Has it ever happened that someone swore at you, and it made you want to change?

Some woman flicked me off tonight, which alerted me that my fucking headlights were off (I was in a different car, mine go on automatically…) I was definitely grateful once I figured out why she had done so.

Does that count?

Hmmm. Did the flick-off make you pay attention, when you would not otherwise have paid attention?

I forgot to turn on my lights a few nights ago, and the guy behind roared up beside me and yelled ”LIGHTS.” I thanked him, and turned the corner, and parked in front of my house.

I was driving through a very well lit area, and I really just didn’t notice. My mind went; “What the fuck? What a bitch! Why did she fucking… Oh shit!”

I wouldn’t have noticed for at least another couple minutes, so yeah. Plus my window was rolled up, so no other gesture would have gotten the point across.

I’m usually on some form of drugs. I usually ignore people that piss me off (IRL). Because I know that ignoring them hurts them more then anything I could possibly do physically or verbally. Pretending to not care can be a big blow to someones ego.

Oh geez no, if someone fucking well swears at me I just wanna swear back. They are usually then invited to get stuffed and other such suggestions, and I may even show them what my middle finger looks like. Swearing at someone is so aggresive and confrontational, if you want me to do something, or make me aware of something, then be a nice little person and I’ll listen.

JP you’re right, the problem is that I can’t ignore it, or maybe I just don’t wanna, it is much more fun to give it back to ‘em

When I hear swearing, I still giggle. It seems so inappropriate to me to hear it. Yet, I curse a lot in my life. Outside of work, I like to slip in the occasional really bad words or phrases just to add some color. I like to see if I can make my friends blush more.

by really bad, I refer to the c-word and t-word found to be most offensive to women

I have heard these words said back to me and they merely add fuel to the fire. I tend to overuse them to embarrass people as well.

it makes me even more pissed off and makes me wanna do exactly what that person was opposing to

@jp that works too, but I wanna show the bitch what I’m capable of, I feel uncomfortable if I let someone talk to me that way ha

Years ago, when I still drove and contributed to the warming of the planet (clears throat), a woman cut me off while I was trying to exit a parking lot. I started cursing a blue streak at her. We had close eye contact and I was making sure she saw my exaggerated gestures.
She then did the funniest thing.
Also exaggeratedly, she cupped her ear and mouthed, “What? WHAT?? I can’t hear you??”
I instantly realized how ridiculous I had been. I sat there laughing with her for like, a minute.

I’m less likely to cuss back at them these days. I’m more likely to smile and wave in traffic or say something in person. Things like this tend to work.

“I remember when I first learned that word, too. You need to work on your delivery, dear.”

I am a coxswain. This means I get to boss a boatful of rowers around and scream at them to get them motivated. Usually, swearing is not motivational. If I couldn’t resist once saying ‘fucking pull harder you lazy pieces of shit!’ the crew would either laugh at me or get cranky/defensive and decide not to pull harder or even slack off. Usually, as the answers above also illustrate, swearing causes the person to do the exact opposite. However, there was one case in which I was rowing behind a girl who would not pull her weight in the boat. At all. No matter what the cox said. The other three rowers were straining with the extra effort to pull her along as well as themselves. We got to the last 250m of the race and I just yelled “PULL SOME FUCKING WEIGHT LOUISE!” and she did. She bloody well did. I was very grateful and proud.

Well, if swearing at people is not actually designed to get them to change their behavior, and we know it, and do it just to vent, does that mean we never expected the change, and kind of randomly picked on something to criticize in the other person?