5 ms·

You realise Chinese have members of peaceful community in a literal concentration camp. I mean it's arguable whether it's good or bad because I've never met the

You realise Chinese have members of peaceful community in a literal concentration camp. I mean it's arguable whether it's good or bad because I've never met their particular peaceful community and don't know how much more peaceful it is but still mentioning so you can adjust your trigger.

julianlam 6y ago
I don't see what this has to do with the colloquial naming of SARS-CoV-2
- dmix 6y ago
  There's a ton of viruses named after the place of origin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mononegavirales#Order_organization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mononegavirales#Order_organiza... Informally that number is way higher. It's as common to use the original geographical source of the virus in the name as it is to use some chemistry/biology/latin driven name or in your case an acronym. Following formal guidelines in scientific papers and other formal discourse is another matter. Newspapers, social media, interpersonal communication, etc isn't a big deal IMO. People know what they are referring to. That's all that matters in that sort of language, humans are smart enough to figure out context and intention. Especially since there's nothing inherently 'wrong' with using relevant identifiers like geography. Trying to constantly redefine and re-purpose certain words/phrases in absolute terms is an arbitrary and endless fight against the reality of everyday language. It's ultimately a giant waste of time that only adds more personal/political/ideological baggage than it removes, to what common-sense was already more than sufficient to handle. It's also just as often used to 'spin' and attack people and purposefully misinterpret people's intentions and context of usage, despite it being obvious to the rational reader, as it is about 'protecting' others. It then makes us question your intentions in 'correcting' them as much as theirs in using it, and we're no better off in terms of clarity. The less of it, the better.
xster 6y ago
I suppose you're referring to the NED funded CHRD article which has since become gospel? https://thegrayzone.com/2019/12/21/china-detaining-millions-uyghurs-problems-claims-us-ngo-researcher/ https://thegrayzone.com/2019/12/21/china-detaining-millions-... Imagine if the Chinese army could materialize new media realities.
ookdatnog 6y ago
This is just a textbook example of whataboutism. One can object to a use of language that is likely to stir racist sentiment against Chinese people, and more broadly Asian people (as we very much have seen especially early in the outbreak), without implying support for the CCP.
aorth 6y ago
Yes I realize that, but the Uighur issue is unrelated to the current discussion...
bllguo 6y ago
not only is this unrelated, the whole justification for the concentration camps to begin with was uyghur terrorist attacks. i cant defend the concentration camps, of course, but "peaceful" just seems disingenuous
dang 6y ago
Please don't take HN threads further into nationalistic flamewar. These threads are all the same and we're trying to avoid endless, angry repetition here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

julianlam 6y ago

I don't see what this has to do with the colloquial naming of SARS-CoV-2

dmix 6y ago
There's a ton of viruses named after the place of origin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mononegavirales#Order_organization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mononegavirales#Order_organiza... Informally that number is way higher. It's as common to use the original geographical source of the virus in the name as it is to use some chemistry/biology/latin driven name or in your case an acronym. Following formal guidelines in scientific papers and other formal discourse is another matter. Newspapers, social media, interpersonal communication, etc isn't a big deal IMO. People know what they are referring to. That's all that matters in that sort of language, humans are smart enough to figure out context and intention. Especially since there's nothing inherently 'wrong' with using relevant identifiers like geography. Trying to constantly redefine and re-purpose certain words/phrases in absolute terms is an arbitrary and endless fight against the reality of everyday language. It's ultimately a giant waste of time that only adds more personal/political/ideological baggage than it removes, to what common-sense was already more than sufficient to handle. It's also just as often used to 'spin' and attack people and purposefully misinterpret people's intentions and context of usage, despite it being obvious to the rational reader, as it is about 'protecting' others. It then makes us question your intentions in 'correcting' them as much as theirs in using it, and we're no better off in terms of clarity. The less of it, the better.

xster 6y ago

I suppose you're referring to the NED funded CHRD article which has since become gospel? https://thegrayzone.com/2019/12/21/china-detaining-millions-uyghurs-problems-claims-us-ngo-researcher/ https://thegrayzone.com/2019/12/21/china-detaining-millions-... Imagine if the Chinese army could materialize new media realities.

ookdatnog 6y ago

This is just a textbook example of whataboutism. One can object to a use of language that is likely to stir racist sentiment against Chinese people, and more broadly Asian people (as we very much have seen especially early in the outbreak), without implying support for the CCP.

aorth 6y ago

Yes I realize that, but the Uighur issue is unrelated to the current discussion...

bllguo 6y ago

not only is this unrelated, the whole justification for the concentration camps to begin with was uyghur terrorist attacks. i cant defend the concentration camps, of course, but "peaceful" just seems disingenuous

dang 6y ago

Please don't take HN threads further into nationalistic flamewar. These threads are all the same and we're trying to avoid endless, angry repetition here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html