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Comment by vore | Hacker News Reader

Stop strawmanning.

1. I'm calling out people who are making disingenuous arguments for the sake of argument ("The term SSL is a deep insult to my culture.") Are you actually upset by "SSL" referring to an Arizona street gang? If so, I'm sorry to hear that, but:

2. I, personally, put my bar at "is it a common understanding that this term widely means bad shit?" If you brought this to me, I would say: sorry, I understand, but I don't think this is widely understood to mean "South Side Locos". If this makes me terrible in your eyes, then so be it. But I don't think that's what you're angling for with this line of argument.

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I am making a serious argument. How come we care less about the feelings of people when it's just some people in the state of Arizona? We will make changes to all kinds of stuff for the sake of black people, but ah, I don't care too much about these other people tho, they just have to live with it. Shouldn't we take into account everyone's feelings? The people of Arizona who live in that region know who the SSL are. Most aren't software developers.

Like I said, if you are going to stand up for one group and not for another, I find it hard to believe that you actually stand for anything. Could it be it's just the group of the day for you and it's something you can feel good about because it's the appropriate thing in the current cultural climate?

I have made absolutely zero claim that I am taking every group under the sun into account for my opinions. I have even told you the exact line I am drawing. Once again:

Does everyone know that SSL is a street gang in Arizona? No, they fucking don't.

Does everyone know that master/slave are terms relating to literal ownership of human beings? Yes, they fucking do.

Does this require a consideration of the cultural zeitgeist? No, it doesn't, because everyone knows slavery is bad.

All of this bullshit you are tacking on is literally not what I believe.

"Honestly I don't give a fuck what you believe. The fact is that it offends someone somewhere in Arizona and I will not stand for this."

This is what I would say if I were in the league of those trying to censor everything I, or anyone somewhere don't like. You cannot win against these people vore. One day they will come for something that you may hold very dear to your heart or person. And they will cry in pain as they strike you. Because you're the evil one getting in the way of their change and progressive activism.

You have basically stated that you only care about majority or widely recognised "problem words". Doesn't that now make you part of the problem that you are trying to solve by renaming terminology to something less offensive?

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