[Imc-uk-features] political correctness, and hiding and promoting

[Cass, Noel]

The issue with language, to repeat a post I made before, is primarily about INTENTION. To my mind it is insane to accuse someone of racism or discriminatory language for using a word like 'patsy'. This word has a well-understood mening that has nothing to do wih race, the etymology is irrelevant to the intention of the usage. Likewise 'dumb'. The primary meaning and the intention is not tothing to do with people who cannot speak. Discriminatory language, like language in general, is about language in use. If the word is an accepted insult or 'denigratory' term, then it is unacceptable. A more interesting case is when words are 'reclaimed' and then we get the debates about who, if anyone, is allowed to use 'nigger' or 'queer' (see recent postings). 'Punk' is an insult, originally meaning a young male prostitute (in England, although an American etymology comes from a tribal language, and refers to a useless, burned, bit of wood). Can we consider it discriminatory? Only if it is used like that!! I first thought that Ben's post was ironic. I hope so. Let's have some sense...
 
I agree that both hiding and promoting only work if there is consensus, if there isn't (as seems the case), then there is a problem. I trust admins to promote stuff that I want to read first, then I have a look at the normal posts, especially if they have comments (although this often means they are controversial postings). Occasionally, as I'm on the features list, I check hiddens, to see if I agree with the decision. This system, although flawed, works to help me, as a regular IMC 'user', find out the kind of information I want to know, and to pass it on to other people. Remember that there is a hell of a lot of good work going on, and that for the average 'user', it is still the best resource around. ;-)))
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