Is the "F" word still too obscene for public use?

[Igel]

40. Ill formed question.

"An apple is a fruit" is a nice definition. "A cucumber is green" assigns an attribute to an object (I've seen yellow lemon cukes and white cukes, of course).

But a word like "obscene" (or "offensive&quot is a judgment and requires a perceiver. You can't just say something is obscene--the person engaging in judgment is always present in the context.

And you can't just say "Do people think the F word is too obscene for public use?" On the one hand there's no unitary "people" that does the judging. On the other hand, it's trivially true--all that's required, strictly speaking, is to find two people who think it's obscene. Not a prob.

Yes, there are still socially defined communities of speakers who find the F word offensive and obscene.

Even that's weak. Many people find it obscene in some contexts and not others. Different subgroups of people will disagree where the line's to be drawn.

Taboo words are like that. Take the "N" word. I know people who use it daily and nobody cares; I know people who use it and are or would be treated as pariahs. Who are you? Where are you? Who are you talking to? About what? (Etc., etc., etc.)