[The Dweller]

Slang does, however, reset. Much of the 'new' slang that my kid brother's generation uses is stuff they have unknowingly rediscovered and reused from the '70s, '80s, and '90s.

Yes, that's true.  But only to an extent.  You're discussing side-by-side generations.  Whens the last time you referred to a know-it-all as an abercrombie or referred to a crude person as an egg?  Those are eight decade differences that represent just the tiniest fraction of the differences in language in an evolving society (and that's just covering common use words, not technobabble).  If we had a reset of slang in our day and age to match how far some of Shadowrun has reverted, we'd be using phrases like khaki wacky, dead hoofer, share crop, or 'Hi sugar, are you rationed?'

Admittedly, this is a much more appropriate argument if we were discussing Shadowrun losing all of its jargon like trog, chummer, etc.  But I still find it odd that some writers seem to have completely rejected words like drek and frag.  Events and stories in the timeline of the game have remained fairly untouched and canon, so why should some terms appear to now be scrubbed from the setting?

[Neurosis]

The term cool, as slang, has been in use for approximately sixty years (as much as 80 depending on the meaning you use, as some meanings saw use in the 1930s) and shows no signs of stopping.

Fuck and shit on the other hand have been around at least since the early centuries of the second millennium and are clearly an unstoppable linguistic force judging by the fact that we who speak Anglo-Saxon derived languages or languages derived from those languages still use them today. Perhaps frag and drek could have been almost exclusively in vogue for a brief period centered from say approximately  2030 to 2060, but I'm not surprised to find out that the "old standards" won out in the end.

'Slang' and 'curse words' are really two separate (but related)  topics.

I mean, the truth is, frag and drek were (based on my understanding) a concession to get younger players to play the game without angering moral watchdogs, whereas 'fuck and shit' were (based on my understanding) an attempt to make the game 'darker and edgier' now that the winds of moral hazard had shifted somewhat and it could be gotten away with. So any discussion of the in-universe reasons behind the alternative slang and its eventual retconning is rather specious.

[CanRay]

Drek also has the advantage of being a bilingual "Bad Word", IIRC...  It's how they got away with some really racy cursing on Firefly/Serenity (Even if the Mandarin was butchered.).

[Lacynth40]

Frag and drek I wasn't fond of, but hoop is a nice one to keep around, as are the many vulgarities aimed at various forms of metahumanity, like trog, gobs and words of that nature. Also, who doesn't toss in bilingual curses? Lots of Japanese curses still get tossed around the table here, as well as quite a few Germanic ones. I may have to head out to one of the nicer rez's around here, and see if I can't find out some Lakotan (Sioux) curse words. Heh, pretty sure I'll get some choice ones when I start asking about the language...

[The Dweller]

I mean, the truth is, frag and drek were (based on my understanding) a concession to get younger players to play the game without angering moral watchdogs, whereas 'fuck and shit' were (based on my understanding) an attempt to make the game 'darker and edgier' now that the winds of moral hazard had shifted somewhat and it could be gotten away with. So any discussion of the in-universe reasons behind the alternative slang and its eventual retconning is rather specious.

I'm going to agree to disagree.  I don't think a complete deletion of in-universe lingo with absolutely no transition apparent (or hinted at) is a proper way to satisfy those expecting darker and edgier material.  If a new season of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica were to start up and advance the story ten years, and frak was now replaced with fuck in conversation, would you be a little surprised if all the characters carried on like it had always been the word used?

To a dedicated fan of such a rich setting, I just don't see the suspension of disbelief placed solely on the shoulders of the reader for veracity of this.

[darcdante]

Words evolve and change. I think that SR is able to give us new words that obviously mean something without us having to say the modern equivalent. I like that. It helps remove us from the modern world, and keeps our tongues pure as virgins. OK, so maybe I'm just a loser lol. But I like it.