discord wrote:absalom: curious question, what ARE fighting words nowadays? not talking testosterone filled teen fighting words, but something reasonably sensible adult fighting words?....it is curious since i can't really come up with anything, are we really THAT lawyer whipped?
Well, without putting too much thought into it, I'd say that telling a Muslim that his mother has sex with pigs for money would count as fighting words. And where, in any of that, is even a single word that would count as profanity in isolation? As Smithy said, it's just a matter of knowing how to use the language.
That having been said, it really does matter, I think, if you and your opponent have already been worked up. Particular phrases that're enough to start a fight will tend to be rare, mostly because people aren't generally hot-headed enough for anything in particular to work, you have to find a soft spot. That having been said, the prideful are liable to be the easiest to stir up: if they think that your words can damage something they feel the need to defend, then you're half of the way to a fight by just picking the right subject.
Beyond that, it's worth noting that the Norse equivalent of the bard (the skald, if I remember correctly) had a place on the battlefield: this had absolutely everything to do with their skill with words, and absolutely nothing to do with their skill with diplomacy
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