I read the whole list and found it to be largely unenlightened, bordering on boring and uncool.
Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative
961–970 of 1001 posts
Re: Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative
#962huh. i’m fairly well flabbergasted at the HN crowds’ reaction. this is satire of the highest order.
Re: Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative
#963It's pretty remarkable that this conflates: - Well-known slurs like "Jewed" - Outdated, now-offensive terms like "hermaphrodite" - Touchy metaphorical language like "slave replica" - Gendered terms that if you're being assiduous you probably want to avoid, like "manpower" - Words that have long since lost any stigmatizing meaning by virtue of the original use being so ancient ("lame", "dumb", "stupid") - Words that,…
I can think of a few more! "register" - might indicate that someone has to register as a second-class citizen, enemy alien, etc. "bit" - might imply that someone is only a 'bit player', leading to feelings of inferiority. "tool" - an obviously offensive word meaning that someone is only fit to be used by others. "terminal" - we need to be sensitive about words that bring up the concept of death, to avoid triggering e…
"tool" is historically and currently also slang for penis. Can't have that.
Re: Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative
#964Elon Musk is absolutely right when he proclaimed that the woke min virus needs to be eradicated and that nothing else matters.
Re: Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative
#965Reading this list feels like grading the homework of a fifth grader (I've never done that, but I can imagine) who studied really hard on the internet all week in order to get an A on the assignment. Like sure kid, you got an A on your 5th grade assignment. Here's a star sticker.
Re: Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative
#966What a dystopian nightmare.
edit: ... we already live in.
Re: Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative
#967It's pretty remarkable that this conflates: - Well-known slurs like "Jewed" - Outdated, now-offensive terms like "hermaphrodite" - Touchy metaphorical language like "slave replica" - Gendered terms that if you're being assiduous you probably want to avoid, like "manpower" - Words that have long since lost any stigmatizing meaning by virtue of the original use being so ancient ("lame", "dumb", "stupid") - Words that,…
Surely “American” is the most absurd. Literally no one is offended that people in the United States of America are referred to as American, even if there are 42 other countries in the Americas. The technical fact is it’s correct - anyone in the americas could be called an American correctly. But only one has “America” in the country name. But by including this it sparks a patriotic and nationalist response in most Am…
I've had Canadians thank me for always specifically calling USAmericans "USAmericans", instead of just "Americans", because they didn't want to be put into the same bucket.
Re: Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative
#968It's pretty remarkable that this conflates: - Well-known slurs like "Jewed" - Outdated, now-offensive terms like "hermaphrodite" - Touchy metaphorical language like "slave replica" - Gendered terms that if you're being assiduous you probably want to avoid, like "manpower" - Words that have long since lost any stigmatizing meaning by virtue of the original use being so ancient ("lame", "dumb", "stupid") - Words that,…
> "This term is used to ridicule or demean a certain group of people based on their behaviors." Isn’t that precisely when it’s ok to ridicule someone? Not based on properties they cannot change (race, height, sex, etc) but indeed based on behavior they choose to engage in (religion, politics, social behavior, life choices, etc.). If ridiculing people for their behavior is now off limits then what the hell is left? Do…
Reading this comment, all I can picture is a Sims character with a full red Social bar and only three interaction bubbles:
Ridicule (trait), Ridicule (behaviour), Discuss Weather
Firby nurbs!
Re: Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative
#969It's pretty remarkable that this conflates: - Well-known slurs like "Jewed" - Outdated, now-offensive terms like "hermaphrodite" - Touchy metaphorical language like "slave replica" - Gendered terms that if you're being assiduous you probably want to avoid, like "manpower" - Words that have long since lost any stigmatizing meaning by virtue of the original use being so ancient ("lame", "dumb", "stupid") - Words that,…
One school district I worked for a long time ago used to label backup tapes with color codes. This is a bad idea in general, but the real issue was the official complaints: Lemon — suggests that the system is of poor quality, or substandard. Black — racist. Brown — also racist. Pink — too girlie for straight male staff. And so on. Eventually they had to change the system because this went all the way up to the minist…
I've been told I wasn't allowed to color code anything in a UI I worked on because "someone might be living with color vision deficiency".
Not that we have to also provide an alternative for people who can't use the color coding, but we can't use color coding at all.
The world is full of people with good intentions and bad ideas.
Re: Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative
#970Oh wow there was "latinx" there. People from Latin America take a lot of umbrage at having this little exonym pushed on us, believe me. It feels like colonialism. The term "Hispanic" is already very broad to refer to people from a large collection of polities with several cultural spheres in it, but at least the concept of "hispanoamérica" exists in it, and the word isn't a novel take on the Spanish language coming f…
According to some random commenter I saw on HN last week, BIPOC is similarly questionable.
I will make an effort to use whatever term people prefer, but it's impossible to know which that is when the loudest voices don't agree.