Why is it that some demographics are more likely to be vulgar or crude in their speech?

Perhaps they don’t consider that they are being rude – that’s your judgment, not a statement of fact.

@the100thmonkey
I’d have thought that one would know that certain four-letter words were impolite. :|

@Nullo just what the fuck do you think you’re talking about?

@Nullo I know what your saying and i think people are a product of their environments, like at my work i deal with rough fisherman who swear like the sailors they are, and yet i was raised not to swear and avoid it. It’s just what your used to i guess.

I don’t think it has anything to do with any particular demographic. In my ‘real life’, I swear. A lot. I do it because it’s colorful and even fun. Not to mention, sometimes “fuck” is the only word that will do. Otherwise, I’m quite proper… a regular ‘lady’, if you will.

It doesn’t offend anyone that I’d ever do it in front of. Of course it’s inappropriate at times, and that’s why it’s important to know your audience. John Stewart knows his well.

Because those demographics don’t find the words to be vulgar, even if YOU find them vulgar.

Like me. Fuck is just another word in the English language to me. I’m not offended by it, I’m not disturbed by it. It’s just a word.
I recognize that other demographics find it offensive. I don’t understand why, but I understand that it’s something that happens.

Because speech habits spread through personal contact.

What augustlan said. I curse a lot but I don’t around people that I think would have a problem with it. I haven’t dropped the “f-bomb” around my GF’s parents yet.

@johnpowell lmao…yeah, they might not like that..her parents!!!

live the South…have a friend…about the smartest person I’ve ever known, and maybe, the best person I’ve known (never seen him mad, never heard him curse, never heard him talk bad about anyone, and played golf with him for 40 years).... Can fix anything…knows something about everything! Very wise….and over the years and it was always amusing and funny to hear him say, “think i can get a “five orne” dat far?” So, my point, people that have crude or different speech habits, doesn’t really mean anything! What inside that person is what is important…not their language or lack of!

People consider what they grew up with to be normative, and there have always been class and/or socio-economic differences in speech patterns. Why is it necessary to treat one style as pejorative? It’s just different.

Using crude language just makes things more powerful. And if you’re a comedian, then saying something funny is good, but saying something funny with profanity makes it more powerful, therefore funnier to some people.

@Pseudonym Red Foxx, Richard Pyror, etc…they had funny mannerisms! Think they could have been successful without profanity. Just watching Red Foxx walk made me laugh.

But, overall, agree with you…most comedians need those words to be successful. And, they are just words…“sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never harm me!” something like that! lol

White males from Catholic high schools? Because those are the ones I hear cuss the most. And girls that attended a certain school in our city known for it’s artsy, edgy reputation. My daughter went there; she and her friends could make a sailor blush.

There may be a few unfortunates who don’t realize that profanity in unaccepatable in many situations. The vast majority of people know this and use such only for shock value. I only use words like that to express extreme displeasure, as a calculated measure.

@PandoraBoxx and everyone. Speaking as an ex-sailor, I can tell you that I had quite the mouth for many years. In the settings of my work spaces however, I was not allowed to give my mouth free rein. I often said that they were just words, yadda yadda yadda. I also cursed, if you can appreciate that distinction. The G-D phrase rolled off my tongue like it was nothing.
It is only recently that I have decided that I didn’t like the way I sounded. Mainly from hearing other people talk. I thought, “Lord, is that how I sound?”
I still drop an F bomb, or say a couple potty word, but GD has been erased entirely from my vocabulary, and the frequency of the others is much less and discrete.
It’s personal choice. However, some studies, real studies of demographic related language patterns might be interesting. I don’t think it’s the language, so much as the vulgarity of the sentiments, which are two different things.
One can look at any reality TV show and see that people who have a lot of money can still have no class at all. Class is something that cannot be bought. Cultivated, yes, purchased, no.

Crude and vulgar speech is the best way to express crude and vulgar things. Seriously, it’s a big world; the refined and subtle coexist with the primal and visceral. Refined language is the tool of choice for talking about the former, but it’s not necessarily what’s called for in all situations. Being unable to vary one’s mode of expression to suit the occasion is the problem. It works both ways.

In my sentences I go where no man has gone before…I am a boon to the English language.
George W. Bush

Ehhhhh WTF!!....you gotta F’n problem with ‘ow I talk?? You got somtin’ to say about ‘ow I F’n talk? Huh F’n Mr. F’n Smart Guy???

Honestly IMO it is a culture and how you are raised thing. Just watch any Soprano episode for the extreme example of language embellishment and abuse.

@Cruiser LMAO!

I thought the definitive statement about cursing was when I overheard my 10 year old son telling my 8 year old son, “I told you, that’s an ‘outside’ word, not an ‘inside’ word.” What he meant was that it was o.k. to swear with the kids in the street but not in the house. Language is a wonderful and malleable tool; it’s fucking great sometimes to use curse words for effect. Using them all the time deadens the impact.

A 6 year old and a 4 year old are upstairs in their bedroom.

“You know what?” says the 6 year old. “I think it’s about time we started cussing.”

The 4 year old nods his head in approval. The 6 year old continues, “When we go downstairs for breakfast, I’m gonna say something with ‘hell’ and you say something with ‘ass.’” The 4 year old agrees with enthusiasm.

