And upon deeper examination it seems the the author has a false understanding of why shit is used in those situations For instance Shit can comfortably stand in for the terms bad and anything in many instances Dinner was good but the movie was shit You re all mad at me but I didn t do shit indicates that shit is a substitute for anything but it is not That saying is meant to imply again that the person saying it has done nothing wrong The key is that shit is give a value of zero and that value ie nothing is what shit is replacing It s a matter of understanding context One can read this article and think that the ways shit is used are totally nonsensical but it is a practical usage of the term And for the record I don t mean to stir up trouble for people I just have no issue with the word