No Swearing in Utah
January 27, 2011 5:57 AM Subscribe
The United States of Swearing -- a map of profanity on Twitter.
That's a great blog.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 6:07 AM on January 27, 2011
posted by the quidnunc kid at 6:07 AM on January 27, 2011
Sorry - looking closer at the map, I should have said "that's a fucking great blog, you turd-juggling ass-bastards".
posted by the quidnunc kid at 6:10 AM on January 27, 2011 [7 favorites]
posted by the quidnunc kid at 6:10 AM on January 27, 2011 [7 favorites]
This is a badly done map
He is looking for criticism on his blog.
posted by empath at 6:14 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
He is looking for criticism on his blog.
posted by empath at 6:14 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
That is one fucking bright pixel over Chicago.
posted by m@f at 6:19 AM on January 27, 2011 [4 favorites]
posted by m@f at 6:19 AM on January 27, 2011 [4 favorites]
I was going to say 'oh that's just rahm emmanual' before i even clicked your link.
posted by empath at 6:20 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by empath at 6:20 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
>He is looking for criticism on his blog.
This is not what Metafilter is for.
posted by parmanparman at 6:28 AM on January 27, 2011
This is not what Metafilter is for.
What.
posted by empath at 6:35 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
What.
posted by empath at 6:35 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
I like the idea, but I'd prefer more of a color spectrum to differentiate between the barely-swearing zones and the fuckstorms*.
*and Florida just got redder!
posted by misha at 6:42 AM on January 27, 2011 [3 favorites]
*and Florida just got redder!
posted by misha at 6:42 AM on January 27, 2011 [3 favorites]
Metafilter: This is not what Metafilter is for.
posted by iamck at 6:47 AM on January 27, 2011 [30 favorites]
posted by iamck at 6:47 AM on January 27, 2011 [30 favorites]
"I made use of six main ones that came to mind: fuck, shit, bitch, hell, damn, ass"
Hell is a damned historical place. Literally. It is a place. It is mentioned throughout history. And it's comprised of the damned. That's not swearing.
Don't want to sound bitchy, but most of these are lame-ass swears.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:49 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
Hell is a damned historical place. Literally. It is a place. It is mentioned throughout history. And it's comprised of the damned. That's not swearing.
Don't want to sound bitchy, but most of these are lame-ass swears.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 6:49 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
The color design of the map is of questionable clarity, but I'm really impressed by the creator's responses to comments, criticisms, and questions in the comments. Even if you usually skip them, make sure you read the comments for this one!
posted by Hargrimm at 6:50 AM on January 27, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by Hargrimm at 6:50 AM on January 27, 2011 [3 favorites]
Yankton cocksuckers...
posted by Joe Beese at 6:56 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Joe Beese at 6:56 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
no kidding hal_c-on, wth is going on? Is there some sort of swear war between Texas and Lousiana?
I love how it's kind of anomalous. Like the area east of Los Angeles. Is that Riverside and San Bernardino? And a little island of swearing in Lancaster/Palmdale? I can understand that. I swear more when I drive through those places.
posted by Xoebe at 7:03 AM on January 27, 2011
I love how it's kind of anomalous. Like the area east of Los Angeles. Is that Riverside and San Bernardino? And a little island of swearing in Lancaster/Palmdale? I can understand that. I swear more when I drive through those places.
posted by Xoebe at 7:03 AM on January 27, 2011
I see that Moab is the placid center of the Utah low-profanity zone, and suspect this is important.
Either that or an artifact of the methodology.
posted by weston at 7:08 AM on January 27, 2011
Either that or an artifact of the methodology.
posted by weston at 7:08 AM on January 27, 2011
New England is underrepresented, as he wasn't looking for "frigging/fricking" or "bastard", which are practically punctuation hereabouts. Actually, that may be the point - in a tweet, a New Englander will use a comma, colon or stop instead of the four-letter interjection used in spoken language. For example, the previous sentence transliterated into how I'd actually speak it to another person: "Hell, a fuckin' New Englander will goddamn-right use a frigging comma, colon or stop instead of the candy-ass swear used when fuckin' talking to somebody or some shit."
Whereas in the Bay Area, they'd be more genteel in their spoken language, but unsure that punctuation really would do their feelings justice.
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:09 AM on January 27, 2011 [4 favorites]
Whereas in the Bay Area, they'd be more genteel in their spoken language, but unsure that punctuation really would do their feelings justice.
posted by Slap*Happy at 7:09 AM on January 27, 2011 [4 favorites]
If Utah is low in swearing it's only because it's high in euphemisms.
posted by metagnathous at 7:14 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by metagnathous at 7:14 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
I knew there would be a dark zone around Salt Lake City. I knew it.
