do not think of it as particularly ill-mannered anymore. Yet, this does not mean it is a good thing, either.

Television used to censor speech. George Carlin famously ridiculed it. We barely even bleep it on late-night television anymore. These are all seen as signs of progress.

Yet, I still wonder if it is better to be “R-U-D-E” rather than “N-I-C-E.”

Especially when we write, it’s so socially present, and yet, we have to wonder if our language is just expressive, lazy, unimaginative, or just a reflection of culture and modern social psychology.

Are we degenerating, or evolving with our interactions?

It is also said that expression is healthy, but it is just as obvious, that if the words themselves degenerate they lose the intensity of being expressive.

You might say it is a “freaking” paradox. Or you more likely, would not use the euphemism.

There are arguments to be made on either side. For myself, due to the habits with which I was raised, I find it uncomfortable to eat at a classy place, or even a simple cafe, and somehow feel it’s fine that I am surrounded by Goodfellas.

Or, in a doctor’s office waiting room, perhaps we are entitled to have our own serene, or at least, non-intrusive quiet. I honestly don’t know anymore.

It has also been observed that by being more disconnected socially, while we are at the same time anonymous online, it has been used to harass, hurt, bully, and communicate with less definition, and creativity.

We are obligated to learn to love and care for one another, but our language does not always reflect that.