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'Master' and 'slave': Tech terms face scrutiny amid anti-racism efforts

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james_s:

--- Quote from: tom66 on June 19, 2020, 06:49:18 pm ---I am on the spectrum and the Onion skits are bloody hilarious. I have too had people say that autistic comedy is not funny.  Fuck off.  It is (usually) hilarious.  I don't care if you think it is offensive because of your pre-conceived notions of what humour should be for people who aren't neurotypical.

--- End quote ---

My favorite is the one where he's covering the accident where a train hit and killed a pedestrian. "The train is ok!!"  :-DD

I find it very annoying though that they imply that the conductor is driving the train rather than an engineer and the guy is dressed right out of the late 1800's steam era.

Whenever I hear about a car accident, plane crash, etc, the first thing that pops into my head is to worry about whether the vehicle is damaged and if it can be repaired. Then it occurs to me that I should probably at least ask if anybody was hurt.

james_s:

--- Quote from: dunkemhigh on June 19, 2020, 06:15:47 pm ---
--- Quote ---"where are you from" could be offensive
--- End quote ---

I guess it might be interpreted as being 'where were you born?' whereas 'where is it that you call home' can only reasonably be interpreted very narrowly as where are they living right now (except... they might be living away from home...).

It's quite subtle and would require the person being questioned to be offended before considering what the question means, IMO. I would say that anyone not assuming it meant 'where is home' is expecting to be put upon.

Except... I am white. Suppose I was an African American - if someone asked me that I might well think they are asking my birth country since it wouldn't be obvious (not that being white makes it any simpler, just the assumptions are fewer) and I might have been asked that specifically before.

--- End quote ---

The question usually comes to my mind when someone has an accent I can't quite place, it has nothing to do with their skin color. If a black, hispanic, Indian, etc person speaks fluent american english with no obvious accent then I'll normally assume they grew up here. If they have a thick accent, even if they're white and look essentially the same as I do, I'm curious to know where they're from. It's not a judgemental thing, it's simple curiosity. Smalltalk is difficult enough without all these new rules.

EEVblog:

--- Quote from: magic on June 19, 2020, 03:11:34 pm ---
--- Quote from: EEVblog on June 19, 2020, 01:43:17 pm ---Oh, and the person complaining almost always isn't part of that group they are complaining the word is offending.

--- End quote ---
No shortage of group members who will gladly agree to be represented by the "allies", man.

--- End quote ---

And in my personal experience there are more who don't want to be "represented" by the "allies".
I won't mention the words in question here as that will derail things, but usually the only people who contact me to complain are the "allies". They are even so bold as the email me saying "I've got a friend who watches you who would be deeply offended by that term". Well, don't be surprised when you get a stern email reply telling you to go away and have that person contact me directly if they have a problem.
I've had vastly more people from those actual groups contact me and tell me to not modify my language and that these "allies" don't represent them, than I've had "allies" complaining.

EEVblog:

--- Quote from: Simon on June 19, 2020, 08:20:07 pm ---
--- Quote from: JPortici on June 19, 2020, 08:16:11 pm ---
--- Quote from: EEVblog on June 19, 2020, 01:43:17 pm ---The worst is when you aren't even using the word to insult someone and you are using it in some other innocent context, but someone gets offended by it anyway

--- End quote ---

wait... like Master and Slave as in SPI communication
Gasp!

--- End quote ---

--- End quote ---

Yup. The argument is just so dumb it doesn't even warrant discussion in a normal functioning society.


--- Quote ---this whole debate is retarded to begin with.

--- End quote ---

Careful, you'll get people complaining about that term! Seriously, I get those complaints, even though they know full well that I'm using the term in the other perfectly ligitiment context talking about an idea or a thing etc.

I don't mind people getting upset or offended at something I said, that's ok. But once I explain to them the context and the intention, that should be that, end of discussion. But sadly in the vast majority of cases that doesn't happen, these people are simply incapable of understanding nuance and context. And it is impossible to hold any rational conversation with them.


--- Quote ---Basically if you look at any word you will find it has multiple contexts of interpretation. If you want guarantee of never upsetting anyone then every context needs it's own words meaning a huge expansion of the language with a ton of new terms to learn.
--- End quote ---

And even then the community (technical or otherwise) gets filled with multiple terms causing mass confusion. You can't just ban or stop using a term, it's impossible and completely impractical.
And then you end up with the extremists who will want existing textbooks rewritten because they contain the wrong term. It's practical insanity of the highest order. You can't have a well functioning society if you let this stuff take hold, it will infest everything.
Sorry, but those who are offended by out of context words will have to just suck it and deal with it and get on with life. Unfortunately those who are most bothered by this, it does seem to be a huge part of their social life, and for some reason they almost always on Twitter. These people need a different hobby than just finding offence in everything.

rsjsouza:
My biggest problem with these apparently mild changes of words is when the books start to be burned. After all, a lot is already being done to erase history and, as Brett Weinstein mentioned in the latest Joe Rogan Podcast, this is a very sophisticated technique to change and convert your mind: instead of brute force, you start agreeing with the "perpetrator" in a few common ground topucs and, through the use of fallacy and false equivalency, you end up far long in the doctrine.

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