Why do people think adopting swearing into your vocabulary make you sound intellectual?

Subzerowings

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May 1, 2009
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megalomania said:
Subzerowings said:
Black Sulphur said:
I guess it's the same reason people think punctuation and grammar makes them intelligent.
That confuses me.
Wouldn't that mean that people who don't use good grammar aren't less intelligent than those who do?
People who aren't that well educated about grammar probably don't know much about it and are thus probably less intelligent when it comes to grammar than those who are educated about it.
If bad grammar is considered "normal" amongst those who don't know much about it, then those who do know much about it would be considered intelligent when compared to them.
This theory wouldn't apply to people that are well educated about grammar, but choose not to use it, though.
Grammar is a bit of a weird example of this because most people (in England, as per my experience!) are not taught English grammar; they learn to write properly through imitation of what they read & blindly correcting mistakes when they are pointed out by the teacher. So there is a major distinction to be made between functional grammar, good grammar and bad grammar. It means making assumptions about people's grammar vs intelligence is tricky!
That's very interesting!
I didn't know that, thank you.
Where I live (Belgium), we're taught grammar every day (which is quite a lot since I have Dutch, English, German, Spanish and Latin).
I always thought that English grammar was kind of easy though, especially when compared to Latin.
I guess I should be a bit less judgemental when it comes to English grammar then.
I thank you, this has been quite educational.
 

SenseOfTumour

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Jul 11, 2008
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The level of intelligence displayed by the use of swearing in conversation or text, I think, comes not from the amount or intensity, but thru the creatitivy and style of use.

I've been on bus trips and heard banter between chavs where the profanities almost outnumber all other words, including some lovely bonding chats between mother and child of about 5 calling each other 'fucker' and 'little shit', to me that's a level of idiocy only ever found under a baseball cap.

Before anyone berates me for stereotyping chavs, did Jean Paul Sartre not say 'If you dress as a clown, then do not hate the laughter you receive.' (No, he didn't, I did tho, along with 'what do a baseball cap and pubic hair have in common? - You can remove it, but there's still usually a c**t underneath).

However, if you look at a good comedian, the swearing usually comes only as a tool to top off a gag, or to intensify the feeling of a punchline, or hammer home a point.