“Censorship is bad” yeah, sure, I agree. But the fact that you still know it’s a curse word means it’s not really censoring anything.
Curse words are so common now that they’ve lost a bit of their oomph. They’re supposed to convey intensity, but they’re used so casually that they’re basically lazy filler.
A strike through line, or a box that doesn’t quite cover, reintroduces a bit of the taboo. This is a bad, naughty word, you shouldn’t be reading it. You know what it is, but attempting to cover it draws attention to the fact that it’s something some people want to cover, which reintroduces some of the oomph.
It’s kinda like sequined pasties at a nudist colony; it turns something that was once taboo, but had since been normalized, back to taboo again to reclaim some of the intensity.
This reminds me of growing up with my older and younger sibiling, when my younger sib started swearing they had to get a feel for when It was necessary. Me and the older would just look at them with an eyebrow up when theyd swear in situations that did not call for it.
I feel like when someone cant talk without using swears and they are just filler words. censor them why not? Ive seen southpark and metalocolypse referenced and those are good examples of what i mean. If the swears arent necessary to convey the message then they were useless to begin with, and as you said we allready pretty much know what they were from context, I find this pretty funny aswell since it chops up what they are trying to say.
I feel the same way here on lemmy or on youtube etc. If youre a person who swears alot and it has “lost all meaning” just censor it to reach a wider audience. Some people just dont want to hear/read that type of vulgarity and it might even be an issue if there are children in the room or over their shoulder.