Twiter phasing out traditional words for “more inclusive ones”

Looking at the examples here, with one small exception I don't see any problems. Using primary/replica instead of master/slave for databases is overdue anyway - not just because of inclusive language but because "replica" is actually a more accurate description of, well, a replica.

The small exception is I'd like to know the context for the "avoid gendered pronouns" one. I'm absolutely fine with using they for a generic unnamed person (e.g. "the user") but when referring to a named individual, if their preferred pronoun is he or she, I hope Twitter will continue to use that.

I'm sure someone could reply with a list of over-the-top examples of trying-to-be-inclusive language, or controversial ones (e.g. the kind JK Rowling complained about) but the ones in this list all look like boring, uncontroversial, won't-hurt-anyone examples.

Releasing salary statistics to get rid of pay gaps, adding a concrete avenue for handling any discrimination incidents, quitting contracts from oppressive governments and agencies, committing to privacy and data policies that can protect vulnerable groups...

I really do wish we got anything at all than this token gesture. These changes are good, but what good does not calling the main branch "master" do for a programmer still getting paid way less than her colleagues?

Wonder what will be the new colors of chess. Cyan and magenta would look cool.

Some of these seem reasonable, or at least unobjectionable. But 'dummy value' and 'sanity check'? Really?

I get why an engineering department might want to do something, anything to help combat injustice, and apparently this was the best they could come up with. But there's an almost comedic disproportionality between the scale of the problems, and these kinds of 'solutions', like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. In the US, black people are massively incarcerated, get shot for going jogging, get killed in police custody at 4-5 times the rate of white people, die due to lack of healthcare, and make up mostly the bottom of the wealth pyramid in a society where redistribution is a dirty word, real median purchasing power has been declining for decades, televised propaganda is selling white people their own fear and bigotry back at them so they'll vote for politicians who will pass massive tax cuts, and dismantle any social safety nets that might have given the lower class a fighting chance at social mobility, oh and to top it off the White House is occupied by an incompetent, narcissist bigot who was helped to get there by a foreign adversary in order to sow chaos and discord in their biggest geopolitcal rival. But you know, at least nobody needs to be offended by reading the word 'grandfathered' in source code... It would be funny if it weren't so tragic. I say this with love, as a dirty pinko European lefty, but it really feels like a large part of the Left in the US is so daunted by the enormity of achieving social justice in a society that is growing ever more injust (and is almost religiously opposed to attempts to improve it) that they have just resigned themselves to thought policing their own ranks for wokeness, because actually turning the ship around seems damn near impossible at this point.

Ah, well, I was a big fan of "grandfathered in". I wonder if I can introduce the term "code nepotism" instead :)

Language does influence cultural norms.