Vulgar offensive speech

  • Thread starter Thread starter Christphr
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Benadam said:
This example seems only to present the issue not the complexity
Click to expand...
The complexity plays out in the story. In the build up to the war his mum said: “horrific deplorable violence is ok, as long as people don’t say any naughty words - that’s what this war is about”. People cheer this because it sounds good and they are past scrutinitising the content and have been whipped up into a frenzy. I also think that people on CAF do this, they are fine letting their kids watch things with horrendous moral values, as long as there isn’t swearing!

Eventually Kyle confronts his mom and tells her that she was more concerned with saving the world than caring for him. Another personality trait that is common today.
 
I’m pretty sure the Bible has some interesting passages:
She lusted for the lechers of Egypt, whose members are like those of donkeys, whose thrusts are like those of stallions. (Ezekiel 23:20)
Click to expand...
 
aahh ok. I took the short as the example not noticing there was a movie. My bad.
 
I don’t swear myself, but I don’t say anything if someone else does…unless it is around my three year old. Then, I ask them to please not use that language around my child. It really irritates me when people don’t watch their mouths around children.
 
Children who are not raised properly will imitate whoever or whatever.
 
Last edited:
And sometimes children that were raised properly grow up and disregard what they were taught, so let’s not lay this on their upbringing please.
 
It’s definitely where it starts. Little kids are very smart and observant, long before they go to school. When a 2 year old can program a TV controller to watch their favorite cartoons? Mom and dad still can’t figure out how.
 
Interesting the justifications you are attempting to place for an animated show that is directed towards young adults. If you researched the demographics; forty seven percent of their viewer do not have a high school degree. While only six percent claim to have a college degree…hence…I would not categorize this show as “Deep Thinking”.

More importantly, vulgarity is used all the time. However, that should not be the justification for its acceptance, especially among certain groups or individuals were it has traditionally been discouraged. Some examples; I would not want to hear it in Church or from teachers or civic leaders.

Church teachings convey that we sin all the time. But, it also conveys our need to seek the higher ground and to seek repentance each time we do so. Your argument is one of nihilism, which is in direct contrast to any spiritual teaching. Somehow by accepting than navigating through the abyss of vulgarity…we are going to come out as “deeper thinkers”? That is too much to expect from any Interlocutors, much-less from an animated cartoon…
 
Leo2014 said:
forty seven percent of their viewer do not have a high school degree. While only six percent claim to have a college degree…hence…I would not categorize this show as “Deep Thinking”.
Click to expand...
Awful logic. Noam Chomsky would tell you that Universities are where you find the most shallow thinking:
Leo2014 said:
Your argument is one of nihilism
Click to expand...
it’s not and i don’t think you really understand what that word means based on your misuse of it.
Leo2014 said:
navigating through the abyss of vulgarity…we are going to come out as “deeper thinkers”?
Click to expand...
I imagine the pharisees used a similar arguement against Jesus.
 
My sincere apology if stating you’re a nihilist offended you.

However, you are on a Catholic forum and you want to argue in support of something that has no foundation in spiritual thinking? Than the example you present to support your premise is a poorly animated cartoon?

True, humans should look beyond the superficial exterior. But vulgarity tells a lot of a person; if most of us encountered a stranger with such a character of adversities, we would walk the other way. Regardless, if you were trained in etymology, you would quickly arrive at a point that you would find yourself wasting time.
 
Leo2014 said:
My sincere apology if stating you’re a nihilist offended you.
Click to expand...
It did. I am in no way a nihilist. But your apology is appreciated and accepted.
Leo2014 said:
However, you are on a Catholic forum and you want to argue in support of something that has no foundation in spiritual thinking?
Click to expand...
Church teaching is not so black and white, we have multiple obligations that can conflict. Yes vulgarity is bad in Church teaching, I don’t deny that. But we are also called to evangelise and be in the world (not of it). Sometimes that means the enemy of your enemy is your friend. Life isn’t a series of black vrs white choices, most are light dark vrs dark white choices. If South Park was a minority audience and shows with good Catholic values were a majority; then i wouldn’t be defending it. But people need to deal with the fact that the reverse is true before saying “well i’m going to be saved so i don’t care what the rest of the world does”.
Leo2014 said:
But vulgarity tells a lot of a person; if most of us encountered a stranger with such a character of adversities, we would walk the other way.
Click to expand...
No i wouldn’t. I have fed urine soaked, drunk homeless people. I will mix with the lowest of the low in the hope that they ask me something about God. It’s precisely because nihilism cannot fill their most basic human needs that they will eventually ask questions about what makes me a believer in something fixed and permanent.
 
