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Let's say your project were written in Java. What if I asked you to rewrite the project in the C language because Java reminds me too much of the colonial peri
by tdons 6y ago
Let's say your project were written in Java. What if I asked you to rewrite the project in the C language because Java reminds me too much of the colonial period [1] and it is very painful for me because my ancestors suffered during this time.
Would you be open to that request? I mean, whatever, right? Who cares? Just do it. It might help me and perhaps others because to us Java is very painful. Oh, also, if you need an additional reason, Java is sexist because its file header starts with 0xCAFEBABE, another reason to switch to C.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java#Colonial_periods https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java#Colonial_periods
- hrktb 6y agoSimilar things happen all the time [0] An interesting thinking angle to this often “why was it fine before ?” Was it because nobody knew about that name/word in the first place ? Was there always incoming requests for change but those were just ignored as baseless, and as the social context changed discarding them is not as easy anymore ? Was it because the majority of users weren’t offended, but the user base changed enough that offended people’s voices go louder ? I find a lot of seemingly frivolous or petty word changes have a wider context that are not as simple as it looks on the surface. [0] https://github.com/thoughtbot/factory_bot/issues/1053 https://github.com/thoughtbot/factory_bot/issues/1053
- viraptor 6y agoThe amount of work here is completely incomparable to OP's example of changing few words. OP already mentioned "Without invoking slippery-slope arguments?"
- helixhelix 6y agoHow is that slippery slope? Are you saying only some people have the right to express hurt?
- eaton 6y agoTechnically not a slippery slope, just a false equivalency. Renaming a branch and rewriting a project in another language are in no way equivalent levels of effort, so comparing them based on the principle of "no skin off my back" the original poster articulated is disingenuous. Saying that the two cases are not equivalent is a criticism of the level-of-effort comparison, not a criticism of a particular people-group's subjective suffering.
- helixhelix 6y agoOh so ending racism and homophobia in the real world takes too much effort so let's make other people CTRL+H some files instead? That's pitiful and an insult to people who try.