Creepy damn part of the country.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:20 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
Creepy damn part of the country.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:20 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
If Utah is low in swearing it's only because it's high in euphemisms.
Gosh darn you and your smart alecky bull puckey.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 7:21 AM on January 27, 2011 [2 favorites]
Gosh darn you and your smart alecky bull puckey.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 7:21 AM on January 27, 2011 [2 favorites]
Does this take into account all the stupid f**king a**holes who are too f*ucking wimpy to type out the words and think stars in place of letters somehow make them seem less vulgar? P*ssies. What the f*uck is that sh*t about?
posted by raztaj at 7:24 AM on January 27, 2011 [4 favorites]
posted by raztaj at 7:24 AM on January 27, 2011 [4 favorites]
I find it interesting that it's rarely the city centers that have the most profanity. For example, the locus of cussing in the greater Chicago area is actually over Gary. San Francisco is red with blue language but not nearly as much as the region between Oakland and Sacramento. Washington DC doesn't swear as prolifically as southeastern Virginia.
posted by ardgedee at 7:29 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by ardgedee at 7:29 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
No swearing in Utah. But they are #1 in Porn. Do they dub out the dirty talk?
posted by mcstayinskool at 7:34 AM on January 27, 2011
posted by mcstayinskool at 7:34 AM on January 27, 2011
When I lived in Georgia, I once got into a heated discussion with a neighbor over a tree he was cutting down.
"It's none of your damn business," he says to me.
"Yes, it actually is my business. And there is no need to swear."
"Swear?" He says.
"You said 'damn'" I reminded him.
"I could have been speaking about an Earthen dam."
So there you have it.
posted by three blind mice at 7:36 AM on January 27, 2011
"It's none of your damn business," he says to me.
"Yes, it actually is my business. And there is no need to swear."
"Swear?" He says.
"You said 'damn'" I reminded him.
"I could have been speaking about an Earthen dam."
So there you have it.
posted by three blind mice at 7:36 AM on January 27, 2011
They've made a terrible mistake. New Jersey is not glowing like the fuckin' surface of the fuckin' sun.
posted by cmyk at 8:00 AM on January 27, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by cmyk at 8:00 AM on January 27, 2011 [2 favorites]
Especially if you want to hear me go on at length about reviving the historical technique of waterlining.
Oh, no, no, please do not revive waterlining... that kind of visual clutter went away for a reason. Since we don't print in black and white anymore, we can use things like gradient shading and careful color contrasts.
posted by crapmatic at 8:08 AM on January 27, 2011
Oh, no, no, please do not revive waterlining... that kind of visual clutter went away for a reason. Since we don't print in black and white anymore, we can use things like gradient shading and careful color contrasts.
posted by crapmatic at 8:08 AM on January 27, 2011
Good blog, but sort of a weak post from it. I liked the Abuse of Chernoff Faces post. Look at how fat and happy Texas is!
posted by mrgrimm at 8:31 AM on January 27, 2011
posted by mrgrimm at 8:31 AM on January 27, 2011
I've been reading the rest of Cartastrophe - thanks for introducing this blog to me. Among other things, I am a bit of a map nut.
However, I had never heard of Chernoff faces. OMG what a stupid idea. Or, more precisely, a good idea with really stupid implementation. A happy/sad face should be used to denote happiness/sadness* and nothing else. No smiles to indicate income, eyebrows to indicate level of education, ears to indicate age. Seriously.
You could perhaps add color to the face to indicate some sort of preponderence value such as race or income, but that would have to be secondary to the fundamental binary relationship being expressed, and not a third element in the relationship. Looking at some of these maps, that idea may be too complex for some map authors to grasp, so let's just say no. Happy/sad, that's it.
*or other binary combinations that can be related respectively, e.g. tacos/no tacos, accessible/inaccessible, cheap prostititutes/expensive prostitutes, etc.
posted by Xoebe at 8:33 AM on January 27, 2011
However, I had never heard of Chernoff faces. OMG what a stupid idea. Or, more precisely, a good idea with really stupid implementation. A happy/sad face should be used to denote happiness/sadness* and nothing else. No smiles to indicate income, eyebrows to indicate level of education, ears to indicate age. Seriously.
You could perhaps add color to the face to indicate some sort of preponderence value such as race or income, but that would have to be secondary to the fundamental binary relationship being expressed, and not a third element in the relationship. Looking at some of these maps, that idea may be too complex for some map authors to grasp, so let's just say no. Happy/sad, that's it.
