Re: Nasty comments

tailor@primenet.com
25 Jul 1996 15:53:01 -0700


> From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@cs.helsinki.fi>
>However, it is NOT ok to just act like a mindless robot and just remove every
>profanity in sight. That way lies book-burning and "forbidden" thoughts.
>Sugarcoating it with "moral reasons", thinking _you_ have the moral right to
>suppress others, is the ultimate immorality.
>
Gee, I went to a public high school in Boston, where `profanity' was an
art form. The trouble is that I am so articulate that I find profanity
too confining except for very occasional use. And, I noticed growing up
that the people who most used profanity exclusively as a means of
communication didn't end up writing operating system kernels or winning
Nobel prizes in literature or physics.

Profanity must seem like an exquisite luxury to someone who grew up in
a middle-class environment where you end up with an irresistable urge
to pick your nose in public just to do something interesting.