On Profanity.

I grew up with profanity. I come from a rustic environment, rough and tumble, full of hard characters. Their speech reflected their coarseness. It's hard to exist in that environment for 20 years or more and not have it rub off on you a bit. I'm not excusing it. I still know better, but in a weak moment I still might succumb to a smattering of Potty Mouth.

Profanity communicates weakness and/or ignorance.  Your weakness is a weakness of character, an inability or unwillingness to submit yourself to common laws of decency. Your ignorance may be simple: you don't know any better or weren't taught any better. It may be a more complex ignorance: you don't know how to communicate in any way where profanity is unnecessary or irrelevant.

Profanity may also communicate a coarser, baser nature that's coming out in you. You know it's wrong, taboo or verboten, but you choose to use it anyway. Perhaps you're trying to be cool. Perhaps you're trying to show others that the rules don't apply to you. Maybe it's simply rebellion, which, the last time I read a dictionary, was an act of defiance aimed at an authority or established convention. In this case, it seems to be aimed at both: authority and convention.

The funny thing is that people seem to be trying to communicate toughness when they get Potty Mouth. Unfortunately, they generally miss the mark.