southsamurai , 5 hours ago

Well, it was one, I just didn’t catch the typo of examples instead of example.

But, you’re using an insult. Your example is already something nasty to say, no matter how you say it because you’re attacking someone. Using curse words is no more or less effective at pissing the person off enough to shoot you (as an extreme but possible outcome).

For an example to work to support your opinion, it has to be undirected because directed statements are never neutral to begin with.

A better example would be something like pointing out a painting you don’t like.

You could say, “that looks like something a five year old vomited up after drinking finger paints”

Or, “that thing is so fucking ugly it makes me want to vomit”.

As long as the person you’re saying it to isn’t the artist, owner, or a dedicated fan of the artist, you have a relatively controlled example where the main difference is the presence of cursing.

See the difference in the examples? If I call you a giant moron, it doesn’t matter much if I say fucking moron instead. It’s the insult that’s doing the work, not the adjective.

Now, this applies at any level of creativity. “You’re about as pleasant as the south end of a north bound mule” is relatively creative, as is “you’re a bigger asshole than the north end of a south bound elephant” very similar insults, with the significant difference being the cursing.

In that specific example, it could even be argued that the use of profanity increases the effect, and it would, depending on the target. Cursing is an amplifier in a huge swath of the population. “You’re a jerk” isn’t as effective as “you’re a fucking jerk”, because that extra step outside of social mores deepens the aggressiveness of the insult.

It’s definitely subjective. There are people that would be more insulted by a well crafted, profanity free barb. But, on the whole, insults are about aggression and challenge. It’s a form of dominance display to an extent. So using insults as an example for the effects of cursing is flawed by nature.

Now, a better example yet would be the weather. Someone saying “I’m tired of this fucking rain” is more boring than someone saying “I really wish thor would give us a warning before bukkakeing the world”. Is bukkakeing an actual word? Doesn’t matter, but it struck my mind lol. You can replace the jizz reference with “spitting on”, if you feel sexual matters serve the same role as cursing.

Once you remove the insult factor, it becomes more about the cursing itself, which makes a better example and point of discussion.