Man lol, those guys at bullshido are relentless haha

Silliness. I swear on forums where it's allowed and I don't swear on forums where it's not allowed. In life, I occasionally swear in settings where it's appropriate and I don't swear in where it isn't. There's nothing special about this; it's just what grownups do.

 

Swearing = conflict? Confused.

 

Let's just agree that we don't agree with your definition of "growups" here.

 

I have no problem with swearing. I enjoy it myself. And I don't buy the whole "you should be able to find a better way to express yourself" angle. I'm a decent writer. And I'm not hopeless in person either. I don't swear because I'm unable to express myself any other way. I swear because I want to.

That said: As a community, MAP has laid out certainly parameters. Those parameters were chosen consciously and with purpose. They were intended to foster inclusiveness and conscientiousness. And I, for one, appreciate that. I don't believe, for one moment, that swearing says anything substantive about a person. I don't think it makes you low-brow, nor that abdicating from swearing makes you more enlightened. It's a choice. Simple as that.

But another choice was made for MAP. And we, as a group, agree to stand by that choice when we create our accounts. That's all. In another place, with another set of parameters and a different social contract, I'll happily swear. And I won't be any dumber or morally shakier for it.

 

I like that MAP has a no swearing policy - it's one of the reasons I've stuck around so long.

MAP is a site that I access at home in front of my family and something I access sometimes at work. As such, I like that it is clean and appropriate for anyone around me. In front of my family and in front of work colleagues (and my students), I don't generally feel the need to swear, so I like that my choice of a forum is in alignment with that as well.

There are plenty of sites that allow swearing and I visit some of them sometimes... no problem with it, just not my taste for the most part (call me old-fashioned, but I get enough "low brow" cursing throughout the rest of my day - work, public, ads, TV) - sometimes it's nice not to have to deal with it everywhere.

That said, to stay on topic, I don't have a problem with Bullshido - they give you exactly what they advertise...they will look into any claim or cast stones at anyone if someone thinks there is cause - and that "cause" better be substantiated. I like their "investigations" threads and love how professionally they can work as a team to dig deep into people's claims. I also like that they have a pretty diverse crew of respected people and the idiot trolls tend to get drummed out pretty quickly. They take their martial arts pretty seriously. I'd be a member except for the extreme swearing and adult content - like I said, I don't need any more of that than I see everywhere else. MAP's more restrictive posting rules keeps it family-friendly, which I appreciate.

 

I'll elaborate.

Politeness and manners aren't about following an arbitrary set of rules; they're about making the people around us feel comfortable and respected. What words are appropriate changes according to context. As children, we are taught never to say certain words. As adults, we learn to decide what is appropriate based on our company and setting. Arbitrary rules about what words are "bad" or "dirty" are things we don't need anymore when we grow up and learn to make these kinds of decisions.

 

I get where you're coming from with the family-friendly thing; there are definitely some parts of Bullshido I wouldn't want to leave up on the screen with kids or extended family around. The freedom to say whatever you want to say is both the best thing and the worst thing about Bullshido.

 

Honestly it was like that here for a time (right around when Bullshido really picked up) in the right circles. Flashlock was a good example of the mid-to-low level Beej crusaders talking tons of trash on forums while the experienced guys were training. I'd say it's died down there much like it has here.


And I'm one of those guys that took the "sticks and stones" story to heart. Words mean what the group they're used in believes they mean. I'm not too bothered if my grandmother believes f-bombs are inherently wrong. I'll respect her social superstitions when I'm around her and speak how I choose elsewhere.

 

Therefore you have PC ("perfect control")

 

Strange how the freedom to swear is governed on aired programs and the general public.

If there are regulations to refrain these words, then there must be something "consciously bad" about them

Simply, these words were created to be harsh and impolite.

And that's where it lays-impolite demeanor

 

Flawed logic. They're edited out of things intended to be viewed by the larger public. Those things specifically targeted at adults feature swearing frequently. Precisely the same logic that governs swearing here.

 

Again, words mean what the user and recipient intend and understand them to mean. It doesn't matter that the N word may have originally been a simple mispronunciation of either Negro or Niger (as in the country), it is now offensive to a large swath of the public. It doesn't matter that it was once (and in some circles still is) a word intended to harm and belittle a certain group, many use it in their day to day vernacular with no ill will intended or inferred.

If someone wants to arbitrarily take offense to a series of syllables, that's their business. If someone else wants to reserve offense for intent rather than wording, that's also their business.

It's like tattoos. If everyone can see them, there's not actually anything wrong with that. But if you choose to display them you must consider that many people have an arbitrary distaste for them based on outdated markers of social standing.
If someone shows up to a job interview with face tattoos, there's nothing wrong with the face tattoos themselves, and they wouldn't indicate anything on their own about the person.
However, in our society, someone who drops a ton of F-bombs or is covered in visible tattoos during job interview shows that he either doesn't know or doesn't care about the way he may be perceived by strangers (potential employers, customers, etc). That's the problem, not the words or tattoos.

 

Since we are talking about "freedom", let me borrow a line from one of my favor movies "Tombstone" here.

"Nobody's even saying you can't swear. All we're saying is you can't swear in this forum."

"Nobody's even saying you can't carry a gun. All we're saying is you can't carry one in town."

 

Ah, but there those who will attempt to take these freedoms either away or for granted

 

Last time I was in Montana, I had my .44 magnum in my gun holster on my waist belt when I walked into a restaurant. I just can't do that in Texas or California.

Even "freedom" is different from state to state in US.

 

Same with "freedom of speech" as it confines cursing

 

Who promised you freedom of speech on MAP?

 

Way back when I had a thread dedicated to me, it wasn't too bad, I simply went on and addressed their issues. I believe it was back when I had the pressurepointfighting.com site, which raised some eyebrows.

The thread came to an end after a guy from there came to visit my class (undercover of course), he was a BJJ / Boxer, who learned I wasn't full of hot air, he posted I was cool in the thread, and that was the very end of it.

It is a big flame war though. At large one genre of person (MMA), who think their approach is the only combat viable one out there. Unfortunately they are right more often than not, the TMA crowd are often deluded and don't pressure test methods, or use "alive" training.

Can be a fun time waster, but I wouldn't take it seriously re your school, see if there are actually any objective critiques that are specific and evidence based, often you will find they are full of conjecture, and just malicious to be malicious. Most people are anonymous, and feel they can judge anyone regardless of their level of skill and experience, realize most are probably adolescents with a few boxing classes.

G

 

In their "Chinese Martial Arts and Kung Fu Forum" section, the newest post was 1 week old. The next newest post was almost 4 months old. There are not that many CMA guys over there and that's for sure. Who wants to join in a thread discussion that take so long to get other's opinion? Those people who started those threads might not even be in that forum any more. On internet, there are so many those kind of forums that has such low respond rate. It's pretty funny to answer someone's question who asked 10 years ago.

 

There are definitely better places to go to discuss CMA in particular.