Don’t misunderstand me. Let me explain.

You start out by saying, “that is your approach to language, you only use language when you are powerless. ”

I said I use profanity when I feel powerless. Profanity is a very small subset of my language and there is an important distinction to be made between different kinds of speech. That is implicit in the fact that we are discussing slang terms here, not language in general.

Let me say again, I sometimes curse. When I do it feels like an admission of weakness to me. I always feel I could have done better if I had tried harder. I’m not saying you or anyone else should feel that way or try not to swear as an exercise in becoming more articulate, but that’s what I do.

To generalize my comment about this one specific fault that I admit to having and expand it to describe all of my behavior and further use it to label me ethnocentric does all of us a disservice. It gets the discussion off topic and turns it into a personal exchange.

That’s all I have to say.

Thanks Buzzword. You’re a valuable resource in my effort to get up to speed here. I’m glad we got past that sticky point. I’ll look forward to seeing more of the nuggets from the comment stream. This is a good place to learn how to learn.

After thinking about it some, realize now that I was overlooking one important fact. This is, after all, the forum on slang terms. There is no better place run your mouth. You were speaking appropriately and I was out of line. If any forum has a valid claim to include all forms of language, this one certainly does.

I’ll think twice in the future about your sensitivities before I make any recommendations to you and I ask the same courtesy in return. You asking me to put on blinders is just as absurd as me asking you to curb your tongue. The only difference is in the body part being restricted. Not read your comments? Unthinkable.

Finally, I want to thank you for putting this entry in the Favorite Lesson forum, as I would have missed this whole discussion otherwise. It’s one of the best I’ve ever read.

you as everyone here has at one time or another are attempting to influence the community to reflect your norms and expectations. however this is a global pluralistic community where a diversity of behaviors is tolerated. i as many others have been here for sometime, and have developed a degree of tolerance for each other. each individual brings a distinct voice to the dialogue.

if there is one authority here it is marina. over the past year and a half she has never made note of my individual behavior. the authority below this is the authority of the community itself. and you may consider that my good standing with majority of the participants here at hfw accounts for something. each social setting has its own distinct rules of behavior as you continue to participate you will come to understand them better.

Tame your own inner Troll and the other Trolls will follow your example. Sorry I interrupted.

Profanity is the poetry of the powerless. I find myself cursing when I am completely beaten by something. If I give up, that’s when I start cursing. For me, it’s a sign of defeat, the lexicon of the loser. A symptom of linguistic impotence. Those who are resourceful find better ways to express themselves. Being a linguist doesn’t give you an excuse for ignoring social standards of decency.

Having said that, let me add that no word was born dirty. Everything has an origin and often the origin has a purity that was lost over time. Let’s see if we can have respect for the words. Marina is helpful with that in her lessons. The main thing is to learn something you didn’t already know. On that score, she is batting a thousand.

Thanks to everyone for participating in this discussion.

Let the debate rage.