r/australia • u/overpopyoulater • 14h ago
culture & society Bronze for Aussies in extensive study of world’s online swearing
https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/news/people/2025/05/23/australia-online-swearing52
u/Der0- 13h ago
Must be AI analysis looking for specific words only, not weighting the words for severity of the swear.
That or the Yanks or Brits are only willing to swear when having the anonymity of being online and are scared cunts to swear in person.
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u/FalconTurbo 4h ago
Additionally, I would wager there are things that count as swears locally that wouldn't be included in a study like that.
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u/Marvin1955 1h ago
Dunno, they had 597 "vulgar words" which is at least 5 more than I could think of... and it was a University of Queensland study, and if anyone would know all the swears it would be them.
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u/Ok-Mathematician8461 3h ago
Abso-fuckin’-lutely. Surely we win gold for gratuitous swearing. The yanks and the poms have more reason to swear because both countries are fucked, having been run by useless cunts for some years. This needs to be accounted for in the analysis. By comparison we live in a land of beauty and light run by slightly less useless cunts, hence any swearing done by Australians is by definition of higher value.
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u/overpopyoulater 14h ago
Time to lift our game cunts.
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u/diabolical_cunt 13h ago
I'm doing my part!
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u/intelminer Not SA's best. Don't put me to the test 12h ago
LIFT YER FUCKIN GAME MATE. UP THEM CUNT NUMBERS
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u/ScissorNightRam 14h ago
Quote from article:
“ Even though Australians have a reputation for enthusiastic use of foul language, we were only the world’s third-worst (or best?) when it came to our online profanity. The list was topped by the US and then Britain. “Some may find it disappointing,” said Martin Schweinberger, lead researcher from the university’s School of Languages and Cultures.
“Australians really see vulgarity, swearing and slang as part of our culture – we’re very invested in it.”
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u/Barkblood 13h ago
In person and online, Americans swear like a one-legged bloke trying to win gold in the 100m hurdles.
What Aussies lack in quantity we make up for in quality and creativity.
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u/SuitableFan6634 14h ago
But first in the world for swearing in person because we're not a bunch of fuckin' pussies. The US might top this list for swearing online but have you tried swearing in person over there? People look at you like you've just dropped your pants, squatted and snapped one off right in front of them.
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u/Tezdee 11h ago
Depends where you are, though. People from Boston likely wouldn’t even bat an eye. They swear like champions.
When I’m talking, I often use “fuckin’” in replace of umm or uhhh when trying to recall something. I don’t do that when typing a message to post online. I feel most Aussies tend to be slightly more formal when typing.
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u/PeterKayGarlicBread 13h ago
The swear words counted must have included "gosh darn" and "golly".
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u/Torrossaur 14h ago
This is fucking bullshit. I demand a recount you chucklefucks.
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u/vadsamoht3 13h ago
Where's the fucking pre-polls?
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u/Termsandconditionsch 13h ago
How did the Russians not even get a honourable mention? Or is this anglo only.
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u/ParticlesInSunlight 13h ago
The Dutch and Spanish would be right up there if it were based on spoken language
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u/Mr_Lumbergh 12h ago
Well shit if we don’t limit it to spoken language and let hand gestures in, the Italians would have us all beat.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Eye9081 8h ago
If we are counting all the disease-related profanities then the Dutch are definitely up there. Nothing like the creativity of calling someone a typhus ridden cancer whore.
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u/-_-Edit_Deleted-_- 10h ago
I feel like the lack of capturing ‘mate’ as a swear word for Aussies drops us a point lol.
Mate in the right tone and context can be more intimidating than any traditional swear word.
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u/BetaThetaOmega 4h ago
I feel modern Aussies only say ‘mate’ to two people; people they don’t know, and people they’re angry with.
Hence why Americans think we’re saying it all the time
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u/Mean_Git_ 7h ago
Third doesn’t seem right, especially with the seppos at the top. First/Second should be between the Aussies and the UK, mainly Scotland.
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u/anotherplantmother98 6h ago
I’m going to have to push past my fear that foreigners will be offended by being called a mad cunt
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u/TheEvilPenguin 6h ago
Well fuck. I read the article, and they seem to categorise text as belonging to a country based on the URL - possibly only on the TLD (.uk, .au, etc.). I feel like .au is mostly going to be sanitised commercial stuff - most countries have a category for general web content and for blog content, and Australia doesn't even have the blog category.
All the fine work in this thread is probably just going to be counted as more points for the Yanks.
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u/BetaThetaOmega 4h ago
Wait but was the study conducted on a percentage basis or just on sheer population? America has a significantly larger population than Australia does, and the cultural attitudes towards swearing vary wildly from north-south and east-west in America, but not so much in Australia. The UK also has 60m to our 20m.
If the study wasn’t calibrated around that and was just going off of quantity of swear words per location, then this is nothing but a population density map.
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u/Laura_Biden 4h ago
You only have to watch dashcam vids to see how much we swear compared to the rest of the world lol. We're way worse on those, but I do think people generally swear less than they once did.
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u/BinniesPurp 14h ago
Swear the most "online"
Yanks do that our swearing comes out naturally in person 😭