*or other binary combinations that can be related respectively, e.g. tacos/no tacos, accessible/inaccessible, cheap prostititutes/expensive prostitutes, etc.
posted by Xoebe at 8:33 AM on January 27, 2011
Ah mrgrimm, you posted while I was composing, and I didn't preview. my bad!
posted by Xoebe at 8:34 AM on January 27, 2011
posted by Xoebe at 8:34 AM on January 27, 2011
Hmmm. my oeuvre, mthinks. Coughs. Prepare to have a pixel Southern California
FFFFFffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuucking cockgargling shitwanking spoogesniffing titrubbing spunkbucketed carrotmunching dicknobbing queefinhaling santorumlike nob - illy-livered, lilly-spleened, rose-kidneyed, glade-fresh-and-easy-scent-bought-at-the-99c-store-for-your-disabled-auntie-arsed, innacurate-plagarizer-of-banal-thoughts-from-USA-today - you glenn-beck-fellating, bill-o-riley-bottoming, atavistic proto-fascist-protozoan, lollygagging, cock-swallowing, gretchen-carlson's-dick-choking, willing-recipient-to-your-enlarged-prostate-from-the-unlubed-invisible-hand's-middle-digit, racist, sexist, puffed up carbuncle on the zit of a flyturd of a booger on a steaming log of shit floating in the Applebees (TM) in which you engorge your useless corpse with buckets of lard to fuel your pathetic and tiny rise out of the slime in which you so deservedly belong.
PS. The above looks even better with the word Metafilter: in front of it
posted by lalochezia at 8:44 AM on January 27, 2011
FFFFFffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuucking cockgargling shitwanking spoogesniffing titrubbing spunkbucketed carrotmunching dicknobbing queefinhaling santorumlike nob - illy-livered, lilly-spleened, rose-kidneyed, glade-fresh-and-easy-scent-bought-at-the-99c-store-for-your-disabled-auntie-arsed, innacurate-plagarizer-of-banal-thoughts-from-USA-today - you glenn-beck-fellating, bill-o-riley-bottoming, atavistic proto-fascist-protozoan, lollygagging, cock-swallowing, gretchen-carlson's-dick-choking, willing-recipient-to-your-enlarged-prostate-from-the-unlubed-invisible-hand's-middle-digit, racist, sexist, puffed up carbuncle on the zit of a flyturd of a booger on a steaming log of shit floating in the Applebees (TM) in which you engorge your useless corpse with buckets of lard to fuel your pathetic and tiny rise out of the slime in which you so deservedly belong.
PS. The above looks even better with the word Metafilter: in front of it
posted by lalochezia at 8:44 AM on January 27, 2011
If I'm reading this correctly, the suburbs in the SF Bay Area are higher than SF itself. That fits my appraisal of the micro-regional standard of discourse. Go Antioch!
posted by cccorlew at 8:52 AM on January 27, 2011
posted by cccorlew at 8:52 AM on January 27, 2011
Does this take into account all the stupid f**king a**holes who are too f*ucking wimpy to type out the words and think stars in place of letters somehow make them seem less vulgar? P*ssies. What the f*uck is that sh*t about?
Just abut the very first site I visited on the newborn internet back in the previous millennium was one run by my home city's newspaper. It had discussion boards (which I was familiar with from BBSes) but these ones prevented people from using naughty words. Or rather, naughty character strings -- the music forums had to avoid mention of Bruce Cockburn, the politics forums could not mention recently-defeated Japanese PM Noboru Takeshita, and a mention of the North Lincolnshire town of Scunthorpe would cause the system to shut down wuth sparks shooting out of the servers. I have since learned that this issue with spamfilters is in fact known as the Scunthorpe problem. No word for what it is when it is not spamfilters, but the delicate sensibilities of priggish sysops that cause it.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:55 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
Just abut the very first site I visited on the newborn internet back in the previous millennium was one run by my home city's newspaper. It had discussion boards (which I was familiar with from BBSes) but these ones prevented people from using naughty words. Or rather, naughty character strings -- the music forums had to avoid mention of Bruce Cockburn, the politics forums could not mention recently-defeated Japanese PM Noboru Takeshita, and a mention of the North Lincolnshire town of Scunthorpe would cause the system to shut down wuth sparks shooting out of the servers. I have since learned that this issue with spamfilters is in fact known as the Scunthorpe problem. No word for what it is when it is not spamfilters, but the delicate sensibilities of priggish sysops that cause it.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:55 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
See also. Evidently I "swear like an enthusiastic porn star."
posted by brundlefly at 8:58 AM on January 27, 2011
posted by brundlefly at 8:58 AM on January 27, 2011
No Swearing in Utah
"I don't give a flaming heck about the Boy Scouts of America" my favorite Bill Hendrickson line from this season's Big Love.
posted by birdherder at 9:29 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
"I don't give a flaming heck about the Boy Scouts of America" my favorite Bill Hendrickson line from this season's Big Love.
posted by birdherder at 9:29 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
New Jersey is not glowing like the fuckin' surface of the fuckin' sun.
