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> might possibly ought to be offended Have you considered the possibility that people other than you do find the terms offensive, and have asked for them to be

by zapita 8y ago

> might possibly ought to be offended Have you considered the possibility that people other than you do find the terms offensive, and have asked for them to be changed? > This [...] is the kind of thing that makes the people who doubt much more certain of their skepticism and should be considered harmful. Those of us who live in the US are painfully familiar with this line of thinking... "you better change your ways if you want to convince me about this whole human decency thing! I'm still on the fence about being an asshole, and it's all your fault". Guess what, nobody cares about your skepticism, because you're not in a position to decide on this issue, thankfully. Nobody is trying to change your mind, either. All that we ask, as a society, is that you keep your intolerance within the scope of the law, and refrain from killing or beating people as a result of your bottled up anger and sense of entitlement.

jasonvorhe 8y ago
Thanks for that reply. ️
colechristensen 8y ago
>Have you considered the possibility that people other than you do find the terms offensive, and have asked for them to be changed? I have considered it. I would indeed be eager to speak with someone who actually was offended by the term. That is not someone who is offended because they believe it might offend a third party, someone who themselves feel hurt by the prevalence of calling a computer a "slave" or a person a "master" in this context in a way they believe is _significant_ and _important_. I would love to talk to such a person and understand their perspective, but the point I am trying to make is I seriously doubt such a person exists. I would also like to know if such a person would also be offended by the word "robot" which is a loanword meaning literally 'slave' in Czech. There is a rising problem in society of people who ally themselves with straw-men and make moral issues in support of dubious claims of oppression. To be fair, it isn't a new problem. Virtue signaling or boasting of one's own moral superiority by shaming others is as old as society. In the last century in America most of this was about being a good Christian. This century we're in a transition towards greater irrelevance of religion and conservative morals, with the new most popular moral boasting point being about who can be the best liberal. My point is not that issues of tolerance do not exist in our society, it is that increasingly, many people talking the most about tolerance seem to be doing so to further their own feelings of moral superiority and to display that to their communities. There is a disconnect between their actions and actual empathy for real people they encounter. That is, to come back to the original point, nowhere can I find evidence of this change being attributed to empathy towards a real person who experienced grief. Just a lot of talk about people expecting the change will make people they suppose to exist feel better. That sort of empathy for the strawman is harmful because 1) it distracts from actual issues and 2) it diminishes the position of people talking about actual issues.

by zapita 8y ago

jasonvorhe 8y ago

Thanks for that reply. ️

colechristensen 8y ago

>Have you considered the possibility that people other than you do find the terms offensive, and have asked for them to be changed? I have considered it. I would indeed be eager to speak with someone who actually was offended by the term. That is not someone who is offended because they believe it might offend a third party, someone who themselves feel hurt by the prevalence of calling a computer a "slave" or a person a "master" in this context in a way they believe is _significant_ and _important_. I would love to talk to such a person and understand their perspective, but the point I am trying to make is I seriously doubt such a person exists. I would also like to know if such a person would also be offended by the word "robot" which is a loanword meaning literally 'slave' in Czech. There is a rising problem in society of people who ally themselves with straw-men and make moral issues in support of dubious claims of oppression. To be fair, it isn't a new problem. Virtue signaling or boasting of one's own moral superiority by shaming others is as old as society. In the last century in America most of this was about being a good Christian. This century we're in a transition towards greater irrelevance of religion and conservative morals, with the new most popular moral boasting point being about who can be the best liberal. My point is not that issues of tolerance do not exist in our society, it is that increasingly, many people talking the most about tolerance seem to be doing so to further their own feelings of moral superiority and to display that to their communities. There is a disconnect between their actions and actual empathy for real people they encounter. That is, to come back to the original point, nowhere can I find evidence of this change being attributed to empathy towards a real person who experienced grief. Just a lot of talk about people expecting the change will make people they suppose to exist feel better. That sort of empathy for the strawman is harmful because 1) it distracts from actual issues and 2) it diminishes the position of people talking about actual issues.