unless you are on a rant then drop it like hot sauce!

One of my best selling designs on my website is the F Bomb design. I sell a F*** load of those T Shirts, Magnets, and Stickers!

Not too long there was a YouTube comment about a video that was too good to pass up as a blog title…

http://jamtopia.com/blog/she-kicks-flute-girls-ass/

I thought it’d resonate with an extremely niche audience… Phish fans aware of the front-row fixture and gadfly known as Flute Girl.

Well the post certainly generates traffic, but from my analytics I can tell you they’re not looking for what I’m showing.

It’s just a bunch of horn-dogs looking for “girls ass” or for people doing naughty stuff with flutes!

The moral of the story — use whatever type of language you want on your blog. Just don’t be surprised if it draws a crowd you weren’t looking for.

Well, I’m not going to argue with you :-)

But I think the conservatives are really concerned about the decay of societal mores. I might wish they were more concerned with pollution, medical care and other things I think really ARE important, but “old fashioned values” is a theme that resonates well with them.

If I want to be a bit nasty, I can sneer and label that as “fear” – conservatives are always worrying about what *might* happen. But that’s a bit unfair: bad things do come from small shifts and while you and I may see language as trivial and truly unimportant, I don’t think that they necessarily do.

It’s hard to fault someone who really believes that society will fall apart because of bad language, nudity, drug use, whatever. If they truly do believe it, however silly I may find that belief, I have to agree that their intentions are good, right?

While still reserving the right to laugh myself silly, of course :-)

When I come across a blog with cursing I tend to think less of the blog and the writer. To me it is insulting and smacks of poor communication skills.

The single area where I believe cursing might be acceptable would be an interview with someone who uses that type of language in an extreme setting — maybe an interview with a combat soldier.

Whenever I see a everyday blog post littered with curse words, I assume it is written by a teen age kid trying to impress me with his offensive language skills. That tells me there is nothing to be learned there and I move on to a site with more intelligent commentary.

One of the things about cursing is — just like smoking — it is hard to stop once you get in the habit. Consider two well known NASCAR drivers who cursed during different press interviews and subsequently were fined and lost points. In both cases the driver wasn’t trying to offend anyone, they just lapsed into their normal habit of speaking — and it cost them big time.

Just my 2 cents.

Tom Bonner
http://alphatracks.com

You are absolutely right, but for some conservatives, it’s not a matter of just ignoring what they don’t like. They honestly fear that allowing this sort of moral breakdown damages society and is dangerous. Those of us on the liberal side obviously have a different view, but I think it would be foolish to deny that the people on the other side of the question come by their fears honestly.

Some advertisers won’t advertise on very these “bad” sites so bloggers may take that into account too.

-Hendry

You say “I also agree that “cussing” writers can have a great deal that’s of value to say, but the reality is that many people will never stick around long enough to read it if it’s presented in a way they find offensive.”

But as I’ve indicated above, the same could be said of people who include religious sentiments in their writings – a growing percentage of people (especially outside of the US) find religious fervor distasteful and embarrassing. Yet I doubt you would take it upon yourself to warn them that their spiritual references could cost them audience share, would you?

I have a similar prejudice against people who talk about sports, pop culture and the like: it’s almost impossible for me to see them as anything but nattering fools. Other readers may get turned off by flowery writing, twenty five dollar words, “boring” historical references, who knows what? Obviously we are all different,but nowadays I really doubt that “cussing” upsets any more people than anything else might.

That said, I have seen a well-placed word here or there that added to an entry rather than detracting from it.

It is like grammar and punctuation rules. If you know the rules and use them well, breaking the rules can be an occasionally effective tool as well.

I cringe because reckless cursing demeans your writing. One blogger in particular is such a talent, yet her humor relies on well-placed f-words.

She’s better than that. I just wish she knew it.

You are right that it isn’t reasonable to automatically judge the person whose philosophy we disagree with as unintelligent–and we shouldn’t. Yet, the fact remains that we all make value judgments every time we read–or hear–anything. And this isn’t likely to change anytime soon.

I also agree that “cussing” writers can have a great deal that’s of value to say, but the reality is that many people will never stick around long enough to read it if it’s presented in a way they find offensive.

Jeanne

By the way, I have a bad prejudice quite similar to that, so I’m not holding myself up as a better person than you because I lack your prejudice.

My prejudice kicks in when I see writing peppered with religious thought: my knee jerk reaction is that the writer is unintelligent. Intellectually I know that’s not a reasonable thought at all, but just as you react to the “cuss words”, I react similarly to religious sentiments.

Either of the “cussing” or “praying” writers could have important and valuable insights for both of us. We sometimes can’t prevent deeply held prejudice from bubbling up, but we can be smart enough not to let it control us.

Thanks so much for taking the time to share your views with me!

Jeanne

I quite understand that you said “sound like”. Again that is simply your prejudice – you THINK those words make them sound less intelligent. I have no such prejudice and am free to judge their thoughts for what they are. Who’s better off?

By the way, it takes little skill to use any word whose meaning you understand. Your condemnation from that slant is completely meaningless.

You also say that “aren’t showcasing their talent to the degree that they might.” The people I am thinking of showcase their talents quite well. Obviously if you read with the preconceived notion that certain words diminish value, then you’ll see what you expect to see. That’s no different than people who are unaware of language semantics complaining when a non-native English speaker adopts the semantic structure of their native language. It’s not ignorance on their part, but if your unthinking prejudice insists that it is, you will hear their speech as “unintelligent”.

Please don’t misunderstand. I didn’t say that people who use profanity aren’t intelligent or that they don’t post thought-provoking content; I merely said that profanity can make a blogger SOUND less eloquent or less intelligent than he or she may in fact be.

I don’t really think it’s a matter of a blogger’s not being “afraid” to use the words “I don’t like.” The fact is that a blogger can use whatever words s/he chooses; but, as Justin has mentioned in this post, s/he may also alienate an entire segment of the reading public. If s/he chooses to do that, fine. It’s his/her choice.

And, as I mentioned in my previous comment, it takes little skill to use profanity in place of “real” language–though by that I don’t mean to say that writers who do so are not talented writers. I simply feel they aren’t showcasing their talent to the degree that they might.

As far as the religious question is concerned, you’re also free to refer to God any way you like. We won’t go into the question of whether “my” God is any different than the other gods in this forum, since this isn’t really the place for that discussion.

Thanks for your feedback,
Jeanne