Loaded terms in free software

Posted Jun 22, 2020 15:55 UTC (Mon) by nim-nim (subscriber, #34454)
In reply to: Loaded terms in free software by farnz
Parent article: Loaded terms in free software

What examples exactly?

You’ve provided none except for a piece of clearly offensive USA slang which is hardly in the same category as the common words you are crusading against.

Loaded terms in free software

Posted Jun 22, 2020 16:02 UTC (Mon) by farnz (subscriber, #17727) [Link] (4 responses)

Exactly - I provided an example, and you've completely ignored it because it doesn't fit your narrative.

And now, instead of addressing how this is also an example of language policing, and it does improve things, you're dismissing it as "clearly offensive" instead of explaining how it's an exception to your narrative.

Please, be consistent. Either language policing is an unmitigated bad, in which case you need to explain why this particular instance of language policing is an exception, or you accept that language policing is sometimes OK, in which case your whole argument (that we can't do this because language policing is an unmitigated bad) falls apart.

Loaded terms in free software

Posted Jun 22, 2020 16:24 UTC (Mon) by nim-nim (subscriber, #34454) [Link] (3 responses)

Yes, it is an example of policing, just like the deaths that triggered the current demonstrations were an example of policing.

The world is not binary and Manichean (like you want human language to be binary and Manichean).

A clear insult that can not be constructed as anything but an insult is not in the same category as common words which have many different applications.

And, BTW, thank you for confirming that your “examples” (plural) are limited to this single wikipedia link.

Loaded terms in free software

Posted Jun 22, 2020 16:49 UTC (Mon) by farnz (subscriber, #17727) [Link] (2 responses)

"nigger in the woodpile" is not an insult - it literally just means "something that ought to be discussed, but is being hidden instead".

And I'm not the one saying that language is binary and Manichean - that's your claim, to which I have added an example that you do not like, so you are instead reduced to insulting me because to do otherwise is to admit that your position is incoherent and amounts to "I like these words, why can't I make other people use them even though they want to change to other words they like better?"

And thank you for confirming that you don't want to engage with your own prejudices here, but instead want to be an authority about what I am and am not permitted to believe.

Loaded terms in free software

Posted Jun 25, 2020 5:58 UTC (Thu) by nim-nim (subscriber, #34454) [Link] (1 responses)

You can be whoever you want to be. That's not my business. Just like others can be whoever they want to be. That's not *your* business to police.

Policing behaviour is a matter for the police, applying democratically voted laws, not for self appointed vigilantes that invent strenuous pretexts so they can indulge in harassment and bask in the power of imposing their will on others

Loaded terms in free software

Posted Jun 25, 2020 7:47 UTC (Thu) by farnz (subscriber, #17727) [Link]

And yet you are policing people's behaviour, by saying that they are not permitted to change the language used in FOSS to language they are more comfortable with?

Why are you so damned upset about people stepping up to do the work to change the language here?