Garple

(IGN.com)

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Nothing knee-jerk about my response, it genuinely disconcerts me and has done for a long time. I value the potency of words like "cunt" but at the same time find the moral stipulations that have reinforced certain words being defined as "swear words" ridiculous. Rape has a certain potency and I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that being fucked with.

All that said, my favorite joke for over a year now has been "Did you know, 9 out of 10 people enjoy gang rape?"

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You'd have to be quite sick to laugh at the face of someone who said (s)he's been raped because you gag about it on the internet with your friends... I guess context to me is more important than the emotional package a word carries other than it's very meaning.

I guess that may as well be me and my fear of blasphemy or censorship but hey...

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I think we might be talking at cross purposes. When you say a word has potency my interpretation of that would be that it has an unconscious emotional weight attached to it. I would have thought that qualifies as a knee jerk reaction doesn't it?

That's how I see it anyways.

Oh yeah - quality joke there :tup:

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Yeah I know that you're just another reactionist but I pretend not to see it so it doesn't ruin the ambiance of these wonderful forums.

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I think we might be talking at cross purposes. When you say a word has potency my interpretation of that would be that it has an unconscious emotional weight attached to it. I would have thought that qualifies as a knee jerk reaction doesn't it?

That's how I see it anyways.

I'd say that weight means that it's able to provoke those kind of reactions. Thinking/talking about that weight is not the same thing.

You'd have to be quite sick to laugh at the face of someone who said (s)he's been raped because you gag about it on the internet with your friends... I guess context to me is more important than the emotional package a word carries other than it's very meaning.

I guess that may as well be me and my fear of blasphemy or censorship but hey...

Very true, and if I ever saw someone being that sick I'd happily punch them. I'm a huge fan of sick jokes but generally careful about context. Up to a point I worry about unintentional associations my words might have for others, but you can't do that kind of monitoring in great detail without becoming absurdly opinionated in a way that is different from me and/or insane.

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I think that's a fair point, there is a gulf between thinking and doing. I'm still not sure how I feel about it though. I have a hard time reconciling my unease with flippant use of the word rape and my disdain for those who shy away from swear words. I'm feel like I'm being hypocritical and it doesn't sit right with me.

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Yeah, I know what you mean. I think it's more a case by case thing than a general one though.

That (old, Saxon) words for excrement and vagina are seen as bad does seem ridiculous because it's reasonable and adult to me to occasionally mention or talk about such things. I don't necessarily think they should have emotional weight because of any moral repugnance, though I kind of relish being able to shout "Cunt" when something is going wrong. I think that weight is about scarcity of use rather than morality though.

Casual use of "Rape" might be different, but I'm not sure. "How did the football go?" "We got absolutely murdered" seems fine for most people.

I once asked a Jehovah's Witness why swearing was wrong, and his reply was "Satan has taken things that were given words by God and twisted them, applying inappropriate terms to them". It's obvious nonsense, yet noone who is against swearing has ever had a better argument for me.

I have trouble with this around children, often forgetting to check myself. The most respect I have for anyone over this were parents who told their kid that "Swear words are just words, but some people find them offensive so watch when and where you use them".

Signor, I think you're right in that this is about emotional associations with words. I'd feel awful about triggering a flashback of any kind for a rape victim, but anyone offended by me saying shit, damn, fuck, jesus or cunt can suck it.

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"This game will make you question your vocabulary..

..in half and shove it in a mailbox!" - IGN.com

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"This game will make you oh my god why am I writing these shitty reviews for $50 a pop?" - IGN.com

"This game will inspire you to go on a cold, lethal rampage at the office" - IGN.com

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Now here's some content to put on itllblowyouaway-ign.com:

random IGN quotes generator

You make bricks and aggregate them randomly:

[...in half] [...and stuff you in a mailbox]

[it will] [it is going to]

[blow you away] [kill your] [rape you]

[your grandma] [your son] [your dog]

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But to go back to the main subject using the last podcast and without using "rape" which might be shocking to some peeps around here:

«This game will enslave and genocide you»

As you can see, I'm making efforts not to shock anyone.

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this game will cast racist rape slave genocide and poneys in your face. IGN.com

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This thread will scare your mom. - ign.com

...and stuff her in a mailbox. - attr. ign.com

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"Prepare to be blown away by Killzone 2 on PLAYSTATION 3" - an e-mail I got from Sony

-----

I feel fairly comfortable with the word "cunt", but I'm not entirely sure I can fully justify using it over using other words that I'm less comfortable with. Am I, for example, less sensitive to sexism than I am to racism? Or am I subconsciously more worried that I might be racist than I am that I might be sexist? Or do I just not believe that "cunt" has been used as a tool of oppression, where others have?

The latter is kind of my instinctive feeling, but it's not like I'm an expert on the plight of women through the ages or whatever.

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"This game is pure, total and out-and-out [unintelligible]" - IGN.com (transcript)

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I'm kind of in a weird situation about "cunt." I tend to substitute it for "fuck," say, when I stub my toe or drop my phone or something. Fuck just doesn't have the impact it used to, and cunt still has the power to make people pause.

My girlfriend has no problem with the word. Actually, she thinks it's fun to say. What she does object to though, is using it in a negative sense. So though I'm free to say "cunt" whenever I want, using it in the way that is instinctive at this point just makes her ask me "Why the hell are you using that as a curse? Unless you have something you really need to reveal to me, I thought you liked cunts..."

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I get the impression that that word is a lot more offensive in the US (and maybe Canada) that it is over here in the UK. It's very common here (and is a great swear word), so has lost it's impact a little I guess.

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The C Word is the absolute highest offensive term I could give someone in our house. "C U Next Tuesday" only gets used in very extreme circumstances.

But I swear as part of my regular vocabulary anyway. So if you don't have something that's off-limits, it debases the impact of your vocabulary.

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This thread will scare your mom. - ign.com

...and stuff her in a mailbox. - attr. ign.com

Actually it would scare anyone that hasn't got a little context I guess...

"This game will make you question god" GameKunt.com

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