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lancesidecar
FooJay
Joined: Jan 07, 2005
Posts: 1631
Location: Hitsville, PRC
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June 26, 2006 - 01:32 PM |
 
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| Post subject: Dropping the F-Bomb |
| Quote: |
Dropping the F-Bomb
By Joel Achenbach
Sunday, June 25, 2006; Page B01
The most versatile word in our language can do almost anything, other than be printed in a family newspaper. It can be a noun, a verb, a gerund, an adjective or just an expletive. It can be literal or figurative. Although it has an explicit sexual meaning, it's usually used figuratively these days, as an all-purpose intensifier.
The F-word remains taboo. But just barely. We may be entering an era in which this fabled vulgarity is on its way to becoming just another word -- its transgressive energy steadily sapped by overuse.
From hip-hop artists to bloggers to the vice president of the United States, everyone's dropping the F-bomb. Young people in particular may not grasp how special this word has been in the past. They may not realize how, like an old sourdough starter, the word has been lovingly preserved over the centuries and passed from generation to generation. For the good of human communication we must come together, as a people, to protect this word, and ensure that, years from now, it remains obscene.
Our leaders aren't helping. Before he was elected president, George W. Bush used the word repeatedly during an interview with Tucker Carlson. Dick Cheney on the Senate floor told a Democratic senator to eff himself. Presidential candidate John F. Kerry said of Bush and the war, "Did I expect George Bush to [mess] it up as badly as he did? I don't think anybody did." No one is shocked that these people use such language, but as statesmanship it's not exactly Lincolnesque.
More generally, the word is imperiled by the profusion of communications technologies. Everyone's talking, e-mailing, blogging and commenting on everyone else's comments. Combine that with partisan rancor and a general desperation to get one's message across, and naturally the word gets overtaxed. In Blogworld there are no idiots anymore, only [blithering] idiots. The most opportunistic move in the corporate realm may have been the decision by a retailer to call itself French Connection United Kingdom, which allowed it to put the company's initials on T-shirts everywhere. Jeepers, that's clever!
I don't want to make a federal case out of all of this -- but that's what the government is doing. The Federal Communications Commission in recent years has cracked down on "indecency" in general and this word specifically. The FCC's fines for indecency have risen steadily: a mere $4,000 in 1995, then $48,000 in 2000, then $440,000 in 2003 and finally a whopping $7.9 million in 2004. President Bush signed a bill last week increasing by tenfold the maximum fine for indecency on radio or TV, to $325,000. Broadcasters have sued to overturn recent FCC rulings, arguing that broadcasters shouldn't have to abide by laws that don't affect cable and satellite providers (which is why HBO's "Deadwood" can clock, by one Web site's calculation, 1.48 F-words per minute). The inability to be indecent is, for broadcasters, a competitive disadvantage.
In any case, government fines for indecency are something of a rearguard action, unlikely to stem the tide. It's like trying to fight rising sea levels one sandbag at a time.
A landmark case revolves around the word used by Bono, the rock star, at the 2003 Golden Globe Awards. He blurted out that winning an award was "[bleepin'] brilliant." The FCC first ruled that his comment wasn't indecent, because it didn't describe a sexual act. But in 2004, after the Janet Jackson breast exposure during the Super Bowl halftime show, the commission reversed the Bono ruling, saying the singer's comment was indeed profane and indecent.
The FCC's logic, however, was a stretch. It argued that any use of the word "inherently has a sexual connotation." But that's just not true. In fact, the reason it is used so often is because it has escaped the bonds of its sexual origin. It's now used as a generic intensifier. It makes plain language more colorful and emphatic.
The reason it must be suppressed in polite society is not because it's a bad word, but because, in certain circumstances, it is a very good word. It is a solidly built word of just four letters, bracketed by rock-hard consonants. It is not a mushy word, but one with sharp edges. Consider how clunky the term "the F-word" is. The authentic article, by contrast, explodes into space from a gate formed by the upper incisors and the lower lip. Then it slams to a dramatic glottal cough.
I'd even argue that it has therapeutic properties. Ponder, if you will, how critically important this word can be when you stub a toe. It serves as an instant palliative. It's like verbal morphine. You can't hop around the dining room, holding your foot, shouting "Drat!" or "Dagnabbit!" or "Heavens to Betsy!" Those words don't work.
"It's a sexual word in origin but it's not used that way very often," says Jesse Sheidlower, editor at large of the Oxford English Dictionary and editor of the 1995 book "The F-Word," a 224-page dictionary in which some of the permutations of the word are absofreakin'lutely ridiculous." |
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/23/AR2006 062301378.html
Maybe this should go into the learning language forum.......
Who is more powerful? The FCC or the CCP????? |
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acujerjer
Board Royalty
Joined: Sep 10, 2003
Posts: 7770
Location: up your butt and around the corner
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June 26, 2006 - 02:35 PM |
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Now look at this closer. How insane is humanity and society:
You can say duck, yuck, truck, pluck, but f..uck is considered "unholy" and illegal on the radio and TV. We have been conditioned our whole lives that certain sounds are "bad words". But what is the difference wether you use f..uck or duck? You can say sexual intercourse. Oh that's fine, even though it describes the same thing. You can say have sex, get laid, do it, whatever. But if you say f..uck it is wrong and you can get fined. This is nothing short of pure insanity. It shows how easy it is for society to enslave people's minds with ludicrous rules that mean absolutely nothing. The funniest is if you write "F**king idiots". That is ok. Now when you read that what do you say in your mind? Yeah that's what I'm saying. It is insanity. Absurdity.