Thank you for your clarification; I was viewing your argument from a different perspective.

Vulgarity originates from many sources. The image I had was of someone in power abusing that power, I deal with litigations - therefore the devil is often nicely dressed, not urine stained. But it (vulgarity) can also derive from a source of frustration and despair.

Unfortunately, as great as I find the ability to have so much information at your fingertips via the Internet…it has a dark side. The anonymity allows more people to be vulgar and lower themselves to a level they would never have the courage to execute in person. This I can see is also lowering our standard of dignity.
 
Air pollution, noise pollution, water pollution, toxic waste contamination, and vulgar language mind pollution. You wouldn’t put up with the first four, why give a pass for the last?
I rarely hear foul language from members of my older generation, but my sons’ generation, both male and female, can pack 3 m-fers into a single sentence, and they’re not even mad about something.

My guidelines: 1) if you’re 🔨 hammering in a nail and smash your finger, followed by multiple expletives, I ignore it, even a word of sympathy on occasion. 2) If
it’s on my property or in my car, I give them one pass, then call them out on it. (“No cussing, please.”) Apology accepted. Frankly, they usually don’t seem to even know they are doing it, it’s so common.

My youngest son said one of the perks of working a construction job is that you can cuss all you want and nobody cares. (No Mom on the job.) Interestingly, he says that when he visits other friends houses, he is often warned, “Don’t cuss in front of my Mom.”
 
Last edited:
I like your guidelines.

When my kids were young, there would sometimes be teens nearby at the store or something, and usually I only had to say “hey, could you watch your language in front of my kids?” They usually looked horrified and would apologize.
 
To talk about this stuff we should really make clear the difference between profanity, cursing, swearing, and vulgarity.

Profanity is when you use the Lord’s name in vain, or make references to religious subjects in a sacrilegious way. This is obviously sinful, and it certainly is something I avoid with an almost paranoid level of care, and it really bothers me when I hear people use such language.

Cursing is when you use profanity in a directed way at someone, and this is even worse than profanity by itself. Perhaps you use the Lord’s name in vain, but then you also commit the sin of wrath. Cussing, by the way, is just an Americanism, the etymology is the same as cursing.

Swearing is when you make an oath of some kind. People should be very careful that they only make good oaths, and then not break them. An example of good swearing would be what a person does when they get married and say their wedding vows. It only becomes bad if they violate those vows, or made them in bad faith (not actually believing in the Sacrament of Matrimony, for example). Another example would be to swear on a Bible that your testimony in court is going to be truthful, but then if you bear false witness that’s certainly sinful. Swearing to do something evil, or basing an oath on something evil, of course would also be sinful. This is another one for me that I am really careful about, and it also really bothers me when people swear casually about or on things they shouldn’t be.

Vulgarity, though, is simply crude, lower-class vocabulary. These would mainly be your scatological and sexual terms, and these terms especially change over time and even vary from culture to culture. If you use them in a wrathful way, that’s sinful. If your use of them hurts others, or leads them to sin, that’s sinful. The Bible does warn us that we will be judged for our words. We should be mindful of what we say, and how we say it, but the Bible doesn’t have a list of no-no words we should never speak and I personally don’t believe there is any such thing as a “bad” word. What matters is the intention and the consequences of our words, whatever those words are, and whether we are building bridges to other human beings and loving them, or tearing those bridges down.
 
Last edited:
The only thing I’d add to this is that using a vulgar description of someone who is behaving in a seriously improper way is not always wrong. (My personal experience note on this is referring to the perpetrator of sexual assault with a general vulgarity. It was in front of a priest. I’m not sorry.)

What always bothered me on this topic though was that vulgarity of the last type you mention seems to be disproportionately called out. I know far too many people who would never dream of letting a crude term cross their lips, but think nothing of gossip or slander so long as they can couch it in polite terms.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top