From: Dossy (dossy@panoptic.com)
Date: Thu Jan 03 2002 - 13:48:05 MST
On 2002.01.03, Eliezer S. Yudkowsky <sentience@pobox.com> wrote:
> I don't think that profanity is inappropriate for all occasions,
I disagree with you. It is inappropriate for all occasions. At
least in English, there's no idea or concept that requires
profanity to be expressed unambiguously. There's always a word
or collection of words that can be used instead of the profanity.
Now, as a lover and liberal user of profanities, just because
it's inappropriate doesn't mean it won't be used. Just realize
that people use profanities either for color, or because they're
too flustered to think straight enough to use a more appropriate
word.
In the latter case, if you perceive yourself to be "arguing" with
someone, and someone throws a profanity, that means they've lost.
Stop arguing immediately; the person using the profanities is so
flustered that they can't reason any longer, so anything you say
further is just wasting your breath, and you're not impressing
anyone kicking any more than if you were kicking a small child in
the ribs as he or she lay bleeding on the sidewalk, saying "see
how big and tough I am!"
-- Dossy
--
Dossy Shiobara mail: dossy@panoptic.com
Panoptic Computer Network web: http://www.panoptic.com/
"He realized the fastest way to change is to laugh at your own
folly -- then you can let go and quickly move on." (p. 70)
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