Can we take a moment and ponder over why the title is censored? Why are we all okay with this? Who are we protecting, who are we trying to deceive? Why is it fine with everyone, that a youtube SNL skit is bleeped out?
What THE FUCK has gotten into us? Either use the word, or don't use it. Show the video, or don't show it. We should all stand tall for our (fought for) rights, this isn't the fucking 60s.
Profanity isn't an issue on HN. We tend to override Bowdlerisms and did that with the title above a while ago.
Your comment, though, falls in the category of what this site guideline asks people not to post:
"Please don't complain about tangential annoyances—things like article or website formats, name collisions, or back-button breakage. They're too common to be interesting." - https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
The point isn't that these things aren't annoying, it's that changing the topic of the thread to one of these annoyances is a big step down in discussion quality, so we should all try to resist.
My observation about that is that it is not a cycle but a constant motion. It is a consequence of pushing boundaries. We push and at some point we push back after a certain line has been crossed. We will probably find a balance at some point, then probably push forward again.
I mean, it really depends on what circles you are in, in our algorithmic-gatekeeped world.
There was a bit of a movement in TikTok to get freaky stuff out of Pride Parades, for example, because the younger generation of LGBT has portions that are more prudish.
Ooh! One of my bugbears. I'm not sure if the following is a recent phenomenon, but I get the impression that 'f**k' — that's two stars — is becoming more common too; for when 'f*ck' just seems too rude.
One or two stars, it's an interesting phenomenon. There are cases where you might need to censor a 'fuck' because you are citing someone (or a work named thus) in a medium that doesn't allow it, but most of it seems to be self-censorship.
When our German dot com success company was acquired by a us "enterprise", we got a few 'mericans over. After his first team meeting this young US citizen is dead embarrassed: "they are using the eff word! In meetings! All the time!" To which we suggested: welcome to Germany...
I never got around this language purity cult. You can lie whatever you like, and incite hate and what have you, but "beware your choice of words".
