What are your thoughts on this? When "fuck" and "cunt" no longer shock, what new words are we gonna use?
Maybe we'll just communicate and stop trying to shock. You know there will
always be ways of diffusing thumb hammering and toe stubbing stress, the rest will go the way of the dinosaur as people use real words for meaning, instead of expletives as place holders.
Taking offence at the language used by your opponent in a discussion or debate is a good tactic to deflect attention away from what they say, and into the 'safe' topic of their vulgarity - one where you can be surer of the support of your peers. As long as people can rely on the majority to conform to their horror at the choice of language, they can effectively shut down debate where one side becomes sufficiently exasperated as to indulge in such profane ejaculations. Horror at the choice of words used becomes a stealthy variant of the Ad Hominem fallacy - 'He is wrong, because he uses rude words'.
However, as people become less easily shocked, the group of supporters who can be relied upon to shut down profanity wielding adversaries has declined.
I suspect that these days profanity in debate isn't quite so much used by people who are losing their patience, nor by people who are trying to shock, but that rather it is used by many people as a deliberate ploy to take advantage of the shockability of others.
Being shocked, offended, or horrified by the language somebody uses towards you (or even just in your presence) is directly harmful to your ability to respond rationally to what they are actually doing or saying; it has become a weakness that can be (and is) exploited, rather than (or perhaps as well as) a tactic that can shut down opposition.
Once the mass of people stop being offended by the choice of words used, they are able to concentrate on actual rebuttals (or the lack of same), and the playing field becomes less tilted to the advantage of social conservatism. Whether that is a good or a bad thing rather depends on how conservative one is.
Of course, as in the OP video, profanity may not be used as part of a debate, but rather in an attempt to start a debate, or just to grab people's attention. As advertisers, propagandists and marketeers become ever more effective, they need to engage in an 'arms race' with the consumers or targets of their work, who become increasingly skilled at ignoring them.
A video of little girls advocating feminism would sink without trace on the Internet, swamped by the sheer volume of cat videos, porn, political rants, and alien abductees heart (or other organ) rending stories, all pleading for thirty seconds of your short life. Have those little girls say 'fuck' a lot, and suddenly your video is getting noticed.
Real people can debate without needing to shock by their use of language; but both shockers and shockees can use profanity to their advantage if they judge the audience correctly.
Advertisers, propagandists, and marketeers, however, cannot even get noticed any more, without some kind of stunt. Profane language is still available as a tool for this purpose; but I suspect it won't last. They always need to find new ways to grab the attention of an increasingly jaded public, and I fervently hope that public apathy will win in the end, as the shock brigade simply find that even with their cunts and fucks turned up to the stops, people still respond with a resounding 'meh'.
One way in which we, the people, can help to bring about this desirable end, is to use profanity frequently and dispassionately, so that when the motherfucking advertisers, cock-sucking propagandists and arse-licking marketing bastards try to fuck with us, the sad cunts find that their
arsenal of 'hot button' words has become impotent.
