I never was one to care much about cuss words.
I use them in front of my kids.
My main concern is that they impede upon their vocabulary development.
Especially the eff-bomb. That word is a bit too versatile. You can use it 4 times in a single sentence.
But these so-called cuss words are arbitrarily defined as bad.
A decision made centuries ago by some tight-assed mo-fo’s.
I suppose I take the rapper approach to language. Sometimes so-called cussing is necessary to convey a feeling. Like punctuation, it helps make a point.
But more important than that, my language is my own, bruh. I make the rules.
And in my world, there are some very different kinds of cuss words, or cuss phrases, if you will.
These ubiquitous mouthfuls are more hurtful than any four-letter word.
Yet, you hear them all the time, from kids and adults, out loud and in message threads.
Who cares
Shut up
So what
That’s so easy (not for everyone, asshole)
Go away
No one asked you
Be quiet
Whatever
It doesn’t matter
It is what it is
What’s the big deal?
There are all kinds of variants.
These phrases kill spirits. They silence voices. They invalidate ideas.
The real crime is that they tend to fuck up both people involved. Everyone gets hurt; the only difference is that the one on the receiving end experiences sharper pain at the scene of the crime. Whereas the purveyor of that pain goes home and slowly bleeds out.
One interaction. Two casualties.
It would do us well to redefine the words we shouldn’t use.
Our survival depends on it.
For fuck’s sake.