For me personally it's offensive because master and slave don't, never did, and never will, specifically refer to a single culture's experience - and that the idiocy of identifying the technical use of those terms with racism could itself only come from a racist mind.

It it bizarre? If I told you that your use of the word "most" is racists, would you agree and stop using it? What if I told you that your use of the word "things" is racist? Obviously my overreaction to those words is my problem not yours and you should not stop using them.

The reason people draw the line here is because to many people these words CLEARLY have nothing to do with race and "oppression". They never have. And yet now somehow YOU made them "dirty".

It is a common occurrence where a group of activists deem something as forbidden, create a commotion around it that intimidates those who comply solely out of fear, ultimately leading to that something being considered "bad" because only those who don't mind disregarding social norms continue to use it. This is not a natural process but a hostile takeover.

Dude write "slave" in your code all you want, I don't care. Your dev lead might though, you can have that fight with them.

I think the best summary of this thread is you addressing me using another "problematic" word "dude" that made it into multiple of the "forbidden words" lists.

There is an enormous difference in standards and expectations for language in professional or academic settings and random internet message boards.

But I agree - you stumbling around in clown shoes, failing to understand the issue you're hopping mad about is a great summary.

> a group of activists deem something as forbidden, create a commotion around it that intimidates those who comply solely out of fear

This used to be called a "slave mentality". It's a pretty useful expression these days.