Yes, yes, yes... All yes. Using an off-color word may not destroy your department or disgrace your community or devastate your profession. But each incident does a little bit of damage.... just a little bit... a tiny bit... maybe imperceptible. But damage nonetheless. And that cumulative damage adds up.
It's like how museums often don't allow visitors to take flash pictures of paintings. They know that the bright light of a camera flash fades the colors of the painting. Oh, the effect of one flash is imperceptible.... even a hundered don't seem to change anything. But, slowly, bit-by-bit, imperceptible changes add up to perceptible sums. The best solution is to stop it before it starts.
There is an old adage: no one raindrop thinks that it is responsible for the flood.
Each incident takes one drop out of the ocean... just one drop. No one drop removed causes the slightest change in the ocean's level. But every drop, drop by drop, every incident by every officer in every department and agency in every community and state and the nation in the entire profession all add up and eventually sea level starts to fall.
