{"id":11227,"date":"2007-10-18T10:59:08","date_gmt":"2007-10-18T17:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/10\/18\/dirty-words.html"},"modified":"2007-10-18T10:59:08","modified_gmt":"2007-10-18T17:59:08","slug":"dirty_words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/10\/18\/dirty_words.html","title":{"rendered":"Dirty words"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Why do we swear?&nbsp; More importantly, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tnr.com\/docprint.mhtml?i=20071008&amp;s=pinker100807\" target=\"_blank\">why does it upset some people?<\/a>&nbsp; How has swearing changed over the years, and do rules (legal or social) about it make any sense?&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>When it comes to political speech, we are living in a free-speech utopia. Late-night comedians can say rude things about their nation&#8217;s leaders that, in previous centuries, would have led to their tongues being cut out or worse. Yet, when it comes to certain words for copulation and excretion, we still allow the might of the government to bear down on what people can say in public. Swearing raises many other puzzles &#8212; linguistic, neurobiological, literary, political.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/p>\n<p>Very interesting article by Steve Pinker.&nbsp; (Warning: contains dirty words)<\/p>\n<p><small><\/p>\n<p>(via <a href=\"http:\/\/www.geekpress.com\/2007\/10\/steven-pinker-has-written-interesting.html\" target=\"_blank\">GeekPress<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p><\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why do we swear?&nbsp; More importantly, why does it upset some people?&nbsp; How has swearing changed over the years, and do rules (legal or social) about it make any sense?&nbsp;&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing-and-language","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":135635,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/13\/guess-theocrat-easier-dont-understand-constitution.html","url_meta":{"origin":11227,"position":0},"title":"I guess being a theocrat is easier when you don&#8217;t understand the Constitution","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 13-Dec-17 7:15am","format":false,"excerpt":"The video here from an interview with Roy Moore spokesperson Ted Crockett is ... both hysterical and deeply depressing. When asked why a Muslim shouldn't be allowed to serve in Congress (as Moore has argued), Crockett notes that a good Muslim could not swear on the Bible, as someone is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/unnamed-4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":137887,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/02\/20\/swearing-like-a-sailor.html","url_meta":{"origin":11227,"position":1},"title":"Swearing like a sailor","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 20-Feb-19 10:29pm","format":false,"excerpt":"How 19th Century sailors influenced non-sailor language, and why \"son of a bitch\" was such a dire oath. How to Swear Like a 19th-Century Sailor They've made pretty salty contributions to English language and culture, starting with some well-known profanity. Original Post","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137496,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/12\/27\/bad-words-for-good-health.html","url_meta":{"origin":11227,"position":2},"title":"Bad Words for Good Health!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 27-Dec-18 6:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"To the extent that swearing is cathartic, it makes perfect sense that doing it can relieve stress and make you more calm and lead to positive health outcomes.Unless doing it causes your mother to inflict blunt force trauma about your head and shoulders. So consider that health factor, too. Swearing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10506,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/01\/03\/a_hit_a_palpably_tolerant.html","url_meta":{"origin":11227,"position":3},"title":"A hit, a palpably tolerant hit","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 3-Jan-07 9:41pm","format":false,"excerpt":"After taking an appalling amount of heat for deciding to use his holy book -- the Koran -- to swear on in a private ceremony upon taking the oath of...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Religion&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Religion","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27830,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/09\/cussing-up-an-analgesic-storm.html","url_meta":{"origin":11227,"position":4},"title":"Cussing up an analgesic storm","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 9-May-12 6:45am","format":false,"excerpt":"Swearing can help you deal with pain ... but it's most effective if you don't do it all the time. Interesting.Reshared post from +Jon WeberThis story has +George Wiman and +Les Jenkins written all over it. Well and me too. Embedded Link Reduce Pain by Swearing You've just stubbed your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1501,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/12\/23\/why_look_more_n.html","url_meta":{"origin":11227,"position":5},"title":"Why, look, more news on crappy Micro$oft security!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 23-Dec-01 5:36pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Dudes, when the frickin' FBI starts ragging on you about your security, yes, you probably have problems. Remember, folks: this is the company whose security strategy consists of swearing to...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Hi-Tech&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}