In any society built on quiet forms of violence whether it’s economic pressure, policing, bureaucracy, or social control the biggest threat isn’t chaos or disorder. It’s people speaking plainly. Swearing, blunt language, and open expression cut straight through the polite surface that violent systems rely on to keep their power hidden.
Swearing exposes what these systems try hardest to conceal: that the harm they inflict is far worse than any four-letter word.
In Australia, we’re told to keep things “civil” and “respectful” even when the system itself is anything but. People can be evicted into homelessness, welfare payments can keep families well below the poverty line, and state agencies can exercise enormous power over vulnerable children but if you swear while criticising it, suddenly you’re the problem. This is no accident. Inherently violent systems depend on politeness norms to maintain control. If the public stays polite, then the system’s behavior never needs to be questioned.
Swearing is disliked because it breaks the script. It signals that someone has stopped playing along. It refuses to treat structural harm as normal, acceptable, or inevitable. Polite language is easier for systems to absorb and dismiss. Swearing is harder to file away because it carries honesty raw emotion that says, “This isn’t right.”
Authoritarian and punitive cultures often pretend that the real danger is people using “inappropriate language”. It’s the oldest trick in the book: shift attention from injustice to tone, from the violence of the system to the language of the speaker. It lets institutions present themselves as morally superior while continuing to harm the very people they demand respect from.
Swearing is treated as a threat because it undermines control. It shows that people are thinking for themselves, refusing to self-silence, and pushing back against the pressure to stay quiet and compliant. Freedom of expression, especially the unfiltered, emotional kind disrupts the hierarchy that violent systems depend on.
In the end, the truth is simple:
Swearing isn’t dangerous. Real harm comes from the institutions that fear swearing the most.