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It seems disingenuous to bring up racial slurs in the context of profanity. They're two very different categories, even if they are both subsets of "words that

It seems disingenuous to bring up racial slurs in the context of profanity. They're two very different categories, even if they are both subsets of "words that can get you in trouble." As you acknowledge, the app in question was blocked for profanity, not slurs. As parent comment says, profanity seems to be mostly a religious issue. I can say "fuck" on TV, or in my novel, or even in my Hacker News comment. But I doubt I'd get away with such language in church, or a show I wanted to sell to a Puritanical USA audience. None of that has anything to do with slurs, which are much more widely agreed as "wrong." You can reasonably expect a service or file extension that turned out to accidentally be a slur would get a lot more attention, unlike "ASS"

ttt0 6y ago
First of all, do you think that promoting LGBT would fly in a church? I'm pretty sure it's far more offensive to a religious person than saying "fuck". Second, before this issue got so big and everyone started talking about it, the official line was that they need to be "advertiser friendly". As stupid as I think it is, it seems far more likely than your explanation.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  You seem far more sure than you should be; many churches are openly accepting of LGBT people.
  - ttt0 6y ago
    Hadn't that changed only very recently though? Not an American, so I forgot for a second that it's different there.
kube-system 6y ago
Generally speaking, profanity is language that is socially offensive. The reasons that the language might be offensive depends on the social makeup and norms of the group you're referring to. Sometimes those norms are driven by religion, sometimes they are driven by other factors, and sometimes it is a combination of reasons. For example, you can find instances of social groups that: 1. are not religious, but recognize the concept of profanity. 2. do not recognize some slurs as profane. 3. are religious, but do not recognize the same profanity as other social groups that belong to the same religion.
jaspax 6y ago
As kube-system said in a sister comment, "words that can get you in trouble" is the definition of profanity. [Wikipedia uses the phrase "socially offensive language"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profanity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profanity), which accords precisely with what I learned about the concept from sociolinguistics. So it's entirely in line with accepted definitions to treat taboo racial slurs as a kind of profanity.

ttt0 6y ago

First of all, do you think that promoting LGBT would fly in a church? I'm pretty sure it's far more offensive to a religious person than saying "fuck". Second, before this issue got so big and everyone started talking about it, the official line was that they need to be "advertiser friendly". As stupid as I think it is, it seems far more likely than your explanation.

saagarjha 6y ago
You seem far more sure than you should be; many churches are openly accepting of LGBT people.
- ttt0 6y ago
  Hadn't that changed only very recently though? Not an American, so I forgot for a second that it's different there.

kube-system 6y ago

Generally speaking, profanity is language that is socially offensive. The reasons that the language might be offensive depends on the social makeup and norms of the group you're referring to. Sometimes those norms are driven by religion, sometimes they are driven by other factors, and sometimes it is a combination of reasons. For example, you can find instances of social groups that: 1. are not religious, but recognize the concept of profanity. 2. do not recognize some slurs as profane. 3. are religious, but do not recognize the same profanity as other social groups that belong to the same religion.

jaspax 6y ago

As kube-system said in a sister comment, "words that can get you in trouble" is the definition of profanity. [Wikipedia uses the phrase "socially offensive language"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profanity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profanity), which accords precisely with what I learned about the concept from sociolinguistics. So it's entirely in line with accepted definitions to treat taboo racial slurs as a kind of profanity.