It is so extremely variable. I have met old ladies that would die instantly and dissolve into dust if they heard someone “use the lords name in vain” (“God damn”), but until they speak I can’t tell them apart from the old ladies that habitually curse with every breath they take.

I’m not American but I love the self-censoring on television before the 2010s. So many funny ways to avoid saying “fuck”

If I count as an American for the purposes of this question despite not growing up in the USA, I’d say yes. I was raised to say “darn” or “dang” or “heck” instead of “damn” and “hell”, and I’m still caught a bit off guard when I see these words used in things like anime subtitles because I’m still used to thinking of these as naughty no-no words that you’re not supposed to say on television — at one point as a kid I didn’t even like talking about dams, but the grown-ups around me assured me that it was OK to say “dam” in that situation. I think that might be part of why I generally prefer to say “damned” instead of just “damn”. I also generally capitalize “Hell” even though others don’t, just because Hell is supposed to be a specific location.

Though curse words do come in tiers or gradations, and “damn” and “hell” to me have always been in a lower tier of vulgarity than “fuck” and “shit” and “oge 'e boo”.

The whole concept of cursing is outdated in the US I think, it’s not even unusual to hear these things in the workplace. There’s a handful of words we don’t use out of respect for others, racial and gendered slurs mainly, but nobody under 50 cares about the rest.

The answer is yes - if you’re in a place in the US where people might believe that the devil is real or that hell actually exists or that the Rapture will happen or that the hand of god is connected to the forearm of god.

When I was choosing my MySpace profile song back in 2006, as an innocent Christian, I was hanging out with a crush. They asked what song I wanted, and I said “Make Darn Sure” because to my ears at the time, “damn” would damn you to hell.

Luckily, a few years later I left the small town and made damn sure I wouldn’t let a religion determine what could or couldn’t be enjoyed.

I don’t know about US, but the equivalent for “god damn” (jumalauta) and “hell” (helvetti) are considered strong cursewords in Finnish.

Also “Satan” (Saatana) and “Perkele” which likely comes from an old pagan god Perkwunos, are very strong curse words

Most curse words related to anatomy are less severe, with exception of maybe vittu (cunt, used similarly to fuck), and kyrpä (dick).

“God damn” or “goddamn” or “goddamnit” are all considered not just curse words but depending on the person and how religious they are or how religious they were raised they’re top tier “no no” words. Taking the Lord’s name in vain is in the Ten Commandments and all that. You can include exclamation of “Jesus Christ!” or obviously variations of “Jesus Fucking Christ!” just “Jesus!” “God!” in that list too. Adding fucking is particularly bad. Just exclaiming the names in frustration or anger or whatever is enough for a face slap in a lot of religious families when I was growing up. I was never slapped, but my grandparents used to pretty openly tell my parents that my brother and I were definitely going to Hell because we said “God, Mom! Leave me alone!” too much or whatever.

“Hell” and “damn” are both curse words but on the very low end. A lot of the Christians who would cover their mouths if someone said “goddamnit!” around them would be ok with a “damnit!” or just a “get the hell out of here!” although it should still be reserved for only situations of anger, surprise, etc. and you should still feel bad. Also still generally forbidden for children to say them outside of the context of speaking about Hell the place or God damning someone (Biblical loopholes. Jesus understands the space and how important it is!)

If I encounter an American who uses words like “darn” or “gosh” I strongly suspect that I’m speaking with a person from a Protestant background, and I do the best I can to minimize our interactions.

Do British people really foam at the mouth when you call them bastard?

basically depends on how Christian the offended person is

Yup.

Yes and no. It depends on how conservative the people you’re around are. I’ve found heavily religious people get the most upset when you use those words but outside of that they’re used to often that they’re almost the same as saying, “stupid”.

I remember it being a big deal with the Ninja turtles said “Damn” repeatedly in the first movie. Nowadays most kids wouldn’t be phased because their favorite YouTubers say way worse all the time.

It varies greatly from family to family. On one end of the spectrum you have intense Christian households where damn and hell are taking the lord’s name in vain and therefore a 10/10 swear word. They will not watch shows which uses these words. Etc. On the other end, you have kids who swear around their parents and their parents don’t bat an eye. There are enough of the first kind of family that you can’t say damn or hell or in schools, although a lot of teachers will let it slide as long as you’re not being unkind or disruptive.

My kid came home and said they had to play the clean version of Welcome to the Black Parade in music class because it had the D word in it. And they said, “but I listened to the lyrics and I don’t know where they’re singing about dicks.” They just forgot damn was a swear word.

Personally, we call them “at home words” and tell our kids that if they say them in public people might think they’re being mean when they’re not. So our kids swear a little at home but not much. Because they’re not bad words so they don’t have as much appeal to them.