Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-5846164-20130316112717/@comment-6078851-20140416160105

cursing, bad/foul/coarse language, swearing: these terms only exist because of social inertia - at some point in history some powerful/influential figure/s decided they didn't like the sound of some words. the masses, being the masses, follow the idea's of the powerful/influential (either through choice or tyranny), and over time we get to where we are today with a selection of words that are deemed 'bad'.

personally in think this is a moronic notion - words are all the same: over the course of our evolution random noises became focussed at a target to denote a meaning. the only reason that some words are considered 'bad' is because of social inertia, and the individual sensabilities of people (which are largely derived from social inertia).

i don't believe there is such a thing as 'bad' language (except when things are written without punctuation - that's very bad language). what some people think of as coarse, or swearing, i think of as exceptionally emotive words. of coarse, such words can be used in a coarse context, but that's just my social inertia influenced sensabilities. and whatever happened to "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me"?

and while there isn't any swearing in codexes, there's plenty in the novels, and the novels are available to anyone from any age group.

if i were to write "the captain sliced clean through the ork's arm with one elegant sweep of his powersword, and as the ork's blood splashed over the captain's armour, the ork's head was cleaved from his shoulders with a graceful motion. as the ork's head rolled to a stop, his still standing corpse fountaining blood from the stump of his neck, the captain put a bolt round square in the centre of the last ork's chest, the resultant detonation of the bolt spraying blood and organs every which way, leaving the corpse to fall forlornely to the ground - all that was left were the ork's legs and pelvis, blood, bone and organs displayed in the too-bright light of an alien sun. the captain took stock of the situation and realised his armour would need a thorough cleaning once he got back as it was completely drenched in the gore of his fallen foes, and thought to himself 'this is some mess we've been dropped into."

that's fine, but if i were to have put in there "and the captain thought 's**t...this is some fu***ng mess we've been dropped into' (without the asterisks) then those words would have been edited out. now, to me at least, of the things in that paragraph that would be deemed unsuitable for youngsters, the violence and gore would come long before two very small but very emotive words.

i'm not having a go at you shas, or any of the admins, you're just doing what you're supposed to, but surely you see the hypocrisy?