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Ten years ago, the rhetorical buzzwords of that period had gotten really, really tedious. Words like: - Patriot - Freedom - Terrorism - Never Forget

Ten years ago, the rhetorical buzzwords of that period had gotten really, really tedious. Words like: - Patriot - Freedom - Terrorism - Never Forget - If we don't do X, they win Ten years later, and I'm glad those words are a joke by now. But only to face new words: - Privilege - Trigger - Victim Blaming - Social Justice - Perpetuating false narratives Buzzwords only have currency with people who want others to stop thinking deeply about what they're reading or hearing. When I see buzzwords, especially the politicized variety, I'm pushed away from an article, because I sense an attempt to manipulate and pander to a preferred audience, and that feels dishonest to me.

james-watson 10y ago
Indeed, the political class is frighteningly relentless at churning out new versions their doublespeak vocabularies designed to balkanize the voting population. As you rightly stated, these "power words" change with the political climate, but they all serve the same purpose: to divide and conquer. Balkanize the voter base in any way possible, and you have a fractured and easily controlled populace. It appears modern democracy has been fully gamed.
gcheong 10y ago
Wrong post?
- alexc05 10y ago
  Not really, the title of the BLOG uses 'bullshit', but the post as it appears on backser-news reads 'privilege' (at least via this link https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11802664 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11802664, it appeared on my front-page as bullshit so I'm wondering if this has been edited by a HN admin) If you CTRL+F the blog post for "privilege" you will see that the rant eventually turns to the topic to underscore somethingorother. So the comment you're replying to lamenting the use of "privilege" in a somewhat asinine and ranty way seems on target. "Pissed off developer rants" are pretty tired though. I'm not sure I'm really a fan of this guy's line of thinking or his outrage over it. Like it or not, stepping outside of the 9 to 5 / collect-a-regular paycheck is a risk. It is brave in some ways. He's right in others that it does require a safety net & confidence which people raised in low-income environments might not enjoy... but the blog-post doesn't help anything.
ravenstine 10y ago
I couldn't agree more.
xirdstl 10y ago
I have to agree. When I encounter those, I usually tune out or click away.
aub3bhat 10y ago
My favorite new ridiculous word is "silent technical privilege"[1] , according to which we now must apologize for having interests in technical subjects since childhood, rather than socializing and getting drunk like rest of the "unfortunate" kids. [1] http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2014/01/programmer_privilege_as_an_asian_male_computer_science_major_everyone_gave.html http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2014/01/...
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- fao_ 10y ago
  It isn't, and never has been, about apologising. It is about recognising that you had a step-up based on being part of a particular demographic, and then either acknowledging that other people won't necessarily have had those step-ups, helping to level the playing field by giving extra help to those who don't have that step-up, or both. So, basically equalising things a wee bit.
  - morgante 10y ago
    This is a new low. Apparently putting in the work to learn things is now a "privilege." We made the choice to spend our formative years immersed in technology. We suffered as a result. Maybe the bullies should start by apologizing and inviting us to their parties instead of demanding that we give them jobs. To be clear, I do agree that being middle class and having free time as a teenager is a privilege. What I disagree with is that my choice to spend that time programming instead of partying is a privilege.
    - TeMPOraL 10y ago
      > Maybe the bullies should start by apologizing and inviting us to their parties instead of demanding that we give them jobs. They have some nerve. They've already taken over the industry - your average programmer now is someone who picked software as a career path as an adult (starting university), and was not "into tech" as a kid. And now the already marginalized geeks are being called privileged?
thesimpsons1022 10y ago
I don't even see those that much. What is more annoying to me is the circlejerk against it. I feel like people spend hours crawling Tumblr to find some post like that and then try to pretend that's the mainstream opinion. You're really edgy and smart being on the percent of the other 99 pct of us.
geofft 10y ago
What about words like - Disruption - Free software - DevOps - Dragnet surveillance - Fair use - Intellectual property - Responsive design Are these words politicized buzzwords? Why or why not? They all seem to be shorthand words that deeply embed a particular worldview that not everyone agrees with. Do they also seem to you to be manipulative and pandering and dishonest?
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  No, but some of them are meaningless or harmful :). Like "disruption", which means everything and nothing nowadays, and is used to justify and glorify illegal behaviour (e.g. Uber). Or "responsive design", which while a good ideal in theory, in practice involves making the website useless for both desktop _and_ mobile at the same time. :).
lgessler 10y ago
Could you explain why you think "privilege" is a buzzword? If it had been peppered into the article haphazardly that would be another matter, but I felt that the author used it to help emphasize how different circumstances are between, say, a jaded Google engineer who graduated with a BS debt-free, and a Bangladeshi mother of five who's worked in a sweatshop since she was 15.
Malarkey73 10y ago
I also find these buzzwords annoying - but they're different. 'Privilege' is the only term from that list in the article... 'Trigger' I find annoying in almost every context; with the exception of facilities for the clinically traumatised I abhor the idea. 'Victim Blaming' is a useful term but I'm sure overused. 'Social Justice' seems more often these days sarcastically used as in 'Social Justice Warrior' 'Perpetuating false narratives' does seem just a pompous way of saying lies/propaganda. ... but returning to 'Privilege' I think that's a term that is overused - and annoyingly as in 'check your privilege' can be used to shut down a conversation or deny a viewpoint because of who someone is. A pernicious form of ad hominem. And yet reading the article I think the argument is well made and the term 'privilege' is not used glibly. So perhaps it's unfair to write off the point just because that one word is used?
ZenoArrow 10y ago
I realise it's a bit buzzwordy, but social justice is a useful catch-all term when describing what political activists fight for. Is there a term you prefer in its place?
internaut 10y ago
Amen. It just kills me. All politic factions are guilty of it.

