Editor's Blog1 min ago
Wokery Comes To Tourism Agency Visitbritain
//Among the words and phrases affected are blacklist, walkthrough, blindspot, man hours and ladies & gentlemen. //
What on earth would we do without these social saviours taking it upon themselves to 'include' people who until now didn't realise they should be offended by all these 'non-inclusive' terms?
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"History will laugh at our stupidity."
I'm not so sure that it will , david.
So entrenched is this nonsense in this country's education system, that every new generation that comes along is embalmed with it and seems perfectly willing to accept it. I have young people telling me "You can't say that" when I've said something perfectly innocuous. The last time it happened., just a few days ago, I said something like "I could do that blindfolded". I asked why I couldn't say that and was told it may offend some blind people. I explained firstly that:
(a) There were no blind people present to be offended. This was batted away when I was told that "those with sight" may be offended as well as it slurs blind people generally.
Then I moved to
(b) The word "blindfold" does not relate to a person or their lack of sight, but was a name given to a device that temporarily prevented "those with sight" from seeing - usually to take part in a game or test. I was told that this was just as offensive because a a "blindfold" seeks suggest that a blind person is in some way inferior to a "person with sight by seeking to bring them down to a blind person's level. Oh, and that pretending to be blind should never be done for amusement as being blind was not a game (as if I didn't know).
So I had to move to:
(c) A word that rhymes with this place in Glasgow:
I normally try to keep discussions civilised and sensible. But when I'm faced with this sort of thing, I sometimes can't. There is no way I could convince my young acquaintance that she was being utterly ridiculous, but it cut no ice. This will only get worse as the English vocabulary is gradually reduced in this way because, just like the gender identity debacle, not enough people have the confidence to challenge it.
"A bungalow? Now that will be a one storey residential dwelling."
But the word is derived from Hindi, Sandy. That means it will have been "culturally misappropriated." Just like black women who wear their hair (or more likely a syrup) to suggest they have long, flowing ginger locks. But I suppose that's different.
Visit Britain is a tourist agency. They may have gone a bit over the top, but the idea is to invite and welcome foreign people, like American Indians, to Britain:
https:/
Use of the word powwow to refer generally to a social get-together or to a meeting for discussion is considered to be an offensive appropriation of a term of great cultural importance to Indigenous Americans.
Looks like merriam-webster needs to buck it's ideas up. But experience tells me that dictionaries don't always get definitions right. It's not that rare to find definitions that don't confirm to normal use, but folk take them as an authority and soon the nonsense parts of their definition become accepted by the masses.
> Looks like merriam-webster needs to buck it's ideas up.
You mean the American Indians should buck up their ideas ... or perhaps it's better that they don't "Visit Britain" after all.
The thing is, the American Indians have bucked up their ideas. They've reacted and responded to what happened to them. It's you that hasn't.
The dictionary should always attempt the latter TCL, but too often, if I'm being generous re their motive, they seem swayed by misuse from some minority group and try to make it official for all.
If native Americans claim the use of powwow is offensive appropriation, Ellipsys, then it is clear to all that they are failing to react reasonably; nothing to do with me.
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