| ▲ | jasoncartwright 13 hours ago |
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| ▲ | nine_k 13 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| Well, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonce_word It makes me sad when a secondary meaning, which does not even overcome the main meaning in usage, becomes an obstacle for the normal use of a word. It's like seeing a rainbow as a sexualized symbol not fit for children, because it also happens to be used by LGBTQ+ community. (BTW, since you're a Brit: did people stop using the word "fag" to refer to a cigarette?) |
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| ▲ | jasoncartwright 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Yes, words have multiple meanings - but only some words are apparently worthy of censorship - which is my point. > did people stop using the word "fag" to refer to a cigarette? Yes, seems so. I've not heard that in at least a decade | |
| ▲ | bigstrat2003 12 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I mean, it is sad. But unfortunately that is what happened with "master", "slave", "whitelist", and "blacklist". No reasonable person construed these as offensive or having any implications about the wider world. But there are people in our profession who are determined to take offense where none is given, and unfortunately they got their way. | | |
| ▲ | nine_k 11 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Well, "slave" has a pretty direct main meaning of an oppressed person doing forced labor. The word "master" is much milder in this regard (compare "master's degree" and "slave's degree"). The word "nonce" in normal usage seems even more removed from any pejorative secondary meanings. | |
| ▲ | nine_k 9 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | More to your point, yes, taking offense can be turned into a weapon: https://nassimtaleb.org/2016/08/intolerant-wins-dictatorship... | | |
| ▲ | jasoncartwright 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Amusing to have my throwaway comment replied to with links to earnest points from prominent essayists. Never change, hacker news! |
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| ▲ | tomhow 12 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| We don't need to bring this kind of thing up. We're not school children and most of us are technology professionals, so the meaning is clear. These guidelines are relevant here: Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes. Please don't pick the most provocative thing in an article or post to complain about in the thread. Find something interesting to respond to instead. Please don't complain about tangential annoyances—e.g. ... name collisions ... . They're too common to be interesting. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html |
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| ▲ | tdfirth 13 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| American hegemony, and all that. |
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| ▲ | diath 12 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Context |
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| ▲ | harshreality 12 hours ago | parent [-] | | That didn't stop people from throwing a fit over master-slave terminology in software (having nothing to do with slavery), going so far as to rename long-standing development branch names, as well as put significant effort into removing such terms from the code itself and any documentation. |
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