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Master/slave has a technical meaning beyond the sense of one person enslaving another. "Nigger" has no use case outside of making horrible and offensive remark

Master/slave has a technical meaning beyond the sense of one person enslaving another. "Nigger" has no use case outside of making horrible and offensive remarks, aside from historical writing (e.g. To Kill a Mockingbird) or making a point about racism, cases in which it is accepted.

mason55 6y ago
So, two things (and I realize you aren't the person I originally replied to). 1. Your argument here is implicitly agreeing with my point number one. There are terms that would be considered too offensive and so the conversation is about where the line falls. We can't just say "let's not ever talk about whether a term is offensive" because there are some that we really wouldn't want to use, and so we should be talking about what terms are too offensive and why. 2. This is the conversation what what's too offensive and why. "Master/slave" only has technical meaning because we've been using it that way for awhile. But master/slave was originally picked because of its meaning in the historical context of slavery. The terminology itself has no inherent technical meaning. So, to me at least, that is not a great argument for why we shouldn't change it now. But at least this part of the discussion is two people talking about the same premise and not arguing past each other.
- da_big_ghey 6y ago
  My point is that master/slave actually conveys a relationship between two things. It was picked for technical use because of that. Naming something "nigger", even in a technical would do what, offend some other piece of code? If somebody chose an offensive name arbitrarily (like, say, "git"), I would understand the impulse. Though the former is fraught with specific and awful connotations towards a very specific group (American blacks) whereas the latter is simply a general derogatory term (which is tacky, but not unbearably so).
  - aaomidi 6y ago
    To me master and slave is soemthing that shouldn't convey a relationship. Slavery exists with the shitiness of our culture. That's not something that should be used to convey a relationship between things. Abuse shouldn't be part of our technical language.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - allarm 6y ago
      Maybe it’s you who should stop being abused by random words? Change yourself, leave me my technical language I’ve been using for decades, please. Also a fun part of it is that in my (non-english speaking) country the terms master/slave are being used in their technical meaning only (as loan words). Why do we need to change our technical language and adjust to the concept of guilt that is completely foreign to us? I find this offensive.
  - whynaut 6y ago
    > My point is that master/slave actually conveys a relationship between two things. yes, it implies a negative one though. What about manager/worker? mentor/mentee? commander / responder? I could go on and on. So we do reach a point where one has to wonder what the point of clinging to master/slave is.
pseudalopex 6y ago
I agree it isn't the same as a racial slur but master and slave mean completely different things in different systems. Usually if not always there are more descriptive terms like primary and replica.
touristtam 6y ago
There have been cases in other western language where the word nigger (or its local variation) was used to describe an actual object or an activity. Since then it has often been scrubbed out. Was it the right thing to do? Was it wrong? The point is the word has been used and abused over the years, but the connotation one could infer from its use still exist. Banning the use of the word doesn't address the root of the behaviour, only its symptoms.
dragonwriter 6y ago
> Master/slave has a technical meaning beyond the sense of one person enslaving another It's not “beyond”, it's literally the use of human slavery as a metaphor for relations between technical components.

mason55 6y ago

So, two things (and I realize you aren't the person I originally replied to). 1. Your argument here is implicitly agreeing with my point number one. There are terms that would be considered too offensive and so the conversation is about where the line falls. We can't just say "let's not ever talk about whether a term is offensive" because there are some that we really wouldn't want to use, and so we should be talking about what terms are too offensive and why. 2. This is the conversation what what's too offensive and why. "Master/slave" only has technical meaning because we've been using it that way for awhile. But master/slave was originally picked because of its meaning in the historical context of slavery. The terminology itself has no inherent technical meaning. So, to me at least, that is not a great argument for why we shouldn't change it now. But at least this part of the discussion is two people talking about the same premise and not arguing past each other.

da_big_ghey 6y ago
My point is that master/slave actually conveys a relationship between two things. It was picked for technical use because of that. Naming something "nigger", even in a technical would do what, offend some other piece of code? If somebody chose an offensive name arbitrarily (like, say, "git"), I would understand the impulse. Though the former is fraught with specific and awful connotations towards a very specific group (American blacks) whereas the latter is simply a general derogatory term (which is tacky, but not unbearably so).
- aaomidi 6y ago
  To me master and slave is soemthing that shouldn't convey a relationship. Slavery exists with the shitiness of our culture. That's not something that should be used to convey a relationship between things. Abuse shouldn't be part of our technical language.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - allarm 6y ago
    Maybe it’s you who should stop being abused by random words? Change yourself, leave me my technical language I’ve been using for decades, please. Also a fun part of it is that in my (non-english speaking) country the terms master/slave are being used in their technical meaning only (as loan words). Why do we need to change our technical language and adjust to the concept of guilt that is completely foreign to us? I find this offensive.
- whynaut 6y ago
  > My point is that master/slave actually conveys a relationship between two things. yes, it implies a negative one though. What about manager/worker? mentor/mentee? commander / responder? I could go on and on. So we do reach a point where one has to wonder what the point of clinging to master/slave is.

pseudalopex 6y ago

I agree it isn't the same as a racial slur but master and slave mean completely different things in different systems. Usually if not always there are more descriptive terms like primary and replica.

touristtam 6y ago

There have been cases in other western language where the word nigger (or its local variation) was used to describe an actual object or an activity. Since then it has often been scrubbed out. Was it the right thing to do? Was it wrong? The point is the word has been used and abused over the years, but the connotation one could infer from its use still exist. Banning the use of the word doesn't address the root of the behaviour, only its symptoms.

dragonwriter 6y ago

> Master/slave has a technical meaning beyond the sense of one person enslaving another It's not “beyond”, it's literally the use of human slavery as a metaphor for relations between technical components.