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Re:This is how cargo ships fight pirates without guns [video] by everforward on Tuesday February 20, 2024 @02:24PM (#39445676)
> kill them so they be dead and can't board no ship no moh.

I would discourage the use of African American English spelled out like that generally, but especially when discussing African people or people of African descent.

The primary historical usage of that style of writing was to belittle African American people by making them look dumb and illiterate, and to other-ize them by making their language seem strange and different.

I wouldn't pretend to know your intent, but that writing style makes it appear racially biased even if you didn't intend it to be.

> just shoot them and kill them so they be dead

The goal of avoiding that is likely to avoid an escalation in hostilities. My understanding is that modern piracy is like plane hijackings before 9/11. People are mostly unharmed, the ship is mostly unharmed, the company pays a ransom to get both back and everybody goes on with their day.

If this escalates to live fire, the pirates might decide it's easier and safer to fire an RPG into the ship, loot what they can before it sinks, and then let it sink.

Even if successful piracy attempts become less common, the costs of a successful piracy attempt skyrocket. Those ships cost millions; the shipping company can pay a lot of ransoms for the price of a single sunk ship.

Insurers are probably also happier this way. Their losses are small but consistent, which is easy to plan around. It's much harder and riskier to plan around the event that eg 3 ships are all sunk in the same week.

It's like shoplifting in stores. It's cheaper to watch the thief leave and accept the loss than to have security try to physically stop them and occasionally have to pay out injury claims.

Re:This is how cargo ships fight pirates without guns [video] by matt-attack on Tuesday February 20, 2024 @04:58PM (#39447507)
Otherizing is however in the eye of the beholder. Today otherness is a prized attribute and thus not to be taken in a negative light. Instead, with the burgeoning of identity politics, speaking in a specific dialect is a source of pride. I fail to see how it’s insulting any longer.
Re:This is how cargo ships fight pirates without guns [video] by southernplaces7 on Wednesday February 21, 2024 @06:55AM (#39452723)
>I wouldn't pretend to know your intent, but that writing style makes it appear racially biased even if you didn't intend it to be.

Since you don't know intent, why not shut up about assumptions of racial bias? I'd argue that these days a hell of a lot of social damage is caused by so many tediously sensitized people assuming racial bias over any trivial thing, sometimes more damagingly than whatever a random racist causes.

The colloquialisms in the other comment might not be the politest things in the world, but they're popular and widely used among all kinds of people in ways that have nothing to do with racism. Is somebody imitating rap lingo for fun (or as a fan) a racist too because of it? I'd say the opposite. The singers themselves certainly try hard to popularize it, but then it's racism if that widely succeeds among many ethnicities?

Re:This is how cargo ships fight pirates without guns [video] by devaiops9001 on Wednesday February 21, 2024 @11:24AM (#39455806)
> I would discourage the use of African American English spelled out like that generally, but especially when

I am black and I will type however I like. Shut your mouth, whitey.

Re:This is how cargo ships fight pirates without guns [video] by devaiops9001 on Wednesday February 21, 2024 @11:28AM (#39455860)
> the company pays a ransom to get both back and everybody goes on with their day.

Just like when your bike gets stolen or someone has sex with your wife and the amount of happiness in the world has a net increase, so overall it's a win-win.