Loaded terms in free software

Posted Jun 19, 2020 15:06 UTC (Fri) by nim-nim (subscriber, #34454)
In reply to: Loaded terms in free software by farnz
Parent article: Loaded terms in free software

You thoroughly underestimate the flexibility of human language and how it is dead-easy to construct coded and loaded sentences from common words.

Politicians and markeeting people do it all the time.

Loaded terms in free software

Posted Jun 19, 2020 15:24 UTC (Fri) by farnz (subscriber, #17727) [Link] (2 responses)

And you (a) assume things about me that aren't true, and (b) thoroughly overestimate the value of coded and loaded sentences for recruiting people who do not currently agree with you.

Bringing your co-believers along with you is easy; keeping the ideology going and recruiting new people is hard, and if you're in a position of having to say "we have a minority view, because we can't talk about it openly", you turn off far more people by having to say "well, we're an unpopular minority with our views" than you gain by the feeling of being part of a secret organisation.

It's why politicians like to talk about the "silent majority" - the idea is that people who aren't actively opposing you probably agree, but don't dare say it. If everyone's actively opposing, it becomes harder to make that argument.

Loaded terms in free software

Posted Jun 19, 2020 17:56 UTC (Fri) by nim-nim (subscriber, #34454) [Link] (1 responses)

You don’t need to work hard to recruit racist people. Racism has existed pretty much through all human history, it’s probably some leftover from earlier stages of human evolution. People do not use loaded sentences to recruit more racist people, they use loaded sentences to express their own racist views.

Loaded terms in free software

Posted Jun 19, 2020 21:55 UTC (Fri) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link]

> it’s probably some leftover from earlier stages of human evolution

Everyone needs an "us" and "them". In nature, species (and groups, and tribes) all want "Lebensraum". And unfortunately, skin colour, or accent, or any other distinguishable feature, rapidly becomes a basis for said "us" and "them". Isn't that how Peacocks grew such long tails?

Cheers,
Wol