As Bad Language Becomes The Norm

There’s little doubt that pop culture exerts a coarsening influence on public manners. But public manners, such as they are these days, probably exert a coarsening influence on pop culture. After all, if half the little old ladies at the grocery store are cussing like sailors, one can hardly expect the entertainment media to restrict themselves to more refined language. Within living memory, people who felt tempted to swear in public were discouraged from doing so by the weight of generally accepted etiquette.