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Re:Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative by Cthulhu_ on Tuesday December 20, 2022 @10:03AM (#34066809)
> the vast majority of the words on this list do not have the claimed negative connotations in the slightest

And who are you to judge that? Are you in any way subject to descriptors they offer alternatives to?

I'll have to admit my bias though, I presume everyone here who rails against this list is themselves a financially, physically and mentally healthy heterosexual white male aged 20-40. You're not going to be offended by any of these terms, that's fine, it's not for your benefit.

Re:Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative by omginternets on Tuesday December 20, 2022 @10:15AM (#34066997)
He’s speaking for himself, and I think he hit the nail on the head. So he’s speaking for me as well, now.
Re:Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative by politician on Tuesday December 20, 2022 @11:05AM (#34067812)
Do you think slurs against the group of people you so precisely targeted belong on this list, or no?
Re:Stanford's “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative by tsimionescu on Tuesday December 20, 2022 @11:27AM (#34068142)
Well, you got one of your assumptions wrong at least (probably two, since you probably forgot to mention you likely assume that everyone here is from one of the wealthy "Western" countries).

Regardless, I'm a speaker of English, and I have read up on the origin of most of those words, and understand how connotations work - apparently better than whoever put together this list, who seems to think "whitespace" is using white in a way which implies white=good, or "black box" somehow implies that black=bad.

Also note, words are rarely a real problem. People can use perfectly normal good words to belittle you, even unintentionally (my father was asked a few times "do you have Google there?", for a country that's been a member of the EU for well over 10 years). The attitudes people have don't particularly change with the language they use.

Reminds me of a segment John Stewart once did, where a state senator from some US state took the word and started complaining that "African-American kids just don't learn as well as white kids, they just lack the mental ability [...]". As John joked at the time - if you're going to be that unabashedly racist, just call them the n-word, it won't make things worse.