I discovered cussing late in life due to my upbringing, and I've been making up for lost time ever since.
As someone once eloquently put it, trying to negotiate a compromise or agreement with someone without signalling that strong emotions are involved is a form of self censorship that is self-destructive. If the person you're talking to doesn't know how you feel about something why would they ever honor your concerns?
At about the same time I read this I was trying to reject the notion that there are magic words that can force other people into an emotional state. Why do we let other people control how we feel? That's bullshit. I am my own person and unless we're discussing a matter of public policy (you are denigrating an entire group of people on purpose or through carelessness), if what you say upsets me then that's my baggage, not yours. It would be nice if you were sympathetic, but that power dynamic needs to be broken, and pretending it doesn't exist by censoring yourself makes you an Enabler, in the language of Codependency.
It took me another ten years to realize that I still get emotionally hooked on other people's mostly innocuous word use. It's the basis of marketing and persuasive speaking, and in many ways the person swearing is being far, far more up front and honest with you about what they're trying to do to your head.
It's unprofessional, but not unhelpful or unarticulated. A close friend of mine and her mother are both linguists, both professionals (one a speech pathologist, one an editor), both highly articulate and highly educated. They both swear a lot, except in professional settings. They love words, and the speech path in particular loves shakespeare, poetry, and constantly has a book in her hand (these days, more an e-book).
Swearing is only unarticulate if you saturate your speech with it.
As for the unprofessional part, that's got its edge-cases as well. I used to work in support for an agricultural telemetry company, and the primary clients were farmers. They'd call up with a problem, and usually they'd swear as part of their normal speech. I found that if I wasn't responding in kind, it would sometimes make the client self-conscious and make the trouble-shooting harder. So, torn between being professional and being pragmatic, my solution was to swear one 'step' less than the client. If they said 'shit', I didn't swear at all. If they were saying 'fuck', I would go as far as 'shit'. If they were saying 'cunt', I'd go to 'fuck'. It worked quite well, and removed a barrier to building that rapport need to work support efficiently.
There is a certain art to truly inventive swearing. Farming seems to be an exceptionally fertile ground for salty phrasing, colorfully descriptive word-images, obscene suggestions, and disturbing juxtapositions. I think all of my favorites I learned tinkering on broken-down tractors - although the Quebecois loggers and truck drivers added a certain Catholo-Gallic leavening.
I don't think it is unprofessional on face value. In fact, every 'professional (what does that even mean)' I have known curses.
If all you do is curse and never explain an idea, then it is simply a defense mechanism to not knowing what you're talking about. But, cursing is a great to way provide extra emotion to a topic. "The user experience is bad" vs. "The user experience is shit" does add value. But use shit, and if you add steaming pile on there really conveys that it is not just bad, but worse than bad.
Neither example is very descriptive and thus not helpful. Using cusswords only puts the other people in an emotional frame of mind, which hinders rational thinking that would otherwise help correct the problem, but I suppose this also depends what exactly the discussion is about. If you're talking about a marketing campaign that is intended to appeal to emotion, then sure, "It sucks" conveys the emotion. If you're talking about packaging logistics, "It sucks" isn't any more helpful than "It's bad". Also, bear in mind that, depending on who you're talking to, some people may secretly harbor less respect from you. People notice when you cuss, esp. if you usually don't. It shapes their perceptions of you.
That said, I do wonder how much tolerance society has for cussing now since many people are starting to accept it as normal. It's as if people are left with the emotional attachment without the actual meaning. How many people here thinking of what "fuck" actually means when they hear the word? Or are you just stuck with the negative connotation?
I can't help but wonder if this is because of how english swear words get adapted into other languages.
It's not uncommon to hear variations of english swear words in my language.. even printed in the newspaper or children's books.. nobody thinks twice about it.. but our native swear words take on a different tone and meaning altogether.
Maybe this could contribute to why it's easier to swear in english? (the words not holding the same type of gravity/meaning)
As someone once eloquently put it, trying to negotiate a compromise or agreement with someone without signalling that strong emotions are involved is a form of self censorship that is self-destructive. If the person you're talking to doesn't know how you feel about something why would they ever honor your concerns?
At about the same time I read this I was trying to reject the notion that there are magic words that can force other people into an emotional state. Why do we let other people control how we feel? That's bullshit. I am my own person and unless we're discussing a matter of public policy (you are denigrating an entire group of people on purpose or through carelessness), if what you say upsets me then that's my baggage, not yours. It would be nice if you were sympathetic, but that power dynamic needs to be broken, and pretending it doesn't exist by censoring yourself makes you an Enabler, in the language of Codependency.
It took me another ten years to realize that I still get emotionally hooked on other people's mostly innocuous word use. It's the basis of marketing and persuasive speaking, and in many ways the person swearing is being far, far more up front and honest with you about what they're trying to do to your head.