Live data from Hacker News

Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative

itcommunity.stanford.edu

971–980 of 1001 posts

Re: Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative

#971

Satire. The way to fight this is with satire. Perhaps we should post this list to Github, make whatever ridiculous additions we can think of, and take pull requests from all quarters. Then we just need to find a way to broadcast it.

Are we sure this isn't satire?

Re: Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative

#972

It's pretty remarkable that this conflates: - Well-known slurs like "Jewed" - Outdated, now-offensive terms like "hermaphrodite" - Touchy metaphorical language like "slave replica" - Gendered terms that if you're being assiduous you probably want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 noticed major failures to put language in context. For example, "whitespace" isn't racist: there are fundamental physical reasons for paper, vellum, papyrus etc. to be approximately white, and there's no reason to think it refers to people.

Re: Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative

#973

It's pretty remarkable that this conflates: - Well-known slurs like "Jewed" - Outdated, now-offensive terms like "hermaphrodite" - Touchy metaphorical language like "slave replica" - Gendered terms that if you're being assiduous you probably want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,…

> Outdated, now-offensive terms like "hermaphrodite" Is there anything outdated if you talk about e.g. a hermaphroditic tree? I thought this was still the standard term in biology for species which practice sexual reproduction and normally or frequently have individuals with both kinds of reproductive organs, either simultaneously or alternately.

Intersex is the current preferred term for non-binary biological sex but it is one meant for people.

Although if you had say, a cat with ambiguous genitalia it wouldn't be offense to reference them as intersex.

Re: Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative

#974

It's pretty remarkable that this conflates: - Well-known slurs like "Jewed" - Outdated, now-offensive terms like "hermaphrodite" - Touchy metaphorical language like "slave replica" - Gendered terms that if you're being assiduous you probably want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,…

Yeah, once you get to "user" and "submit" it starts to appear as if these folks take offense to those words ever being defined in the first place. I refuse to apologize for useful words that exist not only in our language, but that are also deeply embedded in our minds. These people are demanding that we "forget" what we know is true, and replace it with something that is not true.

Misappropriating and subsequently weaponizing commonly used words is a trash move, imo, and it plainly exposes the lack of moral integrity of the persecutors. I find it very difficult to believe that such behavior is made in good faith.

Re: Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative

#976
post #893

This got dark quick: "basket case" Originally referred to one who has lost all four limbs and therefore needed to be carried around in a basket. I've only heard of basket case from the context of barely ridable motorcycle in a constant state of repair with its random parts in a basket. I wish it was my job to make this sort of document. I'd make up all sorts of crazy backstories for slang no one has ever heard of.

I feel like someone that had no limbs would still be too heavy to carry around in a basket. What is the weight of a delimbed torso?

It varies by person. A quick search of body weight percentage is about 4-5% per arm and 16-17% per leg. For a 150 lb while intact man that would be about 70ish to 80ish pounds. Baskets may be carried by multiple people or dragged though.

Apparently according to one source the basket case origin was a result of rumor telephone and loss of context. https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2014/08/basket-case.html

Re: Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative

#977

They apparently spider and scan their own websites for "harmful" language: I just find this wild. How and when did language itself become so dangerous to this degree? Along with most adults in my social circle, I care and think about my health, my family, my friends, my work, my dog, my environment, my community, etc. I could not give a flying fuck about language policing. Language isn't going to protect me on my bik…

[deleted]

Re: Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative

#978

It'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,…

It’s make-work. Stanford has nearly as many administrators as students, and they have to justify their paychecks somehow. This is just a resume padding exercise for some unscrupulous ladder climber.

Re: Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative

#979

It'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,…

> Touchy metaphorical language like "slave replica"

Why is that touchy? It doesn't make any value judgements about slavery. It's just referencing the concept. If referencing the concept is bad, then I guess schools shouldn't teach it anymore? Let's all pretend there never was any slavery!

I wonder when someone will find a problem with 'kill' command.

Re: Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative

#980
post #520

It'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,…

It's my opinion that the best policy is no policy. If you make rules people will break them. And when the rules are so strict it means nobody bothers. If the rules aren't strict some will push it as far as they can. Everything has context. But in general I think people are far too easily offended today, and considering offense a valid issue to fight on has turned out to be a real rabbit hole. Unfortunately, there's n…

> Unfortunately, there's no way an institution is going to push back

If everyone pushed back harder, perhaps things would be different.

From what I remember, HN reacted mostly positively to someone's speculation that 'master' branch or 'blacklist' might offend black people (they weren't black themselves). Tons of comments arguing that changing it is not an issue, so we should do it.

Post reply on HN