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Everything changes, language changes, but I wonder if erasing negative words might make us forget their meaning and repeat the history behind them.
by INTPenis 6y ago
Everything changes, language changes, but I wonder if erasing negative words might make us forget their meaning and repeat the history behind them.
- ColFrancis 6y agoI get the feeling sometimes that language is unstable in the absence of outside forcing. Stupid, moron, retard. People start using them as a pejorative and so a new neutral term is required. Lavatory, toilet, water closet, bathroom. People don't like talking about poo so they keep using euphemisms to describe the room where it happens. This one is a favourite of mine as some people find 'toilet' distasteful despite it being the furtherest from the actual action taking place. Very, literally. Not sure where this one is headed, but if it's happened at least twice, it'll shift again some time. Are we doomed to keep shifting language to keep up taboos and keep the meaning of words which naturally will shift?
- chickenpotpie 6y agoAmerican is not going to start the slave trade again because we stopped using the word "master" in software engineering
- DangitBobby 6y agoOh wow did someone say that would happen?
- chickenpotpie 6y ago“but I wonder if erasing negative words might make us forget their meaning and repeat the history behind them.” In response to an article about removing the word master
- INTPenis 6y agoSlaves exist today. What else would you call it when the economic system makes people desperate enough to walk into a sulphur hole barefoot to carry chunks of sulfur out that will be used in all sorts of industry, including the making of circuit boards for switches and computers that power the infrastructure we're using right now?