oh i totally agree.
Swearing is just natural to me. But when i'm in restaurants or other public places or around kids or whatever i refrain from it.
yeah, i am like that too, it's easy enough to put your swear filters on in public, you don't want to make anyone feel uncomfortable, so in those environments you just naturally don't do it.
of course, if you are a casual swearer in the company of your mates, there is more chance of a '****!' slipping out if someone tells you a surprising story, or if you see a ufo flying by or something, even if the nuns and vicar are round scrounging for the biscuits and cakes.
those two times i was talking about with guys swearing in cafes, the time the guys were nice about it and said they didn't realize, come to think of it, i'm sure they said they were just in from the site and were so used to swearing, it had just carrried on into their lunch break.
they were in this little vegan cafe place i go into now and again, their first time in it, and the young women who worked there looked a bit freaked out at the loud swearing , as it's a quiet, chilled out place. so, those guys were cool about me saying something and gave it a wrap.
but the other time, man, it was sitting outside another vegan pub/cafe, a couple families with kids were sitting behind us, and this friend of a friend i had just met, kept swearing loudly and constantly, making them all v uncomfortable. he was an old stoner, and when i said he should maybe give it a by, he said he couln't help it, that was just the way he talked...so he kept doing it. in a way, he couldn't help himself, he *was* doing it without really meaning to, but he wasn't sorry about doing it, and had a kind of '**** 'em, this is who i am' attitude about it. so i kept trying to get him to knock it off, he didn't, and eventually he bogged off home because of it, probably away to swear at the telly.
i should probably try to knock it off myself, i try sometimes, but it has been a lifetime habit, so it's not easy to curb it completely.
i don't tend to swear, even in asteri*es, on forums, very rarely, mostly just use 'bs' if anything. probably because i am in the company of folk i don't know. i'll change ****ing to frickin' as it's good sometimes to express astonishment, but in general, i dont do it.
i'm a member of one other superhero/comicbook forum, and surprisingly they do not employ swear filters at all, it's not against the rules apparently, as i have often seen folk openly swear.
even though i am a swearer, i don't think i'm into that being open to folk, same kind of thing as the cafe example, it's a cb/sh site, and so obviously you're going to get folk who are offended by that, young kids etc
it would be different if it was a site specifically for a certain age group, and it was at folk's discretion, say a music site where rival opinions can get heated over which band is the best, lol.
but anyway, i don't know, maybe it is a good thing to temper down, and only use in certain circumstances.
when ozzy osborne was asked what his favourite word was, he said 'f***', and part of me agreed with him, it's kind of a perfect word that has lost none of it's power, i wonder who the f*** came up with that one?
