I wish we could talk about important ideas without using the word s--t, but I guess this marks me as a prude in our brave new world.
George Carlin talked about this quite a bit, though. People object to "bad" words but words that describe objectively worse things are fine.
We can freely discuss killing, but we can't say "fuck" without people getting upset.
Talk about companies doing objectively evil things, crickets. Use the word "shit" while doing so, and it's guaranteed to bring out the people who object to the language used rather than the things that are happening.
I lived in a small town in Ireland for a while and I got that a lot here. Though go to the pub and the F-word would be interspersed twice in every sentence. I never really got that hypocrisy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use%E2%80%93mention_distinctio...
Hopefully this isn't why you aren't avoiding the N word. Using the N word if you aren't black yourself indicates either that you are unaware of its history, you don't care about it, or you care about it precisely because it causes offense. And being unaware usually correlates with not caring. People naturally infer from this that your attitude towards black people falls somewhere in the range from "I don't think about their interests" to "I wish them harm". It amounts to declaring one's hostility. The milder end of this range still implies contempt.
Communicating one's desire to offend is sufficient to cause offense. Everyone knows this. One can control one's own reaction to insults, but one cannot control the reactions of third parties who witness it. Everyone knows this as well. So claims that offended parties should just grow a thicker skin are disingenuous. This measure is insufficient to prevent all harm. So one should not say the N word not because of algorithms, but because you know in advance that it will cause harm.
Saying shit is different. Except in particular contexts -- a conversation in a retirement community, say, or a preschool -- its use cannot be construed as an attempt to harm particular classes of people. Outside of these contexts those who take offense are generally understood to be mistaking the intention of the speaker.
This is literally the entire point of what I said. Everything you said before it is unnecessary. Obviously I wouldn't use the word to offend anyone. But if you are quoting a passage from a book(as an example) that uses that word, then write it out not put dashes instead of letters, that's just silly - you still used it, just self censored yourself.
I've seen the word in business presentations and documents. Even the poo emoji (often alongside the "cow" one). It's not weird anymore. Language changes.
Also-- not sure if this tracks with other people, but in real life I test "prude" for the pejorative sense by multiplying it by $self_awareness. If the result is nonzero I interpret it as a stricture that produces some kind of knowledge, e.g., someone choosing to live by a code. I'm not sure if that sticks with the spirit of the word, but that kind of person can certainly appear prude at first approximation.
If the result is zero, I suddenly get hungry and must leave the conversation immediately to inspect the refreshment table.
Is it required? No. Is it unreasonably effective for the character count? Yes.
And - as with most everything - folks will live a happier life ignoring profanity than trying to get the world to to stop swearing. Especially since swearing is so fucking fun.
Hopefully the word shit doesn’t jump and attack you like the bears that God sent to murder children. But anyway I’m glad my religious family told me not to use naughty words.