Bad Words

What makes words bad? In my opinion, a word is bad when it offends someone. Most people don't like offending others so they use adequate words when they communicate with each other. Everyone has different opinions on which words are bad depending on their experience. For example, I remember when I was in kindergarten a girl said the word "ugly" and all the other kids were like "oooooh you said ugly" because based on what they knew, it was a bad word. Now that we have grown, "ugly" isn't such a bad word, its simply an adjective. You can see that any word can be bad depending on how someone views it. I believe that bad words are not bad, they are just a harsher way of saying something. For example, some may say a dog is not smart while others may say a dog is stupid which is harsher. People become offended by these harsher words which is why they call them bad. Often euphemisms are created to make something bad seem better or not as harsh. An example from the video we watched today would be that Shell Shock became known as Battle Fatigue then Operational Exhaustion and finally Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. It is appropriate to use euphemisms when you're talking to someone you know becomes easily offended or when you talk to someone you don't really know. Euphemisms become confusing when you make something sound so much different than what you really mean. Our language has changed so much over the years. Words are replacing other words and the original words begin to lose their meaning and are not used often. Another thing that makes words bad is when you're saying them in front of an inappropriate audience. People should not be saying harsh words in front of young children because then the children will be saying them to their parents and get in trouble. Why say harsh words when you can make something seem better? Personally, I don't say bad words often and when I do it's probably on accident or because I just really needed to let it out. I am used to not saying bad words because my parents would always discipline me if I ever said them. I don't understand why it's so bad to say bad words if it doesn't hurt anyone. If somebody said bad words in front of me I wouldn't be offended because I hear bad words everywhere everyday. I don't really care what words people use to communicate with me. Overall, bad words are the ones that offend people and hurt feelings.