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It is not clear to me from the article whether this is something which will be rolled out only to viewer from the UK, or to all viewers globally. If it's the l
by gervase 9y ago
It is not clear to me from the article whether this is something which will be rolled out only to viewer from the UK, or to all viewers globally.
If it's the latter, I think it will be received very dimly in countries with more-robust internet privacy regulations (or privacy-sensitive public sentiment) than what is currently the norm in the UK.
- nkkollaw 9y agoThey don't have to do it anywhere else, so they'll only do it in the UK. This is completely retarded. I'm not from the UK so it's fine, but do they really get paid to dream up this nonsense?
- dawhizkid 9y agoIt's 2018 and people are still using the word "retarded" as if it's not just as derogatory to people with intellectual/mental disabilities as the n-word is to black people.
- tanderson92 9y agoIt's not. The term also has scientific and mathematical uses separate and apart from its popular usage.
- dawhizkid 9y agoI'm specifically referring to the word's usage in the popular sense (as the the person replying used it), which is offensive.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- x76sd685 9y agoTrigger warning!
- hprotagonist 9y agolate 15c., "make slow or slower," from French retarder "restrain, hold (someone) back, keep (someone from doing something); come to a stop" (13c.) or directly from Latin retardare "make slow, delay, keep back, hinder" (see retardation). Related: Retarded; retarding. The noun is recorded from 1788 in the sense "retardation, delay;" from 1970 in offensive meaning "retarded person," originally American English, with accent on first syllable. It is completely fair to interpret this ID law as retarded in the first sense.
- dawhizkid 9y agothe person replying is using it in the second sense.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- eropple 9y ago> It is completely fair to interpret this ID law as retarded in the first sense. Which is in effectively zero cases the phrase being used here. The vernacular usage of the word is shitty and offensive. Instead of well-actuallying about maybe he meant it in the sense of the mechanical device or or or, maybe just be a person about it and recognize that the decent thing to do is to just not get your cape on for it? This isn't code. People know what you mean when you say something nasty and being cute about it just does not change anything.
- PostOnce 9y agoCan he not say "stupid" either because it's derogatory to stupid people? How about "bad", is that derogatory to bad people e.g. criminals? If it's not direct _at someone or some group_ and is not intended to belittle them for e.g. actually being mentally retarded, then it's harmless. We put too much emphasis on words and too little on intent.
- eropple 9y agoI mean...man, I recall kids in my high school saying "that's fucking Jewish" when they didn't like something. But that wouldn't have been directly at someone or some group, so it's copacetic, yeah? Maybe we should just be less awful about the words we use instead of trying to litigate that they're really okay, no, really, I said so.
- bitwize 9y ago"Retarded" was actually coined as a neutral replacement for "stupid", which started off neutral but had grown in colloquial use to the point of becoming an insult. And today you are not supposed to use "retarded" as a neutral term of art referring to cognitive development; "intellectual disability", "mentally challenged", "developmental delays", etc. are the new preferred terms.
- Joeboy 9y agoGetting way off topic, but I wonder if this euphemism treadmill is actually still in operation. It seems like it's been a while since one of these new "neutral" terms became a mainstream insult. But tbf I don't spend as much time in playgrounds as I did when I was younger.
- bitwize 9y agoI don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me if it continues in some form. The Jewish people have been on a euphemistic treadmill regarding how to refer to their deity for millennia now (and yes, it's still going in some sects; consider how modern Jews often type "G-d" despite no rabbinical prohibition on spelling God's name in English).
- dynamoa 9y agoI guess this means aircraft computers aren't allowed to tell pilots to slow down anymore.
- Joeboy 9y agoThis is a post where people get upset about access to porn being restricted. Calling out offensive language probably isn't a winning move here.
- nkkollaw 9y agoI have mixed feelings about this issue. When people say it, they're most often than not not even referring to people (as in this case). I don't immediately get how saying that _something_ is retarded is offensive to _people_. People seem to be getting offended for anything nowadays, even that they're asked if they're male of female because they identify as gender-fluid. Definitely NOT the same as the N word (weird that you even compare it)! However, to be on the safe side I generally agree with you. But then, we need to find an equivalent that would fit in cases like this. This isn't stupid, it's not inconvenient, it's just _retarded_. What else would you call this?
- Joeboy 9y ago> I don't immediately get how saying that _something_ is retarded is offensive to _people_. I actually think you could argue the opposite. Maybe it's forgivable to not keep up with the euphemism treadmill when talking about cognitively disadvantaged _people_, but referring negatively to _something_ by comparing it to cognitively disadvantaged people clearly contains a negative message about cognitively disadvantaged people.
- nkkollaw 9y agoI'm not comparing, I see "retarded"as a stronger "stupid". When you say "fat check" you're comparing to fat people, it's just the same adjective.
- kelnos 9y agoI agree that the euphemism treadmill is incredibly annoying, and I wish people in general would abstain from making outrage their default response, but... look, something like "idiotic" would have worked just as well in your original comment, and I doubt anyone would have complained. Even if "retarded" doesn't personally offend you (or me, to be honest), it does offend a bunch of people, and even if just for the sake of having a discussion in public about the actual article without having this useless OT digression, why not just use a less controversial word? If you honestly weren't aware that "retarded" is considered offensive now, ok, that's fine, but just accept it and please remember for next time. To dive more down this rabbit hole, the distinction is that we associate something like "idiot" with an incompetent person who has arrived at their incompetence through their own actions. "Retarded" refers to someone who is developmentally disabled, usually through no fault of their own. So using "retarded" in a derogatory sense -- even when not talking about a person -- is viewed as effectively pushing the idea that developmentally disabled people are to be looked down on. But we, as a culture, are fine with looking down on "idiots", at least for now, so there's no problem using "idiot" in that way. I'm not looking for an argument here about the merits of all of this. I don't particularly care about the merits or your (or my!) opinion of them. That's just how these words are viewed today by enough people to influence social norms. If you don't care about offending people, that's your prerogative, but for the sake of community discussion here on HN, it's better if we try to avoid these sorts of things. Let's try to keep the SN ratio high.
- rubicon33 9y agoSeriously man! And the name "John" is used to describe a toilet, and a user of prostitution. The atrocities of speech and the assault on our dignity in 2018 is truly astounding.
- trentmb 9y agoIts not, which is why you didnt say"r-word".
- youareretarded 9y agoYour objection to his comment is retarded.
- dang 9y agoIf you feel like a comment is egregious, please just flag it instead of feeding it. Replies that lead to off-topic flamewars just make the thread even worse. This is in the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html