Theologian63 writes:
Mr. Administrator. Is foul language and profanity acceptable in this forum? I thought it was to be an intelligent discussion group. Use of profanity lacks intelligence, not to mention a limited vocabulary.
You're going to have to point me at the "foul language and profanity" - wasn't able to find it.
When you register you agree not to post anything that is "knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise violative of any law." Whew! What a list!
While I think the list is generally good, I don't think it's possible to arrive at objective assessments of "vulgar", "obscene" and "profane." The Supreme Court here in the states has essentially said the same thing.
Personally, for most of my life I didn't use obscene language, though I encountered it all the time, and I felt better about myself for it. But as I grew older the silly, petty "better morality than you" of it began to become apparent, and I began to realize that the expressiveness of obscenity was not readily duplicated with non-obscene synonyms. And at some point it struck me that my abilities as a communicator were suffering because I was cutting myself off needlessly from an entire realm of expression.
I still make little use of obscene language or references, I mostly don't feel comfortable with them, but now, when the context fits, I not only use them, I embrace them.
So I guess my position would be that as long as points relevant to the discussion are being made that aren't hateful, harassing, etc, that there isn't much language I would have a problem with.
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-- | Percy |
| EvC Forum Administrator |