While I do agree that there is no need for profanity in technical writing, documentation or presentations I completely disagree that it shouldn't be used in everyday life, workplace or otherwise.

This is actually a little annoyance of mine. Language in constantly evolving and what is/isn't accepted as profanity at any given time is generally dictated by society/culture and in lots of cases what societies deem as acceptable can vary wildly and be based on many factors, political agenda, religious views and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of some/the majority of the people or in fact the truth.

I don't want to go out of my way to offend people but it seems that these days people like to go out of their way to be offended as much as possible. If you know a comedian tells blue jokes and you don't like blue jokes then why watch him and them complain about him offending you!

This whole PC culture actually offends me, but as long as I don't say anything that may offend someone else then that's fine but if I have a different set of values and not being able to say what I like offends me then no one cares.

I will readily admit here that this may be stretching the topic a little and I am by no means advocating this argument to imply that things like racism are acceptable because not allowing it would infringe free speech (seriously that would just be stupid) but there is a world of difference between using words to offend and using words that may offend.

Getting back on topic; as has been said certain words will offend some cultures and not others and what is deemed profanity by one culture will not be by another. Society has it's place to dictate what is right and what is wrong (e.g. murder, crime) but on many things society shouldn't be involved at all as rarely reflects the opinions of those it claims to represent and rather the opinions of the richer, more powerful entities e.g. lobbyists, churches.

Things like the use of profanity are more down to the culture/upbringing/personality of the individual and should be left as such. If I use what you deem as profanity and it offends you and not me then I apologise but if you don't like it then you don't have to listen to me.

As I said this doesn't apply to technical writings or presentations as then you have an audience that has to listen to you and can't walk away so you do have to respect that but in any other environment (and I include the general workplace in this) when you can ignore me if you don't like what I say then ignore me. I won't be offended, honest.;-)