{"id":18526,"date":"2019-11-08T01:21:44","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T01:21:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=18526"},"modified":"2019-11-09T03:24:16","modified_gmt":"2019-11-09T03:24:16","slug":"wtf-slurs-offend-young-adults-more-than-swearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wtf-slurs-offend-young-adults-more-than-swearing\/","title":{"rendered":"WTF? Slurs offend young adults more than swearing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Benjamin Bergen<\/a>, University of California San Diego<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

In 1972, the comedian George Carlin<\/a> performed a comedy routine in which he listed the seven words<\/a> you couldn\u2019t say on television. He opined that profanity related to sexual activities, body parts and bodily functions wasn\u2019t inherently good or bad. All words, he would say, are \u201cinnocent<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The comedian George Carlin got arrested in 1972 for reciting dirty words at a Milwaukee festival.<\/span>
\nAP Photo<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But reciting those seven words in public got him arrested<\/a>, and when a New York radio station aired Carlin\u2019s performance, a man listening with his young son sued. The case led to the Supreme Court ruling<\/a> six years later that broadcasting profanity can constitute a public nuisance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a cognitive scientist<\/a> who studies language in all its manifestations, including profanity. Based on the evidence available, it appears that virtually everything about profanity has changed since the 1970s. To begin with, at least four of those previously forbidden words have become pervasive in media, in television<\/a>, social media<\/a>, online gaming<\/a>, newspapers<\/a> and books<\/a>. Even politicians<\/a> across the political spectrum are beginning to swear<\/a> in more open and strategic ways than they used to.<\/p>\n

All of this cursing could be alarming if you\u2019re, say, a parent of young children, like I am. But as they\u2019ve become more prevalent, dirty words have also lost a lot of their edge among young people.<\/p>\n