On Fri, 04 Dec 2020 15:20:10 +0100, Carlos E. R. wrote:
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On Thursday, 2020-12-03 at 21:16 -0000, Jim Henderson wrote:
On Thu, 03 Dec 2020 21:08:29 +0000, Jim Henderson wrote:
It isn't about not saying "this is idiotic" if you really don't understand that it is offensive (for whatever reason).
It's about understanding the impact we have on each other.
I should also have added that it's also about understanding your audience. Professional writers do this all the time when creating content - you consider your audience and (a) what's likely to be understood, and (b) what's likely to be problematic for them.
So now I know, for example, if I were writing documentation that was targeted at people in Spain, it would be completely appropriate to say "don't do this, because it's idiotic to do so" whereas for a more global audience, I might be inclined to use different language in order to appeal to a broader reader base.
Maybe not.
Notice that I applied the term "idiotic" to an object, whereas you are doing so to an action by people. It is different. Subtle perhaps. But yes, you can find in written texts "don't do this stupid thing".
You're not seeing the forest for the trees here (ie, you're nitpicking the particular example and missing the bigger picture). And as someone who has done writing professionally, I can tell you that even with that example, yes, I would not use the word 'idiotic' in documentation because regardless of the usage, it's consider inflammatory and would be likely to turn the reader off of continuing to read the information.
Look, an historic case. I think you know about it.
Nissan named, long ago, a car "pajero" (1), a term than in Spanish is offensive (masturbator). Obviously every one was commenting that the name (choice?) was idiotic. It is under freedom of speech or opinion to say that name is idiotic.
The incident is not alone: Mazda Laputa (the whore). Of course it gave rise to many written comments.
And I think you'll find that those names aren't in use, likely because when they found out what the name meant in Spanish. A non-Spanish- speaking marketing person probably heard the word, thought "that sounds like a great word to use" without looking it up. I've long said that all marketing departments need a 'dirty old man' to take whatever terms they come up with and think of the worst way to use it. I had to play that role once upon a time when an organization I worked for years ago created a program that abbreviated to "CNTS". I leave it as an exercise to the reader as to why I suggested this may not be the best idea in the world, and the name was thrown away (but for the non-English speaking audience who may somehow have missed it, add a vowel strategically in that to create a word that is generally considered pretty offensive to women). Which is the perfect example, actually. The name was suggested, I said "hey, this is potentially offensive to an entire gender", and they said "oh, shit, you're right - we shouldn't do that". And then they didn't. -- Jim Henderson Please keep on-topic replies on the list so everyone benefits