Double Plus Effing Obnoxious

*&$%&#$ EFFING %^#@$&*

When I am at the gym, stretching, relaxing, in my own thoughts I am constantly interrupted by people having loud, obnoxious conversations just a couple feet from me. That alone is annoying. However, what is happening to our society that it has possibly become acceptable to use profanity when speaking about the most mundane topics. 

Does everything have to be “effing” this or “effing” that? Does everything qualify to be “effing”? Isn’t it meant to highlight a particular thought/action? Is anything ever said directly without using “effing”? Do people also not understand that they are not actually having a private conversation when they are surrounded by others at a public place. We are then all subject to their crudeness and lack of class in expressing themselves when the only adjective/adverb they use is “effing”. This has happened so many times that, although I am not a complete prude, I do find that I am offended. It shows a lack of original, creative thought. Plus, I don’t care what you are talking about, lower your voice! It’s not just the male twenty-somethings either. As I was leaving the gym the other day, a middle-aged woman in business-casual dress is on her cell phone swearing like the aforementioned muscle-heads. 

I feel like we’re in the novel 1984 and our language is shrinking because “effing” has replaced other, more descriptive words. Pretty soon we’ll be hearing not only “effing” but “plus-effing” and “double-plus-effing” (this is Newspeak as described in 1984. e.g. instead of saying something is excellent, you would say it is plus-good or double-plus good, thereby eliminating excellent, wonderful, awesome, phenomenal, etc.) Now that I think about it, I may even be more offended by their lack of command of the English language than I am by the stream of profanity.

S-)