Don_DickleHow come on TV I can Oh God with no censor. I can say dammit and no censor. But if I put them both together and say GodDammit one of the words will be censored?
Blasphemy!
Because “goddamnit” is a blasphemy, and the vast majority of laws in the world were written by religious zealots of one stripe or another.
Not really logical, but that’s humanity for you.
Hey now, don’t rope the rest of us in with the USA’s bizarro puritanical approach to TV censorship. You can blaspheme to your heart’s content on TV in the UK.
I said laws in general, not TV censorship.
We’ve got plenty of issues in the US, but let’s not pretend the UK is a bastion of freedom in the world.
I can still wear a “From the River to the Sea” shirt in the US.
I’d say, they censor the smallest part you can, with the intent of leaving the meaning more or less intact while minimizing the offense that might be caused. “God ***" doesn’t really mean anything, but " damnit” does.
Let’s play a word game. You can say “kill” and “all Christians” on TV, but put the two together and you’re likely going to be censored for inciting violence.
Words have meanings and so do sentences.
“Oh, God” when taken literally just means that you’re appealing to some more powerful being to sort out what you’ve witnessed.
“Damn it” means that you want ”it” to go to hell and stay there, with no chance for salvation.
“God damn it” means you’re calling on a specific interpretation of a deity that is associated with damning things to do so on your request.
And that’s all stuff that’s OK to say if you mean it. The blasphemy comes in when you say it without actually believing or wanting such a thing to happen, but just use the phrase as an outburst of frustration.
Kind of like shouting “bomb” in an airport. If you really believe there is one, you’re going to want to do it; otherwise, you’re going to get in a heap of trouble precisely because those in charge don’t want the word to lose its meaning in that context, because then people won’t respond properly when it’s said in earnest.