Pussies. Kittens. Kitties. Remember when the word "pussy" meant a small cat? There were even songs about pussies. Ask Mr. Roy (Harry Roy & His Orchestra with 'My Girl's Pussy' in 1931). What's new pussycat? Well, I'll tell you what's new, Mr. Jones. You can no longer use such words. It's offensive now. And if you use the word "gay" in a song, that too will be misinterpreted.
"A "mastermind" can be black, a "masterpiece" can be African, and there's even a famous rapper called "Master P" (I loved many of his songs when I was young)."Words change over time. The meaning or the connotations are inside people's heads, never mind the dictionaries.
Many books are being banned for containing the "n word"; in the old days it was more acceptable to use that word -- and we are not defending that! But right now we're in state of transition wherein words like "master" and "whitelists" are increasingly seen as implying white supremacy (even though this was never the intended use of the phonetics/terms). A "mastermind" can be black, a "masterpiece" can be African, and there's even a famous rapper called "Master P" (I loved many of his songs when I was young; the lyrics of some songs are a lot more vulgar than "master" and one might say misogynistic). Will the activists try to censor black music as a whole next? For being "offensive"? They already phase out the term "urban" even though it's a term that black people themselves use to describe their genres. Who does this actually help? Maybe they'll also remove words like "gangsta" and "ghetto" as if gangs and ethnic ghettos (or slums) would go away if only the words went away. Don't get me started about "uncle" and "aunt" or "plantations" (yes, those too have somehow been spun as ethnic). Can we still write history books and tell stories?
"Intel pretends that it's protecting black people whilst actually attacking Africans."Loss of words or erosion the ability to express oneself is a method. It's not the end but the means. The idea is, if we can magically make people unable to express particular ideas or thoughts, that thing talked about will simply go away. When the Department of War was renamed "Defense" it became harder to speak about what it actually does (killing millions of people halfway around the world, not defending people). It's all about domination. Like "masters"... somehow the horrors of war have escaped the attention of these activists. Opposing wars isn't as beneficial to the cause.
The other day we mentioned how a longtime Fedora contributor had been banned (just hours earlier). He has since then opened a ticket with Fedora's council and it was immediately closed (no appeal rights!). Our source told us that he did not respect some corporations -- perhaps that being the reason for the ban. Who pushed for the ban? Someone who was using Windows (at the time), not even Fedora, let alone GNU/Linux. Sometimes it feels like there's no simple explanation for what's happening right now. It's not about banning trolls or racists or women haters. It's a lot to do with corporate control and making people fearful to speak out candidly. But those corporations don't want us to think or to feel that there might be a layer or indirection at play. Intel pretends that it's protecting black people whilst actually attacking Africans. And don't get us started on Microsoft... (going through the trouble of replacing black people in photographs with white people) ⬆