FREE YOUR MIND! |
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acujerjer
Board Royalty
Joined: Sep 10, 2003
Posts: 7770
Location: up your butt and around the corner
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June 26, 2006 - 02:35 PM |
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BlackAdder
PopStar
Joined: Apr 21, 2006
Posts: 1042
Status: Offline
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June 26, 2006 - 02:39 PM |
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I think the distinct nature of the word inappropriateness is want gives the word it unique character. Think about if the F word was not so taboo would we use it as much.
I use slang, more than I should and I for one agree with many who do not subscribe to the notion that swear words and slang limit one's ability to express ourselves on a more philosophical level.
but hey, F-uck it. |
_________________
very cunning indeed |
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acujerjer
Board Royalty
Joined: Sep 10, 2003
Posts: 7770
Location: up your butt and around the corner
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June 26, 2006 - 02:42 PM |
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It's a perfect example how enslaved we are. f..uck, shiit these are the same as any other words, we have just been brainwashed into thinking its different. What a joke! The words mean nothing in of itself. there is probably some language somewhere where the sound "f..uck" means to eat or something. |
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LifeMage
FooSlinger
Joined: Sep 30, 2005
Posts: 3937
Location: In the world...... but not of it.
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June 26, 2006 - 02:57 PM |
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Funny you should say that,
cause I'm just about to go fcuk some lunch. |
_________________
visit my flickr page |
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acujerjer
Board Royalty
Joined: Sep 10, 2003
Posts: 7770
Location: up your butt and around the corner
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June 26, 2006 - 02:59 PM |
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Yeah like put a hole in a watermelon. Feels like the real thing. |
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lancesidecar
FooJay
Joined: Jan 07, 2005
Posts: 1631
Location: Hitsville, PRC
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June 26, 2006 - 03:01 PM |
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you'd have to be hard as fukc. |
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LifeMage
FooSlinger
Joined: Sep 30, 2005
Posts: 3937
Location: In the world...... but not of it.
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June 26, 2006 - 03:02 PM |
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I was thinking more along the lines of sliding it into a warm, roast chicken sandwich. |
_________________
visit my flickr page
Last edited by LifeMage on June 26, 2006 - 03:04 PM; edited 1 time in total |
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acujerjer
Board Royalty
Joined: Sep 10, 2003
Posts: 7770
Location: up your butt and around the corner
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June 26, 2006 - 03:03 PM |
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Like on Thanksgiving someone always shoots in the Turkey. Mixes kind of nice with the stuffing. |
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Pablo_Picasso
Board Royalty
Joined: May 05, 2006
Posts: 6715
Location: Spain you bloody idiots.
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June 26, 2006 - 03:04 PM |
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I can remember in the early 80's British tv tried to be all liberal-minded and started using the 'C' word in tv dramas - obviously after the watershed - but it seemed so contrived and stupid.
Personally I don't agree with swearing, you bunch of **** kitties. |
_________________
Well some people try to pick up girls And get called assholes This never happened to Pablo Picasso |
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Trix77
Raver
Joined: Nov 13, 2005
Posts: 471
Status: Offline
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June 26, 2006 - 11:49 PM |
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"there is probably some language somewhere where the sound "f..uck" means to eat or something"
Right said fred.
Give or take a syllable, 'Fakir' is the Urdu word for religious hermit/sage. A true-blue, ganja smoking, poetry spouting, holy guy... |
_________________
Religion is a psychological trait humans evolved, to help them deal more effectively with the world. |
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Pablo_Picasso
Board Royalty
Joined: May 05, 2006
Posts: 6715
Location: Spain you bloody idiots.
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June 27, 2006 - 12:04 AM |
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When I was at art college there was this Somalian bloke there who taught some weird arsed shite that was no use to man or beast and his family name was Yon. We used to call him Yonny and he told us 'Don't call me Yonny, in my country it means c.unt!'.
Like that would stop us.... |
_________________
Well some people try to pick up girls And get called assholes This never happened to Pablo Picasso |
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LifeMage
FooSlinger
Joined: Sep 30, 2005
Posts: 3937
Location: In the world...... but not of it.
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June 27, 2006 - 12:15 AM |
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Fcuker - Fakir
Churchill made that connection when he refered to Gandhi as a "Half-naked fakir". |
_________________
visit my flickr page |
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Trix77
Raver
Joined: Nov 13, 2005
Posts: 471
Status: Offline
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June 27, 2006 - 12:27 AM |
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^ Yes the Cigar Man did. And almost got bumped off during his New York visit for having said that.
Churchil was a fan of the Idea of The Raj.
Well anyway, I think it just contributed towards making Gandhi into more of a Myth... |
_________________
Religion is a psychological trait humans evolved, to help them deal more effectively with the world. |
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Trix77
Raver
Joined: Nov 13, 2005
Posts: 471
Status: Offline
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June 27, 2006 - 12:30 AM |
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Somalians refer to the vagina as Yoni? That's a pretty pure Sanskrit word.
Unless that reference to a 'Somalian' was intended to be off colour, I am surprised. |
_________________
Religion is a psychological trait humans evolved, to help them deal more effectively with the world. |
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LifeMage
FooSlinger
Joined: Sep 30, 2005
Posts: 3937
Location: In the world...... but not of it.
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June 27, 2006 - 01:26 AM |
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Here's a pretty fcuking funny video about the use of the Fcuk word.
It says, "wait till the video is loaded to press play", but Fcuk that!
you'd be waiting all Fcuking day. Just wait a minute and Fcuking press it, ok?
http://www.nailmaster.ru/****.html |
_________________
visit my flickr page |
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