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Vagabond!
Scallywag!
Ne'er do well!
Just some classic versions of the insults we have today. Call a guy who just knocked your wing-mirror off after speeding past, mobile phone in one hand and a latte in the other one of those and all you'd get a quizzical look and maybe laughed at, call him an idiot or a twit and you might get a bit of a response; call him something more harsh and the reponse gets angrier until you crack the bad 'c' word and you're at the side of the road, shirtless, and seeing what's what.

What got me thinking about the gradual phasing out of insults and the acceptance of new ones was when some old fogie had to wait a handful of seconds for my mum to back out of our own driveway, displaying her displeasure by muttering to her husband and shaking her head whilst staring. My mum called her an idiot old woman, I immediately reach for the most hurtful comment I could find and cracked the 'c' word. My mum hates this, as do other adults, but nowadays, it's the only way to get a response.

Let's face it, we don't insult people purely to vent anger, we do it to provoke a response, to force them to acknowledge that we are pissed off at them. People get annoyed when you ignore their sarcasm or swearing for the exact reason that it isn't appearing to phase you. Some people will simply give up, others will turn to violence and will physically force you to acknowledge their anger.

But what are the varying levels of insult? (I have included some words, but only those i've seen used before on these boards without punishment, feel free to ask me to censor them if required) For my grandparents, it might be this:

Laughable: Scallywag, Ne'er do well, vagabond.
Quite rude: Scumbag, slimeball.
Rude: Idiot, twit.
Very rude: Bastard, bugger, slow (please, there was a discussion about this before; it is insulting when used as such - let's not take this thread out of context by discussing usage)

Now, with my parents, this is a little different:

Laughable: Scallywag, Ne'er do well, vagabond, scumbag, slimeball.
Quite rude: Idiot, twit.
Rude: Bastard, bugger.
Very rude: Anything with the 'f' word, the bad 'c' word, slow.

With my generation:

Laughable: Scallywag, Ne'er do well, vagabond, scumbag, slimeball, idiot, twit.
Quite rude: Bastard, bugger.
Rude: Anything with the 'f' word, the bad 'c' word, slow.
Very rude: The bad 'c' word (has varying degrees of rudeness for different people) and other assorted words I cannot even allude to here.

and now, my brother's generation:

Laughable: Scallywag, Ne'er do well, vagabond, scumbag, slimeball, idiot, twit, bastard, bugger.
Quite rude: Bastard, anything with the 'f' word, the bad 'c' word (all twice because some people still see them differently), slow.
Rude: Anything with the 'f' word, the bad 'c' word.
Very rude: Assorted words I cannot even allude to here.

What used to be very rude for older generations is now only slightly rude or even laughable to younger people. As kids are making up or using even ruder words to provoke a response from their peers, they leak into normal conversation. My brother constantly drops the 'c' bomb into his conversations, I constantly use the 'f' bomb as do my parents (although not as often), all this pollutes our vocabulary and becomes so prominent in speech that one day, it'll come out when we don't want it.

However, this seems to be due to the main problem - Insults are no longer insulting. People take offence to their use, but are they really insulted? perhaps on another person's behalf, yes, but rarely are they insulted; more disgusted at the word's use. You can call someone an ugly 'f' word, and they won't think "He called me an ugly 'f' word!" they'll think, "He just used the 'f' word!".

TL;DR - Is society's growing immunity to being insulted prompting people to come up with new ways of insulting people? Are people becoming less insulted in favour of being disgusted at a word's use? is the aim really to insult people anymore when we swear at them, or it simply to disgust them?

People still get insulted, it is just what words are considered insulting changed. This is no different than the dact that the language changed. Things aren't that different or special at the moment. Also, your grandparents generation actually still had and used many of the same curse words we still use today.

Offense is a stupid reaction to begin with, but I'm sure we'll see words cycle over time. Some will stick around, others will fade to obscurity, others will be created. I still like "varlet" myself. At 5 years old I would never have imagined myself laughingly calling my friends "bitch" but you never know how things will turn out til they do.

I remember reading something about the show Deadwood, which had rather famously crude language. Basically, the show's inventors were being asked if the language of the time really was filled with that many expletives. They said it was full of foul language, but admitted it wasn't exactly the same as the stuff in the show, because back then words like gak and donkey-cave weren't that offensive, what they found offensive was blasphemy.

So if they'd written the show as they really talked, they'd be damning each other and the like, and for modern audiences the show would have been quaint. But this isn't because standards were higher then, but because they were different - if some folk got taken out of the Old West and put into our times, they'd find our swearing vulgar, but not immediately offensive.

