Swearing is NOT COOL OR ATTRACTIVE!

Swearing and other lost moral crusades in America

So, I was recently unfortunately exposed to this garbage:

Yeah, it is pretty cringey. In fact, it’s disgraceful. I might even say, it’s fucking disgraceful. This is not what Tolkien wanted. He didn’t want Lady Eowyn cursing the Witch-King out like some sort of trashy ghetto girl or trailer trash getting into a fight. It’s supposed to be a dramatic show of heroism. I mean, for the record, the Witch-King was probably not thinking “I made a huge mistake”, not until he had been stabbed by Merry at least. But anyways, It completely takes away from the poetry of the situation, sullying it with needless cursing. This is a problem with Western media in general. On iFunny recently, I complained about the excessive cursing in basically all Netflix movies, to the point where it feels forced. Specifically, I made a long post on Castlevania: Nocturne, and a small post on America: The Motion Picture (I have only seen random clips of the latter). It’s true just as much in live action, but it was even more noticeable in animation.

Most people I have talked to have agreed, both in our circles and in real life, that it was somehow irritating. However, it’s been difficult to find out why. Most of these people curse plenty themselves, and won’t criticize cursing. Me personally, I only really used to curse online. I didn’t curse in real life until I got to college. I eventually realized that not cursing portrays poor socialization, and so although I didn’t really want to curse, I felt it was necessary for my social development to start cursing. I felt completely fine cursing on iFunny though and other social media. Why? Well, because cursing makes things funnier. And iFunny is all about being funny.

You see, curse words in modern society serve as something of a double index. In the same way being a “beer enthusiast” or having a beard indicate a combination of working class, “rugged” and sophisticated, upper class identity, curse words also indicate these somewhat opposing forces of being both emotional and charged exclamations, but also expressions which are casual and unserious. In certain contexts this is not the case, but this is the general case. The internet, being a place where you can express whatever you want in a sort of tongue-in-cheek manner without feeling a particular degree of social pressure to say the right thing, lends itself naturally to swearing, and subsequently swearing also becomes sort of a reactionary expression to those who want to turn the entire internet into LinkedIn. But in real life, you want to have some gravitas and some reservation, no?

I would hope we’re still at a point where you would avoid cursing in a Job Interview, but for some that isn’t even the case anymore. The idea that certain words should be set aside as taboo or forbidden just sort of for the sake of it does not jive well with our highly utilitarian society, where as long as it isn’t hurting anyone it’s okay. Well, except for those words which are deemed “offensive” to some allegedly marginalized group. Adults today are viewed as beholden to the supernatural power of the N-word as Children maybe a decade or two ago were viewed as beholden to the supernatural power of the F-word. To say it in private is to commit some sort of act of racist witchcraft which increases the evil miasma which envelops the world. But at least with a parent not wanting their child to say cuss words in private, it is done because doing so serves only to violate the authority of the parent. Who is the authority figure here? It is the HR control freak mammy state and their vanguard of Social Justice.

I think the common reason people cite against the over-cursing in shows and movies is that it takes away from the power of the words. And yes, it does, but again I stress that this is only one side of the coin. The curse word has an extremely specific and hard to explain role in culture. It does express emotion, but it expresses a million other things in other contexts. It only in a few scenarios expresses particular gravity and seriousness, usually it expresses casual and down-to-earth communication.

I believe, ultimately, that there is a terrible bipartisan push to universalize the casual. If not the casual, then the academic, the “social worker lingo”, the midwit professional speak which can be exchanged at any time with the casual due to its own adoration of the casual. The liberal loves when his favorite characters do something vulgar, curse, when they see John Fetterman walk out on the floor of congress in a dirty hoodie and gym shorts. Because… Who cares? It’s not hurting anyone, is it? It’s just like their defense of Obeseniks and smelly stoners in the subway. It’s just like their denial of “standard English” and grand defense of slang. The very idea of a “Nerd” nowadays seems to be someone who doesn’t grasp this sort of forced casual social conditioning. Everything must be under a layer of irony and nonchalance, even things which are extremely serious. But the Conservatives are just as bad. It’s getting really bad under the GOP, actually. Women like MTG and Lauren Boebert cursing each other out inside the Capitol. Boebert especially, just makes me lose hope. Part of this grand conservative proletarian embrace of trailer trash retardation. “I’m a whore, I curse a lot, I drink, I smoke, I have tattoos, but oh, I ain’t some city slicker! I’m a country girl redneck girl! YEEHAW!” Ugh, it’s insufferable.

Trump has done a little bit to encourage this, as sometimes he also likes to curse at his rallies. And let’s be honest, a lot of Trump supporters are often people like Lauren Boebert. But I have to admire Trump’s unwillingness to try and frame himself as “down to earth”. He wears a big suit and tie everywhere he goes. Everyone knows who Trump is. He’s not down to earth, he’s larger than life. He likes his apartments gilded to the point where Louis XIV would feel inadequate. He plays golf like there is no tomorrow. Not long ago he was the iconic Yuppie of New York. Two scoops!

This “larger than life” quality is something we want in dramatic stories with heroic deeds, like LOTR or Castlevania. The hero to the ancients is someone whose deeds are so great that they ascend into the status of a sort of archetype floating around in the world of forms. This is the apotheosis which Greek warriors searched for. To have them constantly cursing, it makes them feel like us. It makes them feel like some Twitch streamer or something stupid but “relatable”. This is their goal. This is also why they incessantly replace beauty with “inclusivity”. Instead of working to be like heroes, like gods, the artisans of our generation work to bend the heroes and gods to represent the audience, warts-and-all. The insertion of cursing is a crucial part of this. The lack of cursing in dramatic scenes expresses a tone of great seriousness, poise, control, and order. It isn’t chaotic or misunderstood by the heroes. Even their taunts and insults are supposed to be clever and scathing, not using contemporary lingo as a crutch. Cursing is a crutch. It’s a social cue, and we understand it so it’s useful, but again I would generally rather not use it. It’s just so normalized these days that not using it marks you out as other and also misrepresents your emotions on others.

The increasing acceptance of cursing and vulgarity in return for the unacceptance of stereotypical or “insensitive” lingo not the only thing which conservatives have seemingly completely surrendered on. I think I want to talk about this a bit before ending this essay. There are a few. The aforementioned Tattoos are a big one. Tattoos were considered something only sailors/military and rather untasteful civilians got some decades ago. Now, they’re extremely popular. I even see some traditionalists making the (shoddy) justification for Tattoos, alleging groups like Celts and Vikings did it. Me personally, I take the Greek view on tats. Your body isn’t a canvas, it is the work of art itself. You don’t spray graffiti on the Mona Lisa. Look at bodybuilders. They’re not all tatted up because they appreciate their body as art in-itself. Maybe a small Tattoo, like an arm tat. Then you see MMA fighters and Celebs like Dwayne or Connor McGregor, all tatted up. Just not a fan of that.

Another one is gambling and betting. I think society has always been fine with friends gambling amongst each other, as it’s a high-trust environment. It just makes the game a bit more fun. But in recent times we went from commercial gambling being largely illegal, to it being blared on advertisements 24/7. A lot of people will spend big money on sports betting. It is more accessible than ever. It probably has to do with the growing “hustling” culture in the west. People are functionally gambling already with bitcoin, so they see less wrong with actual gambling. Me personally, I don’t mind gambling. It’s just that, like most things, the stupid impulsive violent crowds ruin it for everyone else.

But uhh, yesh. I don’t need to continue more with this. My main point is, swearing is not cool or attractive…

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