james-watson 10y ago

Indeed, the political class is frighteningly relentless at churning out new versions their doublespeak vocabularies designed to balkanize the voting population. As you rightly stated, these "power words" change with the political climate, but they all serve the same purpose: to divide and conquer. Balkanize the voter base in any way possible, and you have a fractured and easily controlled populace. It appears modern democracy has been fully gamed.

gcheong 10y ago

Wrong post?

alexc05 10y ago
Not really, the title of the BLOG uses 'bullshit', but the post as it appears on backser-news reads 'privilege' (at least via this link https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11802664 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11802664, it appeared on my front-page as bullshit so I'm wondering if this has been edited by a HN admin) If you CTRL+F the blog post for "privilege" you will see that the rant eventually turns to the topic to underscore somethingorother. So the comment you're replying to lamenting the use of "privilege" in a somewhat asinine and ranty way seems on target. "Pissed off developer rants" are pretty tired though. I'm not sure I'm really a fan of this guy's line of thinking or his outrage over it. Like it or not, stepping outside of the 9 to 5 / collect-a-regular paycheck is a risk. It is brave in some ways. He's right in others that it does require a safety net & confidence which people raised in low-income environments might not enjoy... but the blog-post doesn't help anything.

ravenstine 10y ago

I couldn't agree more.

xirdstl 10y ago

I have to agree. When I encounter those, I usually tune out or click away.

aub3bhat 10y ago

My favorite new ridiculous word is "silent technical privilege"[1] , according to which we now must apologize for having interests in technical subjects since childhood, rather than socializing and getting drunk like rest of the "unfortunate" kids. [1] http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2014/01/programmer_privilege_as_an_asian_male_computer_science_major_everyone_gave.html http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2014/01/...

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
fao_ 10y ago
It isn't, and never has been, about apologising. It is about recognising that you had a step-up based on being part of a particular demographic, and then either acknowledging that other people won't necessarily have had those step-ups, helping to level the playing field by giving extra help to those who don't have that step-up, or both. So, basically equalising things a wee bit.
- morgante 10y ago
  This is a new low. Apparently putting in the work to learn things is now a "privilege." We made the choice to spend our formative years immersed in technology. We suffered as a result. Maybe the bullies should start by apologizing and inviting us to their parties instead of demanding that we give them jobs. To be clear, I do agree that being middle class and having free time as a teenager is a privilege. What I disagree with is that my choice to spend that time programming instead of partying is a privilege.
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    > Maybe the bullies should start by apologizing and inviting us to their parties instead of demanding that we give them jobs. They have some nerve. They've already taken over the industry - your average programmer now is someone who picked software as a career path as an adult (starting university), and was not "into tech" as a kid. And now the already marginalized geeks are being called privileged?

thesimpsons1022 10y ago

I don't even see those that much. What is more annoying to me is the circlejerk against it. I feel like people spend hours crawling Tumblr to find some post like that and then try to pretend that's the mainstream opinion. You're really edgy and smart being on the percent of the other 99 pct of us.

geofft 10y ago

What about words like - Disruption - Free software - DevOps - Dragnet surveillance - Fair use - Intellectual property - Responsive design Are these words politicized buzzwords? Why or why not? They all seem to be shorthand words that deeply embed a particular worldview that not everyone agrees with. Do they also seem to you to be manipulative and pandering and dishonest?

TeMPOraL 10y ago
No, but some of them are meaningless or harmful :). Like "disruption", which means everything and nothing nowadays, and is used to justify and glorify illegal behaviour (e.g. Uber). Or "responsive design", which while a good ideal in theory, in practice involves making the website useless for both desktop _and_ mobile at the same time. :).

lgessler 10y ago

Could you explain why you think "privilege" is a buzzword? If it had been peppered into the article haphazardly that would be another matter, but I felt that the author used it to help emphasize how different circumstances are between, say, a jaded Google engineer who graduated with a BS debt-free, and a Bangladeshi mother of five who's worked in a sweatshop since she was 15.

Malarkey73 10y ago

I also find these buzzwords annoying - but they're different. 'Privilege' is the only term from that list in the article... 'Trigger' I find annoying in almost every context; with the exception of facilities for the clinically traumatised I abhor the idea. 'Victim Blaming' is a useful term but I'm sure overused. 'Social Justice' seems more often these days sarcastically used as in 'Social Justice Warrior' 'Perpetuating false narratives' does seem just a pompous way of saying lies/propaganda. ... but returning to 'Privilege' I think that's a term that is overused - and annoyingly as in 'check your privilege' can be used to shut down a conversation or deny a viewpoint because of who someone is. A pernicious form of ad hominem. And yet reading the article I think the argument is well made and the term 'privilege' is not used glibly. So perhaps it's unfair to write off the point just because that one word is used?

ZenoArrow 10y ago

I realise it's a bit buzzwordy, but social justice is a useful catch-all term when describing what political activists fight for. Is there a term you prefer in its place?

internaut 10y ago

Amen. It just kills me. All politic factions are guilty of it.