Loaded terms in free software

Posted Jun 17, 2020 22:03 UTC (Wed) by coogle (guest, #138507)
In reply to: Loaded terms in free software by rweikusat2
Parent article: Loaded terms in free software

> Political committees deciding on "allowed/ disallowed" use of language in order to "repair" history are straight out of the 1984 playbook.

Changing the word you use to reference something isn't re-writing history. There's a big difference between telling a story using different language, and telling a different story all together.

If one thing is true to this point, the history I was taught in school is NOT the actual history as it occurred -- just the parts someone else wanted me to know. Makes me ask myself who's actually be "repairing" history here.

Loaded terms in free software

Posted Jun 19, 2020 12:32 UTC (Fri) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link] (1 responses)

> > Political committees deciding on "allowed/ disallowed" use of language in order to "repair" history are straight out of the 1984 playbook.

> Changing the word you use to reference something isn't re-writing history. There's a big difference between telling a story using different language, and telling a different story all together.

Thing is, IT HAS THAT EFFECT. I've been reading Pepys, and it's full of references to black women. How many people here know what Pepys actually meant (it took me quite a while to find out)?

Cheers,
Wol

Loaded terms in free software

Posted Jun 19, 2020 14:08 UTC (Fri) by farnz (subscriber, #17727) [Link]

I do know what he meant - in that era, colour descriptions of people described their hair colour.