From a Wall Street Journal essay by Peter Funt headlined “Why All the Crude Talk?”:

I’m at a loss for words to explain the growing use of coarse language in everyday conversation. When friends or colleagues use the F-word as matter-of-factly as my parents said “gosh” or “golly,” it makes me cringe—but I seem to be part of a bleeping minority.

I thought about this while watching the comedy series “Shrinking” on Apple TV+, starring Jason Segel and Harrison Ford as therapists practicing in Pasadena, Calif. Every character, including Mr. Segel’s teenage daughter, played by Lukita Maxwell, uses the F-word with startlingly casual frequency. In a recent 29-minute episode, these well-educated, affluent Southern Californians said the word 30 times—including nine utterances by Mr. Segel and six by Ms. Maxwell.