Marco.org

I’m : a programmer, writer, podcaster, geek, and coffee enthusiast.

On “fuck”

I originally censored the name of the song in the previous post. I’ve sworn on my sites before, but that’s usually just “shit” or “ass”, and I try not to do it gratuitously to preserve the value of the words.

I assumed that I had never used the word “fuck” in my content because I didn’t want to unnecessarily ostracize people or disqualify myself from advertisers. But two things changed my mind:

  1. I searched and learned that “fuck” already appears on my site a lot, mostly in comments and forum threads.
  2. I remembered that I hate advertisements.

I don’t like the idea of certain words being completely off-limits.

I wouldn’t use racial slurs, but I would never want to make them illegal to speak, write, or broadcast. I understand why racial slurs are highly offensive, but my way of rejecting racist language is not to use it — I’ve never needed or wanted to communicate the racism and anger of slurs. And I’m fine with other people not wanting to say “fuck” for the same reason.

But when used well, it’s a useful and effective word. Those who choose to use it should be able to. Why artificially shrink our language? That just hinders ideas and communication.

Plus, that song wouldn’t be nearly as catchy if the title were “Connecticut’s For Engaging In Recreational Sexual Intercourse Between People Who Aren’t Necessarily In Love”.