update: further thoughts on bogans

So I'm still trying to get this whole bogan thing sorted out properly.  It's really very nuanced and I'm finding it quite challenging, though I am getting significantly better at both bogan-spotting AND not mentioning my findings out loud, which evidently is a big, big no-no.  Particularly in ... (I'm not supposed to say the suburb in public).


So here's the thing:  I get that I'm not allowed to call people bogans in public because it's roughly along the lines of, say, "white trash."  Obviously that is highly offensive and not a term to go bandying about terribly freely.  In fact, so much so that most Americans just plain avoid the term.  We know it, but it would be rare to actually say it, even in joking or in passing.  Yet in Australia, despite my strong injunctions against using the b-word in public, I hear many people casually using and having a bit of a laugh over the term "bogan."  So what I don't get is, if it really is so offensive, why can it be used so much in just regular spoken language?  Is it not that offensive?  Is it that it is offensive, but Australians don't really care and just swear all the time anyway, so what's one more offense?  Is it really not supposed to be used so freely?

Just when you think you're starting to understand a culture, gosh!