The problem I feel with this kind of treatment of words (briefly hinted at in the article) is that context is everything.
Some swear words have shock value almost whenever they are heard and that is generally because there is no current context in which they are not used to cause offence or discomfort.
But even that most currently offensive of words "n*gger" have contexts where they are perfectly acceptable language (not that I personally agree that we should draw lines across race in terms of the types of words that are acceptable to use, a pattern which is divisive in itself).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