I personally enjoy archaic insults. There is nothing quite like referring to a man of ill-repute as a lobsterback.

My language with my friends is...well...truly abysmal. The 'c' word and everything beneath are dropped regularly when we're in our dorms. The f-bomb is more of a word whisker for myself now, though I can thankfully switch it off in public, or I'll just swear in french. I don't get offended by much, and many people I know feel the same way.

I do see the generational gap though. My father still holds some words to be unspeakable that I think are rude, but nothing special.

Unfortunately, educational standards are so low that people are not able to recognize a truly witty insult, and so many people use vulgarity so casually that is is not insulting. You really have skate on the fine line between lame and pointless with some people, and it is often unsatisfying, because their response is rarely anything more considered than whatever they heard on that days' episode of Jerry Springer or Jackass.

warpcrafter wrote:Unfortunately, educational standards are so low that people are not able to recognize a truly witty insult, and so many people use vulgarity so casually that is is not insulting. You really have skate on the fine line between lame and pointless with some people, and it is often unsatisfying, because their response is rarely anything more considered than whatever they heard on that days' episode of Jerry Springer or Jackass.

God, thank you. I have been trying to sum up the intelligence of people + the factor of how common profanity is used, and how it all spirals into basically what is up there.

A Black Ram wrote:

warpcrafter wrote:Unfortunately, educational standards are so low that people are not able to recognize a truly witty insult, and so many people use vulgarity so casually that is is not insulting. You really have skate on the fine line between lame and pointless with some people, and it is often unsatisfying, because their response is rarely anything more considered than whatever they heard on that days' episode of Jerry Springer or Jackass.

God, thank you. I have been trying to sum up the intelligence of people + the factor of how common profanity is used, and how it all spirals into basically what is up there.

It's also possible that the people in question simply don't give a damn about what you have to say.

For example, I get (deservedly) called arrogant a lot, and lots of people act as though this is some sort of profound criticism. Thing is, I know that I tend towards arrogance, and I don't care. My life is quite pleasant regardless of whether or not I'm arrogant.

I must say i am truly offended by the word poltroon.

dogma wrote:It's also possible that the people in question simply don't give a damn about what you have to say.

For example, I get (deservedly) called arrogant a lot, and lots of people act as though this is some sort of profound criticism. Thing is, I know that I tend towards arrogance, and I don't care. My life is quite pleasant regardless of whether or not I'm arrogant.

There's also the possibility when you give some piece of advice that you think is very witty, and the other person doesn't get it or doesn't agree with the wit, it may be that the wit was beyond them, but it might also be because it wasn't that witty. Wit is like that. I spent a lot of my highschool years giving what I thought were all kinds of witty, cutting remarks, but in hindsight they were just kind of lame.

Say what you like about the simplicity of 'feth head', at least you know what you're getting when you use it.

Wow, my version of what is considered rude is considerably different. I take it Britain is where 'bugger' is on the same level as bastard? To me 'bugger' is about the same offensiveness as scallywag (one being completely non-offensive and silly and the other only being used when mimicking pirates) whereas scumbag is on the same level as bastard.

A Black Ram wrote:

warpcrafter wrote:Unfortunately, educational standards are so low that people are not able to recognize a truly witty insult, and so many people use vulgarity so casually that is is not insulting. You really have skate on the fine line between lame and pointless with some people, and it is often unsatisfying, because their response is rarely anything more considered than whatever they heard on that days' episode of Jerry Springer or Jackass.

God, thank you. I have been trying to sum up the intelligence of people + the factor of how common profanity is used, and how it all spirals into basically what is up there.

I swear all the time and my IQ is 139.


So feth YOU!

warpcrafter wrote:Unfortunately, educational standards are so low that people are not able to recognize a truly witty insult, and so many people use vulgarity so casually that is is not insulting. You really have skate on the fine line between lame and pointless with some people, and it is often unsatisfying, because their response is rarely anything more considered than whatever they heard on that days' episode of Jerry Springer or Jackass.

While I know Cracked.com isn't the most reliable resource being first and foremost a humor site, they do have some references to back up their statements in this article. Anyways apparently people aren't

getting any dumber but actually smarter, (for example average IQ scores have gone up by 24 points since 1914) really though I'm not surprised because nowadays we can cram tons of info into our brains with a

simple click of a button past generations didn't have that luxury we are also exposed/accepting to more cultures and viewpoints as well.

http://www.cracked.com/article_18983_5-complaints-about-modern-life-that-are-statistically-b.s..html

Albatross wrote:
I swear all the time and my IQ is 139.

