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[-] shweddy@lemmy.world 200 points 2 days ago

Comes off racist if youre scared to use the word black for describing the color of a thing to someone who is black. Black isnt a bad word but you're thinking of its negative connotations applied to people by racists.

[-] pHr34kY@lemmy.world 42 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Calling a black object "black" = Does not offend.

Calling your car's late ignition timing "retarded" = Does not offend.

Calling your dog a "bitch" = Does not offend.

Calling your rooster a "cock" = does not offend.

Calling a tied bundle of sticks for burning a "removed" = Does not offend.

Just follow your friendly dictionary and you'll be fine.

Also: Hi mods. You're probably here because of your word filter.

Edit: Something replaced "f-a-g-g-o-t" with "removed" automatically. I'm going to leave it because it's hilarious that bundled sticks are forbidden.

[-] VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone 31 points 2 days ago

He's right. Individually, we are weak like a single twig.

[-] logi@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

That's literally fascist propaganda. Fasces is Latin for a bundle of sticks and that was the image of strength that Italian fascists were trying to evoke.

[-] VerilyFemme@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Actually, it's literally a Simpsons joke making reference to the propaganda, and the punchline is that he doesn't say fasces. He says something else.

[-] logi@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

Good context ๐Ÿ‘

[-] k0e3@lemmy.ca 21 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Oh, so there is an automated censoring system in place. I thought people were saying removed en lieu of re-tard on ~~Lemmy~~ on whichever instance I was visiting. Kind of like how people use unalive.

[-] JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Removed is way worse, though. It's practically advocating eugenics.

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 12 points 2 days ago

I don't think it's Lemmy. I think it's per-instance. Lemmy.world is not a great or open place. They're very close to Reddit, with way too much control over Lemmy where it's almost synonymous. Take this as a warning if you're creating a community or new account to spread things out.

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 day ago

.ml doesn't influence Lemmy much. Lemmy.world is the largest instance by far, and they leverage that control to force things on the larger Lemmy community. ml has issues, but at least they don't force things on anyone else. The lead developer of Lemmy is there, so they could, but they don't.

Anyway, the point is that Lemmy is only as safe as it is diversified. People should be joining smaller instances, and communities created on other instances, rather than just going to the largest one.

Lemmy.ml is the flagship instance created by the Lemmy developers. I wouldn't say they don't influence that much.

And Lemmygrad.ml... Well, they're their slaves.

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 day ago

Yeah, like I said, they could, but they really don't. How often do you see posts from that instance in your feed? They influence each other, but it doesn't spread far beyond that.

I saw them a lot until I blocked them.

Also, the biggest communities for a lot of the more populat things are on .ml. I like anime, when I searched for a big and active anime comm, I headed first to the .ml one rather than to the .world one, because that second one was smaller. I still subscribed to bot; but then I noticed the tankie-pro-dictatorships nature of .ml and, at first, just argued, having some hope, then just blocked them when I noticed they're hopeless.

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

I don't like them really either, but I think you're looking for something that doesn't exist. Yeah, they have some of the largest communities for certain things. That's how federation should work. My instance also has some, and many other instances. That's good. They don't have an outsized portion of them though. It's also pretty easy to block it and not miss much. If you did the same for .world then your feed would be almost empty. That's the issue.

Also, why are you downvoting me (I assume it's you). That's weird for a discussion like this. Do you just downvote everyone who doesn't hold the exact same opinion as yourself?

[-] k0e3@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 days ago

Ah, I see. Thanks!

[-] sunsofold@lemmy.zip 13 points 2 days ago

Mods need to turn that shit off. Computers should never tell a human what to say.

[-] Funkt4st1c@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Its basically never used in a legitimate way unless youre a british smoker or something, and even then you are likely aware of the slur.

Kindling or whatever the other word im blanking on is would likely be more appropriate

"Hey can you grab me that F____?" Would mentally auto correct to "Hey, can you grab me that, F_____?" In my brain

[-] logi@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Yeah, in the UK you might bum a fag. Which, now that I write it out, can mean something very different.

[-] knatschus@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 2 days ago

Fuck off. Writing about how and why faggot is a slur is a legitimate use. Informing who used the term faggot in a degenerative way is a legitimate way to use it. Writing about the history of the word faggot also is.

Censorship sucks.

Automated Censorship is stupid and dangerous.

If tomorrow some nazi fash starts using the word "goal" as some slur, would it be then incorrect to say "I have goals" or "omg, we're goals" ("we're goals" as "we're matching")?

If we concede them every word they co-opt, then they'll colonialize all language. Just as with the word queer, we should be the ones reclaiming it for ourselves. That's a way of letting them controlling language.

