[Dynamics]

Let us all drop our testes and sprout-a-lump-or-two on our chests.

People, this is a rant, get over it. If you don't want to see it, it's in your best interest to leave as soon as you see the first swear word.

I'm pretty sure the O/P didn't want to cause all of this idiotic chatter amongst over-offensive people. >_>

It's called a discussion not "idiotic chatter". This is a discussion forum, rants aren't immune to discussion either. The OP's asked the correlation between swearing and adverse affects to kids.

Personally I don't think the effect swearing has on kids is relevant to whether or not this forum appreciates it. It's strictly a matter of preference, not to be confused with a matter of justice and morality, which is essentially what you're arguing for. Are there any adverse affects from casual swearing and kids? Let's discuss.

Kids are growing less and less sensitive to swearing in these contemporary times. You're right in the sense they can think for themselves, and swearing is often used so casually it's easy to question whether or not it makes a difference. Adults will generally put the impression on their children that it's wrong to swear because it is supposedly a 'bad influence'.

On this forum we're not necessarily reaching out to children alone, so what I have to say next I express to people of all ages. I agree with the notion casual swearing is not good practice. It's an unconstructive practice. It's detrimental to a persons' linguistic skills.

Good linguistics is needed for reasoning and conflict resolving. If you consistently use an expletive in times of frustration or just casually in general, you're less likely to improve your vocabulary and reasoning skills. Why use an adjective when you can just swear. Why word your problem when you can just vent it through swearing. Why reason with someone when you can just swear at them. Thinking often becomes like this (not all cases of course) unbeknownst to the person swearing.

The more casual swearing becomes in societies, the less likely a person will try to construct their linguistic skills. I suppose the problems stems from expletives being so versatile. The old time notion of swearing "just" being bad is heavily outdated, and is a myth as far as I am concerned. I think the real underlying problem with a person swearing casually, is that it's unconsciously ruining their language skills, and consequently their reasoning skills.

Though people are clearly capable to think for themselves as you've pointed out several times, often people will let the society think for them. People learn from conventions, people fall into conformity. Society affects people whether they realise it or not. A society that allows casual swearing will produce different conventions than a society that doesn't. FiestaFan does not appreciate swearing and I fully appreciate that. I think the rule effectively prevents the potential decline of this forum's posts becoming completely unswaying and lacking of prose. I've seen too many forums that condone casual swearing produce close to zero sense posts. While I can't demonstrate a causal link, I'm sure most would agree with me that there is a strong correlation between swearing and poor language skills. Of course there are fine exceptions such as yourself, but keep that in mind. You're an outly from general society. But you should keep in mind that, just because you're outly from convention, doesn't mean you can be an outly from the rules.

This is a forum. We discuss things. We express ourselves verbally. I think it's important to create the best environment for that. And I think the relatively lenient rule on swearing is a good move by the forums. Not only does it cater for people who may slip a swear word once or twice, but it leaves the discussions on forums as relatively clean and precise as they can be. I could've easily expressed my frustration to this thread with a few expletives, but I'd rather not.

I should reiterate after writing so much that whether or not swearing is a just practice is irrelevant to the rules here. They are simply not appreciated, and gathered from your posts I'm more than sure you understand that already.