Absolutely insane: Stanford releases list of words you shouldn't use anymore

Uncharted

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Aug 8, 2013
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It's not that.

It's an old argument about using "American" to only mean "Citizen of the United States of America" when there are two continents called America and you can make the argument that anyone from anywhere on the continent is an "American".

From the website (https://itcommunity.stanford.edu/news/introducing-elimination-harmful-language-initiative-website) description, this is all pretty low-key stuff and more a group of suggestions than anything else.

No one is banning the word "American".
And it is a stupid argument.

It is the only Country in the Americas that have the Word America in the name of the Country. And almost every country identifies it's citezens by adding an "an" at the end of their country name.
People from Canada are "Canadian". People from Mexico are "Mexican". People from Columbia are "Columbian".
The full name of the United States of America is just too long to say and add an "an" at the end. So, it was shortened to "American", because "Unitedan" or "Statesan" sound dumb.
 
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The Oracle

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Mar 8, 2004
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On the slopes of Mount Parnassus, Greece
The radical left wants to tear down everything that is in it's path.

Controlling speech is paramount to their quest.

This is just another brick in their road.

Hopefully platforms like TYT calling them out will help to squash these initiatives...
 

stinkynuts

Super
Jan 4, 2005
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The radical left wants to tear down everything that is in it's path.

Controlling speech is paramount to their quest.

This is just another brick in their road.

Hopefully platforms like TYT calling them out will help to squash these initiatives...
Cenk is actually very reasonable, he’s a former Republican, and doesn’t always side with the far left
 

The Oracle

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Mar 8, 2004
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Cenk is actually very reasonable, he’s a former Republican, and doesn’t always side with the far left
I have to think on calling him reasonable,lol. But he is entertaining I will give him that.

But I will say this with these platforms. I don't think they could maximize their profits if they were centrists.

So I get why they go to where they are. Both far right and radical left.

And at the same time people will argue with me that my concept of the radical left is incorrect. Conversely I will tell them that their idea of the alt right is wrong.
 

krealtarron

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Nov 12, 2021
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As far as I can see the whole thing is an internal matter for Stanford anyway - these are suggestions for words that they want eliminated from their website. So they're not saying that "you" can't use them, only that "we" won't use them.

Having said that, some of it is pretty dumb, I agree.
Even so, does this apply to the students there? I dont think they should be forcing students either.
 

shack

Nitpicker Extraordinaire
Oct 2, 2001
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Oriental -> asian. As an Asian, I hated being called Oriental. Everyone knows that it referred to people who looked Chinese (so if you were Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Taiwanese, Vietnamese, etc.). I always felt that the word was antiquated and pejorative.
The Orient is a geographical reference.

Is calling someone a Maritimer a pejorative? Just curious.
 
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Darts

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Our company computers also have a filter. I once used the word "homologue" and it was deleted by the filter.
 

basketcase

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Dec 29, 2005
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Wow. A daily mail article meant to inflame culture war panic in people who have absolutely nothing to do with any university.
 

onomatopoeia

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And it is a stupid argument.

It is the only Country in the Americas that have the Word America in the name of the Country. And almost every country identifies it's citezens by adding an "an" at the end of their country name.
People from Canada are "Canadian". People from Mexico are "Mexican". People from Columbia are "Columbian".
The full name of the United States of America is just too long say and add an "an" at the end. So, it was shortened to "American", because "Unitedan" or "Statesan" sound dumb.
Officially, Canada is "The Dominion of Canada". I've never met a Canadian who called themself/ himself/ herself a Dominionian.

America is the noun in United States of America. United States is an adjective. In the past, that adjective has been used by other countries, like The United States of Brazil, (Official name from 1937-67). Australia is also a country of United States, although She has never used the term officially.

Substituting "US Citizen" for American is also inaccurate, as there are many Americans who are not citizens, and there are many US Citizens who are not residents of America.

I also don't think that most White people born in South Africa or Zimbabwe, or natives of Egypt, would refer to themselves as African-Americans, if they emigrated to the USA, but technically the term is accurate.

I think the purpose of this Stanford language change is to try to recognize illegal aliens as citizens.
 

Valcazar

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Mar 27, 2014
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As far as I can see the whole thing is an internal matter for Stanford anyway - these are suggestions for words that they want eliminated from their website. So they're not saying that "you" can't use them, only that "we" won't use them.

Having said that, some of it is pretty dumb, I agree.
Wow. A daily mail article meant to inflame culture war panic in people who have absolutely nothing to do with any university.
That's the point, yes.
 
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