Are Cursed words realy Trigger words?

I thinks that the supposed Cursed words are more of Trigger words which cause someone who hears it to behave in a certain way(s)...Still, the good thing is that when we hear them, we could choose not to react at all...However, if most of people believe in their mind that if they don't react, they would be considered a coward or weak or some kind of degrading word...the ladder choice is to react...one way or another.

For example, if white guy,(John) say the word Ni**er out the blue...if a black person (Joe) was near by and heard it, he will automatic or most likely react to it...his tone will change dratiskly...

The question is...Can Joe choose to react to that word or Not?

What if John intentionally call Joe a Ni**er? Should Joe react to it at all?

I think he would...I have witness this events in few occasions...most of the time, the end results ranges from anger to violence...

Lastly, why would Joe most like wont React to it, if that word was used by another black person?...A form of Conditioning...or Programming.

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If we choose to React to supposedly Offensive (Trigger) words...we let the words or the persons who used the word to take control of us.

If we choose Not to React to supposedly Offensive (Trigger) words...we are in control of ourself, then the words loose its triggering mechanism, which was instilled in us...

What do you think?

words have no meaning until people give them meaning.

for example, i can keep misusing a word, and eventually those around me will start missusing it in the same manner.

go ahead and try that experiment with a word like paradigm. make sure you distort the pronounciation a little bit.

or make up a word and use it in a derogatory manner against someone else. so long as its a plausible word, it might catch on.

A Buddhist monk might argue that ALL reactions like this are programming, or conditioning. When you see how this programming works, many people are operating only by reacting, completely unconscious. A de-conditioned person would be so detached from their ego or self, depending on how you want to visualize it, if he were an African American and heard someone utter the racial slur, he would naturally and immediately feel compassion for the bigot on account of ignorance and suffering that must drive someone to be so hateful. At least I'd say that's the most rational reaction.

Best I can tell, Buddhist, psychoanalysis, and even some interpretations of Christianity are about breaking down this circle of reactions. Kind of crazy to think that each reaction involves the person suffering too.

I subscribe to Carlin's adaptation of this issue. Words are harmless. They are just word, intent is the issue. What is the intent behind the use of any word.

If you want to get another perspective on what you are talking about look into Neuro Linguistic Programming. Here is a good place to start; www.holistic-online.com... Tell me what you think.

I am aware of what NLP is about...I think it's a valuable tool to have or to learn. It is used in combination to hypnosis...A powerfull persuader that person would be!...However, one must consider the mind Programming/Conditional aspect of it...

Although word seem to be meaningless, the "spoken sound" that it produce does reasonate the intent behind it.

Imagine someone who use the F***k word for almost every verbs that he/she uses in a sentence when speacking...amazing

I have heard more people use the f**k word more as an adjective than a verb, as in " take the f**king car to the f**king store and buy some f**king stove top stuffing". What I wonder is if we grew up using other words in place of f**k etc if those words would still "feel" right when we used them. Is it the context of the curse word that creates that "feeling" or the words themselves?

Words are a form of verbal symbol. As such they convey more than just the definition of the term that you'd find in a dictionary. The social, political, and even geographic context is as important as the base meaning.

In order to not offend the site's automatic censors, and to keep from having to dance around it, let's take an imaginary term. Lets say that there exists an ethnic group, the Ignomians, in the US who's been here since the late 19th century. They came over because of famine in their own country, and were not well received upon arrival. Many places of business would not serve them, and they were assulted for having the ill-luck to be born to Ignomian parents. Because of the prejudices at the time, they mostly took jobs in rendering plants, and acquired the nickname "The Stinks" because of the smell that clung to them even when not at work.

100 years and more later, if you call an Ignomian-American a "Stink," you're making a comment not just on their ethnicity, but also of where you think they belong in society. You are, in effect, saying that in spite of whatever education and success they may currently have, they really belong in a meat packing plant, or at least that's what they'll hear. With those five letters, you envoke a whole host of cultural references, many that you may not intend.

On the converse side, if the Ignomian-American population at large has been mostly unable to climb out of the lower classes, they may adopt the name "Stink" to use among themselves. Used in this context it implies a communion of misery, it allows a bonding, and it takes a formerly harmful term and re-defines it, if only among their own community, as a positive name. We see the same behavior among many groups today: homosexuals, African-Americans, even Wiccans have taken the term "witch" and turned its meaning around.

What's overlooked, though, is that these terms imply membership in that community. If the aforementioned Ignomians had a prominant physical feature, for example they all had red-colored eyes, then a blue-eyed person calling another a Stink would be seen as using the outsider-version of the term, whereas a red-eyed person saying the same thing would be seen to be using a term of solidarity. Context is at least as important as the base definition of the word.

While NLP is an interesting investigation, and has many useful aspects, a better place to start on this subject would be to pick up a basic book on sociolinguistics. You'll see, there, how different cultures react differently to swearing. Some, like the US, have a very strong social taboo against it. Others, like France, are more lax on the subject. Almost every culture has "Words You Do Not Say™" but the number and the severity of breaking the taboo will change.