| Posted: 09 May 2005 at 8:16pm | IP Logged | 4
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John Byrne wrote:
| Okay -- I was wrong. Using a word makes it the correct
word. Calling the wheel of a car the "spinny thing" makes "spinny
thing" the correct term for describing the wheel of a car. And every
racial epithet ever applied to anyone, anywhere, for any reason, is
perfectly appropriate. Use makes right. Thanks for setting me straight on that! |
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Sarcasm much?
What you seem to be insensitive to, John, is that there are degrees
of wrong, and degrees of importance. There's a big difference
between using an incorrect-though-popular term for a technical concept
within an industry of whose products one is a consumer -- "balloons"
vs. "bubbles" -- and using a term that is meant to demean and insult.
And your argument about how people use the N-word without intending
to demean and insult doesn't hold water, John. The only way those
people ever heard that word and had it enter their vocabularies as an
acceptable term was by having their vocabularies develop within
cultures that universally demean and insult African-Americans,
Africans, South Asians, and others for whom the term is used.
Contrast to your industry-facing terminology examples. No car
salesman -- and not even an automotive engineer who has no financial
interest in kissing up to me, for that matter -- is going to insult a
"civilian" who's interested in automobiles because they called the
terms "wheel" and "rim" interchangeably.
It's a reflection of how inbred and self-important this industry is
that you think nit-picking and out-and-out offensiveness are equivalent.
Jaywalking and mass murder are both "wrong." If you can't tell
the difference in proportion between those "wrongs" then I hope you
never serve on a jury.
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