Comment by numeri

Comment by numeri a day ago

It was the term invented by the architects of the Holocaust, and I disagree that "eh, context matters".

Setting all moral arguments aside, it's important to know that similar phrases can work as dog-whistles to signal belonging to radical groups, and as such can easily give people the wrong impression about you as an author.

If I were to see a blog post titled "Work will set you free"[1] written by a peer, prospective employee/employer, colleague, etc., it would immediately set off alarm bells in my mind – even if the content of the post is a completely innocent discussion of the uplifting benefits of buckling down on one's workload. At best, it implies lack of awareness – at worst, it implies some extremely hateful beliefs and desires.

[1]: Written above the entrance to the Nazi concentration camps as a false promise encouraging prisoners often destined for death to work hard in forced labor.

johnisgood a day ago

We ought to change the whole IT terminology then. We keep killing parents and children. Context absolutely matters. Lack of context awareness is a deficit one should work on.

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numeri a day ago

No, avoiding anything potentially negative is not what I'm saying. Your argument (that context always matters) leaves discourse and society highly susceptible to dog-whistles[1], by forcing all good-faith participants to interpret all communication in the most generous way possible. Bad-faith participants, on the other hand, are free to exploit that generosity.
By calling out and avoiding dog-whistles, even including accidental Nazi slogans (once pointed out), we reduce the impact of this attack on good-faith discussion and actual increase the level of openness and being up-front with our opinions.
One key difference between this and virtue signaling or thought policing is that it's the specific wording that is avoided, and not the underlying thoughts or opinions.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_whistle_(politics)

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- johnisgood a day ago
  
  When I read manual pages and see the so called "harmful" words, I am not impacted by them negatively because I am aware of the context. Why is this should not be taught? I understand what you are trying to say, but you even said it yourself, "accidental", so there was no intent either to begin with, let alone context in which it is embedded.
  > thought policing is that it's the specific wording that is avoided, and not the underlying thoughts or opinions.
  So we should avoid the wording / phrasing such as "killing children" in IT? It refers to well-known concepts, within a specific context. It is bad outside of IT, for sure, but not inside IT, it refers to ending processes (as you probably already know)
  
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  numeri a day ago
  
  You seem to be responding to what you think I'm saying, not what I'm saying. As far as I know, "killing children" is not a dog-whistle. No one uses the words "killing children" to e.g., secretly express support for the Holocaust.
  
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  johnisgood a day ago
  
  I didn't think the person was supporting Holocaust because he used the phrase "The Final Solution", that phrase is made up from very common words, and why would I assume malice, especially in the context of IT?
  I may have used it unintentionally too, because "final solution" makes a lot of sense to use. The best way to ruin one's language is to keep using such common phrases that refer to such negative things. You know, there would not be a way to ruin it if people were just aware of the context and were not to attribute malice by default. It was probably accidental, like you said.
  I think the issue is with this not-so-generous interpretation of it by default, or reading too much into it.
  Do not allow your language to be ruined, and you could do a lot to help that cause.
  
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