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I don't buy that "people" need to swear any more than they need to lie, or that the result of swearing is somehow less damaging/more productive than lying. Lyi

by gngeal 13y ago

I don't buy that "people" need to swear any more than they need to lie, or that the result of swearing is somehow less damaging/more productive than lying. Lying is dishonorable, counterproductive in context of multiple cooperating people, and a really bad idea overall, purely objectively. Swearing, linguistics-wise, is indeed a completely normal ("natural and ok") trait (present to some extent in individuals of all cultures, gender, professions etc., even in some higher animals) that is orthogonal to anyone's performance. How could you possibly equate these two is beyond me.

paganel 13y ago
> How could you possibly equate these two is beyond me. I'd say is a cultural thingie. Compared to other languages English has very few swear words/expressions, for example in my native language you could swear at someone by saying something like "fuck your mother's dead relatives" (it sounds way worse in original, trust me). If someone were to say that to my face my first instinct would be to see if I can beat him right there on the spot (and if yes, would I risk going to prison for hospitalizing him?) and if no then I'd think of swearing back with something even harsher (while looking for an escape route). On the other hand everybody lies, that's why we have things like contracts etc, it's assumed that at some point or another we'll stop telling the truth.