Loaded terms in free software

Posted Jun 19, 2020 22:02 UTC (Fri) by NYKevin (subscriber, #129325)
In reply to: Loaded terms in free software by nybble41
Parent article: Loaded terms in free software

> In five or ten years we'll find ourselves right back here, once again sacrificing a few more perfectly innocent words in hopes of appeasing that unfortunate vocal minority who cannot help but find reason to take offense wherever they look.

Language has shifted in this fashion for hundreds if not thousands of years (see for example the various words meaning "a person with dark skin" that have been used over the years). Why stop now?

More to the point: What makes you believe it is *possible* to stop now? Do you imagine we will set up an English equivalent to the Académie Française, that will review every proposed change to the language, and issue recommendations that everyone will ignore (see https://xkcd.com/1726/)? I tend to imagine most of us could find a less Sisyphean use of our time.

Loaded terms in free software

Posted Jun 20, 2020 1:52 UTC (Sat) by milesrout (subscriber, #126894) [Link] (1 responses)

>Do you imagine we will set up an English equivalent to the Académie Française, that will review every proposed change to the language, and issue recommendations that everyone will ignore (see https://xkcd.com/1726/)?

But that's the problem: that's what people are trying to do to English. Except instead of language experts doing it, it's woke American "liberals" (poor use of terminology by the Americans there, because there's nothing actually liberal in the traditional sense of the word about restricting what words people can use, that's authoritarian) on Twitter telling people what language they're allowed to use, then calling them racist if they don't comply.

Loaded terms in free software

Posted Jun 20, 2020 6:27 UTC (Sat) by NYKevin (subscriber, #129325) [Link]

Yes, languages are under the control of the speakers, not the experts, exactly as my comment describes. People are organically expressing their displeasure at hearing a given word, and sooner or later it will become unacceptable. You can't really stop that from happening. It's a natural linguistic process that has happened a thousand times before and will happen a thousand times hence.