News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Microsoft deleted the public support forums for SwiftKey. Parent comment

Re:Microsoft deleted the public support forums for SwiftKey by sd9 on Monday April 17, 2023 @08:37AM (#35599790)
I recognise Gordonjcp's autonomy to choose their own preferred identity. Nationality is a social construct that can be perceived differently in various contexts. If someone feels more comfortable identifying as Scottish rather than British, at least in informal settings, I believe it's important to respect their perspective instead of insisting on a particular label.

Of course, they might _technically_ be British from a legal or official standpoint, which I'm sure Gordonjcp is aware of and accepts. It's entirely possible to be both British and not-British simultaneously in different contexts. This sort of thing isn't black and white.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft deleted the public support forums for SwiftKey by toyg on Monday April 17, 2023 @09:59AM (#35600786)
> I believe it's important to respect their perspective instead of insisting on a particular label.

Absolutely, but it would be nice if people expressed their wishes in logical terms. "I prefer to describe that dog as a terrier" is logically sound, "that is a terrier, not a dog" is not. The latter tries to arbitrarily redefine what a dog is.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft deleted the public support forums for SwiftKey by sd9 on Monday April 17, 2023 @10:14AM (#35601000)
"I am not British, I'm Scottish." is just shorthand for that.

It's a bit like "Charlie's not a dog, he's my best friend"

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft deleted the public support forums for SwiftKey by toyg on Monday April 17, 2023 @12:58PM (#35603461)
Charlie's not just a dog, but he's indeed a dog.

Shorthands are fine, but this is not it. This is some weird agenda to deny the logical truth.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft deleted the public support forums for SwiftKey by lamontcg on Monday April 17, 2023 @01:20PM (#35603710)
> "Charlie's not a dog, he's my best friend"

I'd argue that one can be damaging and we should call people out on it.

Dogs are dogs and they need to be treated like dogs. The infantilization of dogs is how you get unleashed dogs getting into dog fights when it turns out that Charlie really just is another dog and should have been leashed.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Microsoft deleted the public support forums for SwiftKey by Gordonjcp on Monday April 17, 2023 @01:49PM (#35604099)
I mean, it says "United Kingdom of Great Britain" on the front of my recently-issued taking-back-control-of-Britain blue passport, printed in Poland by a French company using Spanish presses and software, Italian ink, Finnish paper, and equipped with an RFID tag made in Turkey, all of whom beat out a company in Sunderland for the contract, who have since gone bust.

Yay for Brexit.

[ Parent | on HN ]