I want to disagree with this so badly (lulzy NJ jokes are lame), but as one of your official Bridge & Tunnel Welcome Wagon representatives I can assure you, interwebs, that it's completely fucking true.
posted by mintcake! at 9:43 AM on January 27, 2011
I want to disagree with this so badly (lulzy NJ jokes are lame), but as one of your official Bridge & Tunnel Welcome Wagon representatives I can assure you, interwebs, that it's completely fucking true.
posted by mintcake! at 9:43 AM on January 27, 2011
I find it interesting that it's rarely the city centers that have the most profanity. For example, the locus of cussing in the greater Chicago area is actually over Gary. San Francisco is red with blue language but not nearly as much as the region between Oakland and Sacramento. Washington DC doesn't swear as prolifically as southeastern Virginia.
Probably a side effect of his selection method. I imagine a larger percentage of business tweets make up the 500 selected in city centres compared to the suburbs.
posted by Mitheral at 9:45 AM on January 27, 2011 [2 favorites]
Probably a side effect of his selection method. I imagine a larger percentage of business tweets make up the 500 selected in city centres compared to the suburbs.
posted by Mitheral at 9:45 AM on January 27, 2011 [2 favorites]
I have since learned that this issue with spamfilters is in fact known as the Scunthorpe problem.
Yeah, it's a pain when online forums buttume you're swearing.
posted by Deathalicious at 10:29 AM on January 27, 2011
Yeah, it's a pain when online forums buttume you're swearing.
posted by Deathalicious at 10:29 AM on January 27, 2011
Clearly, for the pride of my fair city, I need to step up my fucking game.
posted by vibrotronica at 10:29 AM on January 27, 2011
posted by vibrotronica at 10:29 AM on January 27, 2011
"Polite Mountains, Profane Eastern Plains, South, and Large Cities".
For fucks sake, if you're going to make a map, please have knowledge of the geography of the place you're mapping.
posted by Beardsley Klamm at 10:30 AM on January 27, 2011
Why the fuck is Philadelphia not a regional epicentre of profanity? This jawn is fucked up.
posted by Mister_A at 10:41 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Mister_A at 10:41 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
I want to disagree with this so badly (lulzy NJ jokes are lame)
No, that's pretty-much incontestably true.
/former NJer, lifelong sailor-mouth
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:44 AM on January 27, 2011
No, that's pretty-much incontestably true.
/former NJer, lifelong sailor-mouth
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 10:44 AM on January 27, 2011
So, little cmyk is eight years old, and having a problem with a vocabulary word for an upcoming spelling test. The word is damask, and for some reason I cannot get the letters straight on it.
I'm being driven to school the day of the dreaded spelling test, and I tell my mom I'm worried, because of damask. She thinks this over for a minute (this was in our deathtrap Nova, so I didn't tell so much as holler) and then says: "think of it this way, honey. It rhymes with damn ass."
Not only did I remember exactly how to spell it, but I was too busy gigglefitting to have an attack of nerves. I aced the test.
My mom was born and raised in Englewood, NJ. That should say it all, really.
posted by cmyk at 11:31 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
I'm being driven to school the day of the dreaded spelling test, and I tell my mom I'm worried, because of damask. She thinks this over for a minute (this was in our deathtrap Nova, so I didn't tell so much as holler) and then says: "think of it this way, honey. It rhymes with damn ass."
Not only did I remember exactly how to spell it, but I was too busy gigglefitting to have an attack of nerves. I aced the test.
My mom was born and raised in Englewood, NJ. That should say it all, really.
posted by cmyk at 11:31 AM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
MORE FUCKING CONTRAST, PLEASE.
Thanks.
Sincerely,
Connecticut
posted by ZenMasterThis at 2:29 PM on January 27, 2011
Thanks.
Sincerely,
Connecticut
posted by ZenMasterThis at 2:29 PM on January 27, 2011
No one uses Twitter anyways. And even if YOU do, no one cares about your pathetic pitiful existence.
posted by antgly at 11:04 PM on January 27, 2011
posted by antgly at 11:04 PM on January 27, 2011
A Facebook version of this would be way more accurate.
posted by antgly at 11:05 PM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by antgly at 11:05 PM on January 27, 2011 [1 favorite]
For fucks sake, if you're going to make a map, please have knowledge of the geography of the place you're mapping.
It's a contour map. The 'profane mountains' are the parts of the map where there is more profantity, and so a higher 'elevation'
posted by empath at 11:29 PM on January 27, 2011
It's a contour map. The 'profane mountains' are the parts of the map where there is more profantity, and so a higher 'elevation'
posted by empath at 11:29 PM on January 27, 2011
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posted by parmanparman at 6:03 AM on January 27, 2011