IQ is not always a solid measure of raw intelligence, you addlepated fop.

Anybody who claims to have a high IQ should know that IQ is a very poor measure of intelligence.

daedalus wrote:

Albatross wrote:
I swear all the time and my IQ is 139.

IQ is not always a solid measure of raw intelligence, you addlepated fop.

Personally I find intelligence an unmeasurable quality as there is always going to be areas where some people are more knowledgeable than others.

I still find Meecrob offensive. I get really bent out of shape when people use it around me.

Cheesecat wrote:(for example average IQ scores have gone up by 24 points since 1914)

Wait...what?

biccat wrote:

Cheesecat wrote:(for example average IQ scores have gone up by 24 points since 1914)

Wait...what?

Cracked.com never lies to us. IQ scores have gone up, but common sense has went way down...

"YES YOUR ASS IS HUGE!"

It`s pretty obvious that the "f-bomb" isn`t that offensive, as it`s very inpersonal. I mean, if you`re insecure about your weight, which one of these insults do you find most hurting:

"You`re a go-damned melonfether! Go stick a stick in your butt!"
Or
"Arthur, you`re really fat!"

Insulting people is about finding weak spots

Tubby

Terje-Tubby wrote:It`s pretty obvious that the "f-bomb" isn`t that offensive, as it`s very inpersonal. I mean, if you`re insecure about your weight, which one of these insults do you find most hurting:

"You`re a go-damned melonfether! Go stick a stick in your butt!"
Or
"Arthur, you`re really fat!"

Insulting people is about finding weak spots

Tubby

But what if you were insecure about your weight and religious? Then the first one might be more offensive...

Which is sort of your point right? Insults can be subjective.

Lord Scythican wrote:

biccat wrote:

Cheesecat wrote:(for example average IQ scores have gone up by 24 points since 1914)

Wait...what?

Cracked.com never lies to us. IQ scores have gone up, but common sense has went way down...

Modern measures of intelligence that use an IQ score normalize scores to a median value of 100. IQ scores can't go "up." Intelligence can go up, but IQ is basically static.

biccat wrote:

Lord Scythican wrote:

biccat wrote:

Cheesecat wrote:(for example average IQ scores have gone up by 24 points since 1914)

Wait...what?

Cracked.com never lies to us. IQ scores have gone up, but common sense has went way down...

Modern measures of intelligence that use an IQ score normalize scores to a median value of 100. IQ scores can't go "up." Intelligence can go up, but IQ is basically static.

I meant that the average population scored higher on the test not the actual scoring method.

biccat wrote:

Lord Scythican wrote:

biccat wrote:

Cheesecat wrote:(for example average IQ scores have gone up by 24 points since 1914)

Wait...what?

Cracked.com never lies to us. IQ scores have gone up, but common sense has went way down...

Modern measures of intelligence that use an IQ score normalize scores to a median value of 100. IQ scores can't go "up." Intelligence can go up, but IQ is basically static.

My IQ must be low because I am not following you. So what do you call it when the average raw score out of 100 people in 1914 is 102 and the average IQ score in 2010 is 136? That isn't going "up"?

EDIT: Ninja'd by Cheesecat. Pretty much what I was saying but I used some arbitrary made up statistics.

Blacksails wrote:Anybody who claims to have a high IQ should know that IQ is a very poor measure of intelligence.

If you have doubts about my intelligence, I will debate with you on any subject, at any time. Bring it.

Cheesecat wrote:

biccat wrote:

Lord Scythican wrote:

biccat wrote:

Cheesecat wrote:(for example average IQ scores have gone up by 24 points since 1914)

Wait...what?

Cracked.com never lies to us. IQ scores have gone up, but common sense has went way down...

Modern measures of intelligence that use an IQ score normalize scores to a median value of 100. IQ scores can't go "up." Intelligence can go up, but IQ is basically static.

I meant that the average population scored higher on the test not the actual scoring method.

Assuming this is true and the test is static, then yes, I agree that people as a whole are answering more questions correctly on the test.

But that's different than saying "IQ is going up."

^ Well if you have to have the wording proper, you should say

"The average IQ has increased." Not, "IQ has increased."

"buffoon" and "imbecile" are good, "moron" likewise.
"lacquer-head" is an insult for the primus fans out there.
See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY7jSesdxl0
Sorry, its on vevo, whatever that means...