When their mother walks into the kitchen and asks the 6 year old what he wants for breakfast, he replies, “Aw, Hell, Mom, I guess I’ll have some Cheerios.”

WHACK! He flies out of his chair, tumbles across the kitchen floor, gets up, and runs upstairs crying his eyes out with his mother in hot pursuit, slapping his rear with every step. His mom locks him in his room and shouts, “You can just stay there until I let you out!”

She then comes back downstairs, looks at the 4 year old and asks
with a stern voice, “And what do YOU want for breakfast, young
man?”

“I don’t know,” he blubbers, “but you can bet your fat ass it won’t be fucking Cheerios!”

@BoBo1946 That shit was hilarious. I’m telling that joke at work today.

@Blackberry the first time i heard that joke…laughed until i hurt..glad you enjoyed it!

I think people where I work swear more simply because it’s acceptable around here. I work for an engineering company and everyone here is educated. Cursing on occasion in the office is one thing, but there are quite a few people around here who just swear whenever they can. It sounds like 5th graders out on the play ground using the f-word to describe everything simply because it’s cool, deviant and new.

I don’t understand it and I don’t really let it affect me. I don’t curse around my boss or my co-workers. I don’t understand why all these grown men are acting like that (I’m a 20 year old intern) and why it is still fun. They still do it, and they’ve been doing it since I started working here about 3 years ago.

@Blackberry another good one!

A man went to the doctor and said, “Doctor, I’ve got a problem, but if you’re going to treat it, first you’ve got to promise not to laugh.”

“Of course I won’t laugh,” the doctor said. “I’m a professional. In over twenty years I’ve never laughed at a patient.”

“Okay then,” the man said, and proceeded to drop his trousers, revealing the tiniest penis the doctor has ever seen. Unable to control himself, the doctor fell laughing to the floor. Ten minutes later he was able to struggle to his feet and regain his composure.

“I’m so sorry,” he said. “I don’t know what came over me. On my honor as a doctor and a gentleman, I promise it won’t happen again. Now what seems to be the problem?”

“It’s swollen.”

And which demographics are you speaking of? Hmm?

@tinyfaery beat me to it but I am curious as well. Just who are these “demographics” you are targeting?

@tinyfaery
Why, the cussing ones, of course.

@Nullo The cussing demographics are more likely to cuss?
Are you sure?

The royal family in Britain swear like a stag night in a fucking brothel.Demographics? Bullshit! All walks of life no matter what your upbringing swear.It really is no big deal just a form of expression.

@Nullo It’s okay if you don’t want to admit what you meant. It’s good that you’re ashamed.

@BoBo1946 That’s equally hilarious lol.

@tinyfaery
I’m not ashamed, I’m talking about people who cuss being a demographic. I’m dividing the population into those that try to be civil and those that do not. Maybe it’s a psychographic; the difference between the names is academic.
Who did you think I was referring to?

How does cussing = not being civil? The two are not mutually exclusive, you know.

@augustlan
“You will keep a civil tongue in your head, young man!” kind of civil.

Cussers are not a demographic.

I think it’s a matter of behaving appropriately to the situation. Cussing is a subset of that. Just as certain kinds of acts, manner of dress, etc., are appropriate to some situations and not to others, verbal behavior has a right and wrong time and place. What goes at a fraternity kegger doesn’t go at a formal wedding reception; what goes at your back yard barbecue doesn’t go at the office.

And some people simply have a better sense of what’s appropriate than others, a greater respect for their surroundings than others, and a greater unwillingness to offend than others. I, for example, would never say “shit” in the workplace (unless uttered under my breath and in the presence of a trusted friend), whereas my husband would use it conversationally.

In short, it seems to be a matter of individual attitude and degree of sensitivity to the setting and culture.
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those who get it and care… | ... those who get it and don’t care
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those who don’t get it and care… | ... those who don’t get it and don’t care
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There are people in all four quadrants.

And don’t forget, there are some people who never use “bad” language at all; it’s simply not in their vocabularies. I was brought up not to, and I never said “f*ck” out loud until I was past 30.

@tinyfaery
Then they’re a psychograpic. As I said, for the purposes of this question, the difference is academic.

@Nullo: then you can answer the question yourself.

When I took Russian we learned the word “tak”. Tak is and intensifier, like “very” or “so”. Except compared to the depth of intensification indicated by “tak” our English intensifiers aren’t very intense at all, except for one. When you use “fucking” as an intensifier, ie “it was fucking amazing” you get the sort of intensification that Russians have in tak. As such “fucking” is the only word to go to when you need a serious English intensifier.

As @Sarcasm said: you want to know why the demographic of cussers cus? Sure. Right.

@tinyfaery
I’m not as complicated a person as you seem to expect.

Complicated? I certainly have no expectations of that.

@tinyfaery
And yet you hint unsubtly at artless subterfuge.

She’s not the only one. I think you are backpedaling too.

@Blondesjon
Well, if that’s the idea that you’ve got caught in your head, I suppose that there’s not much that I can do about it; any argument that I could make would also be misconstrued as backpedaling.

How the fuck should I know? I’m on the wrong side of the civility divide. Words don’t have magical properties—why persist in pretending they do?

@ratboy loll..seems they hit a nerve!