Where I live down in south Florida, swearing is pretty common place.
That article is almost wholly alien to me, people say cunt relatively frequently and swear like sailors. Could just be that Americans try not to swear around people they don't know, could just be a different part of the US that they're writing about.
like,
This is not how Americans roll. Tell your US pal he’s a moron or anything stronger and you likely won’t get invited to his wedding.
is entirely different to what I've experienced my entire life, even when I lived up in PA. People mostly seemed to trade profanity-laden insults with each other because they were friends rather than being pissed.
As for me, I swear pretty frequently, almost entirely around friends though and pretty much never else, although some of the things I say are a little different [eg, "son of a slut" or "son of a whore" instead of "son of a bitch" -- can't remember why either].
also, as a kid, when I found out that "bugger" let me carry about as much meaning as the word "fuck" except that it didn't offend the American ear [people will often refer to kids in the US as "little buggers" for example], I began to use it constantly [and still do if I'm around people I probably shouldn't be dropping F-bombs around, I'll say it at work for example even though my manager says fuck pretty much all the damn time]
actually, the other "silly" sounding British swears were a good third of what would come out of my mouth after I was in 6th grade, like "bloody" and "sodding"
