Python finally offloads some batteries [LWN.net]

Python finally offloads some batteries

Posted Mar 25, 2022 7:13 UTC (Fri) by oldtomas (guest, #72579)
In reply to: Python finally offloads some batteries by pebolle
Parent article: Python finally offloads some batteries

If the name describes the situation adequately ("leech", in this case a metaphor), I don't have issues with it.

That's what names have been made for, after all.

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Python finally offloads some batteries

Posted Mar 28, 2022 13:23 UTC (Mon) by nye (guest, #51576) [Link] (2 responses)

> If the name describes the situation adequately ("leech", in this case a metaphor), I don't have issues with it

A leech is a parasite that latches on to an unwilling host and drains the life out of it to sustain itself. Some metaphor. In fact, the word is specifically used as a particularly emotive term of derision and hatred; it implies that the speaker *utterly despises* the person they're talking about.

Basically, it's a more specific way of describing somebody as a "worthless fucking cunt", or similar. On the offensiveness scale, it's high enough that I can only really think of one word that's higher but that I might occasionally use in close company when senselessly enraged; everything higher than *that* I wouldn't even *think*, let alone say.

Python finally offloads some batteries

Posted Mar 28, 2022 21:21 UTC (Mon) by pebolle (guest, #35204) [Link]

> it implies that the speaker *utterly despises* the person they're talking about.

Exactly. And the infuriating part, for me, is that this metaphor is used for people and organizations doing what I thought was the right thing: using Free Software.

Python finally offloads some batteries

Posted Mar 29, 2022 10:11 UTC (Tue) by kleptog (subscriber, #1183) [Link]

Maybe it's a cultural thing? A leech (in my experience) doesn't tend to harm the host, and they go away by themselves. They are at most temporarily irritating.

However, I just looked it up in the dictionary and it has definitions involving the words "exploit" and "extort" which are much more negative. If that's the meaning you're using then I can see the statement being interpreted very differently.