# Do you think thngs too bad to say? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 29, 2001, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-thngs-too-bad-to-say/63730 "2001-04-29T15:37:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![berdollos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@berdollos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/berdollos)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2001, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-thngs-too-bad-to-say/63730/1 "2001-04-29T15:37:08Z")
such as bitch, kike, nigger, shithead, piece of shit, etc? Do you have control of these nasty words that come into your head? What are the usual words that crop up? Or is this not a problem for you? ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2001, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-thngs-too-bad-to-say/63730/2 "2001-04-29T16:05:18Z")
I haven’t used most of those words since I was in junior high school (and rarely then). My family didn’t use them and I noticed that most of the people who did use them weren’t very bright. (My father once pointed out that there were hundreds of thousands of words in the English language and, “What kind of fool has to resort to a handful repeatedly to communicate his emotions?”) He added that many of those who use such words do it for shock value and the irony is that those that do this usually use them so often that the words become just banal and trite and not shocking at all. TV ---
**Author:** ![OldMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b2d939/32.png) [@OldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldMan)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2001, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-thngs-too-bad-to-say/63730/3 "2001-04-29T16:14:14Z")
Yeah, I think we all think things like that from time to time, and people who claim they don’t must be either liars or fools. My mother, a very wise lady, used to tell me that we all have thoughts that would shame Hell itself. I think viciously about trapping and killing the neighbour’s cats when they crap in my planters and tear up my flower beds, slowly strangling the ugly sub-human who harassed and beat up my son at school, sending a few .303 rounds through the house across the lane when the noisy drunken party over there wakes me up at 3 in the morning…my, I seem to be a little hostile this morning. Better go get some caffeine into me. Most of us manage not to do anything active about such thoughts, fortunately. Those who can’t resist such primal urges are the psychopaths among us. Merely calling people nasty names is the tip of the proverbial iceberg. ---
**Author:** ![JoeyImage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc348/32.png) [@JoeyImage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeyImage)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2001, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-thngs-too-bad-to-say/63730/4 "2001-04-29T16:36:20Z")
“Those who can’t resist such primal urges are the psychopaths among us”… It is the nature of man to confuse genius with insanity. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2001, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-thngs-too-bad-to-say/63730/5 "2001-04-29T19:05:05Z")
As much as I have largely dismissed the vocabulary mentioned in the OP from my daily speech, there is a more important aspect to this topic. As pointed out above, all of us have dark thoughts that (hopefully) never reach the light of day. I am a creative person and an essential part of that creativity is to have a healthy relationship with the dark side of my soul. People who claim to never think bad things are either mentally deficient, morons or liars. In the few cases where I have met people who might be able to say this, they were of the blitheringly unaware Pollyannaish type to such a point where I questioned their fundamental charater and depth of soul. It is critical to have established channels of communication within your mind that allows for traffic with the dark side of your spirit. It makes possible a full appreciation of your own goodness and the good that happens to you. To effectively halve the realm of your experience by excluding all that might be of dubious nature in your thoughts is akin to arbitrarily tearing up every other picture you get back from the photo shop. You end up missing out on a lot in life. That I have such a profound contact with the dark side of my soul is one of the key things that makes me into a better person. Sure, I ponder such thoughts and then, just as quickly file them under, _“Let’s not and say we did.”_ and go on my merry way. I cannot imagine having written the excruciatingly sad blues songs that I have composed without such contact and neither could I have penned some of my achingly beautiful love songs either. We are merely discussing two sides of the same coin. What face you choose to show the world becomes your currency in trade for those around you. What sort of reputation would you have? One of evil or good? It’s all rather simple in the end. ---
**Author:** ![Creaky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e68b1a/32.png) [@Creaky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Creaky)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2001, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-thngs-too-bad-to-say/63730/6 "2001-04-29T20:29:31Z")
Yes, I often think the worst things, but I am not, thank heaven, compelled to say or do them. And I agree with **Zenster** that most psychologically healthy people think lots of weird stuff, but admit a quantum leap between the thought and the deed. And then there are those with Tourette’s Syndrome, which, God forgive me, I think, _in theory only_ mind you, is one of the funniest mental illnesses on the planet. I know. I’m horrible. ---
**Author:** ![Drastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Drastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drastic)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2001, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-thngs-too-bad-to-say/63730/7 "2001-04-29T21:58:15Z")
Another aye for **Zenster** ’s take on it. There’s no one without darkness in them. And that’s how it should be. ---
**Author:** ![TN\_hippie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@TN\_hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TN_hippie)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2001, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-thngs-too-bad-to-say/63730/8 "2001-04-29T23:27:43Z")
Well put, **Zenster**. Take me, for instance. I think things like…uh…never mind. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2001, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-thngs-too-bad-to-say/63730/9 "2001-04-29T23:47:44Z")
