I see your point, Elana.
You know, I used to work for a company where a very high-profile (arguably one of the highest-profile) CEO set the standard for using profanity. It was a daily, hourly, minutely occurrence all around me. You're right. There's no changing that culture without losing the war.
But I noticed that a lot of people were doing it unconsciously. Because they HADN'T been taught any limitations on it when they were littler, they just used it as regular speech. One manager was talking to me once about being angry at the "F-ing expense reports" and I stared at him for a second and then said, "Well, I'll see what I can do about your 'F-ing' expense reports" (making the little quote marks with my fingers in the air for his benefit) and I shook my head and laughed at him as I walked away.
That guy cleaned up his act around me, and never seemed to resent it. In hindsight, it was a gentle way to point out to him that not everybody finds profanity so invisible and inoffensive. He changed to "freakin' ", and "rotten" and "stinking" instead, and we were pretty good work buddies from then on.
It's not always hopeless. Maybe some day, on a couple of these people, you'll see an opening to gently make fun of their potty mouth in the same way. I'm sure they're not bad people. They just think that's the acceptable culture.
P.S. you wouldn't want to be around me while I'm watching a basketball game on television...and I *was* taught better as a child....
