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George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

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Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#261
post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are correct. People will be fine with the general idea of killing animals. But. In those thousand of years, was the meat produced the same way? What type of antibiotics alternative were our elders using to prevent sickness in large groups of animals? Did they raised them squeezed next to each other without moving for their all life? Where our forefathers feeding a purée of the dead one to the next generat…

They would have used any and every type of antibiotic or other technique that resulted in being able to make more food, because they probably had personal memories of loved ones starving to death when there wasn’t enough food. I know for a fact they would do this because it is in fact what they did.

Or; they would have space out the animals. Allowing them to shit not on themselves and the one next to their anus.

And tadam. You don’t need antibiotics.

It’s the filthy condition we produce our meat into that require that.

And those technics are not mandatory to produce that much meat. This is needed to producing at a certain price, on a schedule.

it’s not really about starving to death anymore. But rather cranking the profit margin a bit higher.

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Allowlist/blocklist is more clear and accurate tho? The software community loves to complain about this stuff like the change from master to main branch but I always get the sense that people just liked to complain rather than any meaningful objection.

>Allowlist/blocklist is more clear and accurate tho? No it's not, not at all. Is "blocklist" a list of file system blocks? Bitcoin or other crypro blocks? As someone who speaks English as a second language, the first time I read "whitelist/blacklist", I simply looked them up in a translation dictionary and immediately understood what they mean. Those are actual words with definitions spanning centuries. >The software…

Is a blacklist a list of black pixels on the screen?

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#263
post #24

One I recently heard was "conducting a rif" == "conducting a reduction in force" == "firing people". Soft language is alway to the benefit of the speaker, to assuage guilt or obfuscate intent. It's always to the detriment of the listener.

How is "firing people" more clear in intent than "Reduction in force"? Reduction in force/cutting costs is usually the intent. People getting fired is a side effect. "Firing people" is a more vivid picture, which is exactly why it is not the right term - it's too personal a term for something that usually is not personal. Performance-based layoffs = Firing. Cost/business-outlook-based layoffs = RIFs.

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Allowlist/blocklist is more clear and accurate tho? No it's not, not at all. Is "blocklist" a list of file system blocks? Bitcoin or other crypro blocks? As someone who speaks English as a second language, the first time I read "whitelist/blacklist", I simply looked them up in a translation dictionary and immediately understood what they mean. Those are actual words with definitions spanning centuries. >The software…

Is a blacklist a list of black pixels on the screen?

[deleted]

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Allowlist/blocklist is more clear and accurate tho? No it's not, not at all. Is "blocklist" a list of file system blocks? Bitcoin or other crypro blocks? As someone who speaks English as a second language, the first time I read "whitelist/blacklist", I simply looked them up in a translation dictionary and immediately understood what they mean. Those are actual words with definitions spanning centuries. >The software…

Is a blacklist a list of black pixels on the screen?

According to practically any and every translation dictionary made in the last century, no, it is not.

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Controlling the language. It's a big thing. And that's underselling how big it is. Language is the API to our brains. That's at least half the point Orwell's 1984 makes.

I get what you mean. But we also have this thing called Science. Where a firsthand encounter with nonlinguistic reality is considered key. And Science has proven its power over and over. And you'd think that would impress people. Even if you lay the forms and products of our modern scientific culture aside. Just that philosophy. The supremacy of observation. You'd think it would lead to a momentary pause in the babbl…

I don't think that what you're saying and what I'm saying are mutually exclusive at all. Science is how we tease out truths about reality. Language is about how we communicate and is closely linked with cognition.

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#267
post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's soft language for 'civilian casualties', even though it can include other things like property destruction.

Which term would you use to distinguish between deliberate and accidental civilian casualties?

Does the father whose daughter didn’t come home from school care if the “civilian casualty” was deliberate or accidental?

“Stop killing kids” sounds much more impactful than “establish rules of engagement to minimize collateral damage”. Language matters.

Similarly: Does the worker without a job care whether they were fired, laid off, or affected by a reduction in force? Probably not. But “affected by a reduction in force” sure makes it easier for leadership to press the button.

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#268
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dave Chappelle walked away from money out of principle when it came to making jokes about people like him for white audiences, but happily cracks jokes about trans people. He's a has-been and a hypocrite and Carlin would end his career.

What's wrong with making jokes about trans people? Christians never seem to get bothered when people make jokes about them. Not like Jews or Muslims, especially since October 7th Maybe Jews and Muslims and Trans people should be more like Christians. When someone is making a joke at your expense, turn the other cheek

Right?

What is this thing about some groups being "off limits" while others are fetishized and babied?

There's no longer anything "brave" in making a joke about a "safe group" to joke about.

In today's day and age since trans is the new sacred cow amongst certain crowds in the Western world, it seems natural that that would be the subject of jokes.

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#269
post #197
post #24

One I recently heard was "conducting a rif" == "conducting a reduction in force" == "firing people". Soft language is alway to the benefit of the speaker, to assuage guilt or obfuscate intent. It's always to the detriment of the listener.

Reduction is a negative word. Could trigger the snowflakes at your office. I think the correct term is "reassessment of human resources" or "restructuring", it is a bit like guy who steals your car at gunpoint in SF but is kind enough to ask you your preferred pronoun.

> steals

I believe the correct term for this is "reallocation."

Re: George Carlin's "Soft Language" (2019)

#270
I'm in the UK and have recently started hearing the euphemism "passed" instead of "died". I find it confusing, at least for a moment, as I track back in the conversation to identify a thing the person could have passed by. Then I realise, and start pondering how there is an implication added by the euphemism , that there is an afterlife someone has passed into.
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