Its a part of OCD. They often think things they cannot say. ---
**Author:** ![Francesca](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9fc348/32.png) [@Francesca](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francesca)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2001, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-thngs-too-bad-to-say/63730/10 "2001-04-30T00:22:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by handy \* > \*\*Its a part of OCD. They often think things they cannot say. > > \*\* :rolleyes: It’s a healthy, normal thing to have dark thoughts. Everyone thinks things they wouldn’t say out loud. People who have an OCD are _obsessive_ about it. Hence the name, **Handy**. The vast majority of people are capable of regulating their behaviour and accepting these thoughts as part of their own human nature. And occasionally, when it gets worrying, people reach out like the OP did and ask “Do you do this too?” and to dash in their with implications of mental health problems isn’t IMHO the wisest thing to do. As **Zenster** said - the dark comes with the light and without it we wouldn’t be balanced, creative, interesting people. I think a lot of people are convinced that they must be terrible people really and that if anyone else found out what really goes on in their heads they’d be despised and outcast. I know i used to think that i must just be evil, with some of the stuff that I was thinking. But as long as you can recognise those thoughts for what they are and as long as you’re educated and socialised enough to ignore them, IMO they’re not harmful in the least. They certainly don’t make you a bad person. Fran ---
**Author:** ![andygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2001, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-thngs-too-bad-to-say/63730/11 "2001-04-30T00:44:50Z")
Every once and awhile I have an impulse to defame the characters of small kittens by painting walls with an elaborate concoction of the blood of a shaved goat and some Shake 'N Bake while shouting words that make the general populace cringe as their brains dribble out of their ears. Most days are not like this, you understand. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2001, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-thngs-too-bad-to-say/63730/12 "2001-04-30T01:02:40Z")
Not words so much (except certain road-rage-related terms that I wouldn’t dare utter aloud for fear of getting into a fight or being shot), but I have had thoughts of extreme anger (though brief) towards certain people now and again. Recent example: The top dog of an academic institution I happen to work for has put my colleagues and me through a lot of grief ever since we got “uppity” and started organizing. He also got in trouble for trying to screw us over. He even went so far as to try to get rid of one of my pals for having the nerve to stand up to him. Add to that the fact that he runs the place like a dictator and everyone is afraid of him. So…I have had some very dark and violent thoughts about the head honcho, even to the point of wishing him dead. I felt bad about this later, because it is really not in my nature to wish something awful on someone else. And I never uttered these thoughts aloud. ---
**Author:** ![Narile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@Narile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Narile)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2001, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-thngs-too-bad-to-say/63730/13 "2001-04-30T03:05:12Z")
I will never say that there are words that are too bad to say. There are words that are improper to say at times, and words that are not _nice_ to say, but I will never claim that they are so bad as not to be sayable. Why do I feel this way? Because when you start to say this word is too bad to say, and should never be seen, it leads to things like the banning of Mark Twain and Salinger(sp). When only comfortable words remain, literature is lost. ---
**Author:** ![Amedeus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de0a6/32.png) [@Amedeus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amedeus)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2001, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-thngs-too-bad-to-say/63730/14 "2001-04-30T03:13:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by berdollos \* > \*\*such as bitch, kike, nigger, shithead, piece of shit, etc? > > Do you have control of these nasty words that come into your head? > > What are the usual words that crop up? > > Or is this not a problem for you? > > \*\* I cannot say that I think of these things, but I can say that I do have dark thoughts. I cannot say that I think racistly (is that a word?), but I do tend to generalize people by their financial conditions. (trashy, snobby, ect.) And I do tend to consider alot of people Jerks and selfish pigs. But I contain most of my thoughts. Some of the time 😉 ---
**Author:** ![False\_God](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ee7513/32.png) [@False\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/False_God)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2001, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-thngs-too-bad-to-say/63730/15 "2001-04-30T12:00:49Z")
Hell, yes. There isn’t a day when I don’t walk down the street and repeatedly think of things that, if vocalized, would either get me committed for observation or denigrated as a racist sonafabitch. Tracking people like they’re targets, wondering what roast baby would taste like, thinking of people shouting racist slurs–all part of a normal day. FTR, I’m not a psychopath, I just play one in real life. Besides, If I’m having these thoughts and rationally examining them, then at least I’m not sublimating them in an unhealthy way, such as shaving squirrels and masturbating to the theme song from the Banana Splits on the White House Lawn, shouting “Take that, Chester A. Arthur!” We all think the unspeakable, but pushing it out of your mind as “unacceptable” just means that you’ll think of something worse. Evil lives in all of us, but requires dark and repression to really flourish. Having said that, someone get me a chaingun, 'cause I’m going to lunch. Mmm, roast baby. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2001, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-thngs-too-bad-to-say/63730/16 "2001-04-30T15:31:41Z")
"such as bitch, kike, nigger, shithead, piece of shit, etc? ``` Do you have control of these nasty words that come into your head? " ``` Come to think of it, if you can print those things then you must be able to say them alright?