[-] Funkt4st1c@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

I cant think of a single conversation that would be improved with a hard-R or the above mentioned work being spelled out vs referenced. Slurs are one of those "we have freedom of speech but please never say that ever again" type things. Perhaps autocensorship is a bit over the line, but we should be intolerant to intolerance.

[-] knatschus@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 day ago

English isn't my native language. Hard-R is that retard?

I fear that refusing to use those words even in a educational sense is rewriting history a bit.

It's weird how americans who been all over the Internet claiming germany has no free speech because gloryfication of the Nazis is forbidden.

Yet it was always fine to write that heil hitler was a common greeting of people who brutally murdered millions.

While writing that fuckwit racists used the term nigger to put themselves over other humans is now frowned upon

[-] Funkt4st1c@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Its the N-slur, used primarily by american slave owners to demean their victims.

[-] k0e3@lemmy.ca 0 points 2 days ago

I like to think of slurs as one of those, "we have freedom of speech but also you are not free from consequences for what you say," sorta things. So, yeah, go ahead and say it if you want to, but don't be a bitch about it if people tell you to fuck off or call you a Nazi.

[-] Funkt4st1c@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

Realistically, what recourse other than forced censorship or banning is there

[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

My experience as a user is vastly improved by not seeing slurs.

[-] AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

It's not that I just want to use slurs. I'm... um... principled! That's the ticket! Stopping me from saying slurs is a moral hazard. What if I were a historian and this were a conversation about the history of the slur?? It's not... but if I can construct a pretext then... uh... stop woke! DEI!

Don't you understand there are categories of inferior people, and we need to be vile to them???

[-] erusuoyera@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 days ago

It's also the name of a meat dish in the UK. Sort of like meatballs in gravy. Although it's rarely used in the singular. Wonder if the link get censored https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faggot_(food)

[-] sunsofold@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 days ago

Mmm, now I want to have some faggots for dinner.

[-] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)
[-] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 days ago

Did it happen instantly, or was it a redacted action?

[-] pHr34kY@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

I noticed within seconds of posting it.

[-] Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago

It was a joke about it was a reyarded action

[-] threeonefour@piefed.ca 66 points 2 days ago

Reminds me of The Office joke where Michael asks Oscar what his ethnicity is and Oscar says "Mexican" and Michael says "There's gotta be a better word to use than that".

[-] NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world 29 points 2 days ago

Also the bit in 30 Rock.

โ€œItโ€™s not because youโ€™re aโ€ฆ uh, what do you call yourself?โ€

โ€œA Puerto Rican.โ€

โ€œNo, I know you can say that, but what do I call you?โ€

โ€œA Puerto Rican.โ€

โ€œWowโ€ฆ that does not sound right.โ€

[-] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 37 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I think the crack about Spanish is because the Spanish word for "black" is "negro." But it is also not pronounced the same way as racist southerners say it. Spanish uses a short E, where as rednecks insist on saying it "neeegro," perhaps in the hopes that it'll make them taller. So don't do that.

The peanut gallery will win no points for guessing that the origin of the n-word is a mutation and/or corruption of "negro" and its various permutations in the other Romance languages that white people were all dragging with them across the Atlantic, all of which are just the words for the color black. For instance, in Latin it's the even closer "niger," single G.

[-] noob@lemmy.world 18 points 2 days ago

So decades ago I worked at a bike shop and some college students came in. One of them was black, everyone else in the shop was white. She sat down on a bike, that was all black with dark grey lettering. And I said โ€œthis bike looks great, I love the black on black look.โ€ Everyone looked at me funny, she immediately got off the bike, and i literally died inside and froze up.

20 years later and i still think about this.

Also I should note that it was not the first time I used that phrase for that bike - when you work sales you end up with little automatic narratives that you barely think about.

[-] tigermountain@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

Saying anyone is black is never racist.

[-] nwtreeoctopus@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 days ago

Ehhh, context and tone can go a long way.

In a neutral context, absolutely. I've heard people use saying it as an attack in some vile ways.

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 days ago

I agree, but also black for coffee isn't just describing the color. It's describing the character. Sugar doesn't change the color, but that isn't black coffee. Black for coffee is a label/category, not a description.

It's still stupid to be scared to call it black, just as it's stupid to be scared of calling black people black. It's a common term that everyone understands, and it isn't an insult.

[-] Saapas@piefed.zip 12 points 2 days ago

The implication I got from the comic imo is that the person is going to ridiculous lengths to appear anti-racist

[-] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago

I don't know about the specific scenario in the comic, but it seems understandable to be afraid of being perceived as racist just because of how much of a touchy subject it is, if you aren't able to be confident in knowing how what you say will be interpreted.

[-] Saapas@piefed.zip 2 points 1 day ago

To me it's hard to see this comic without thinking we're supposed to laugh at the ridiculousness of the person in it and not as much sympathize with his position

[-] 5too@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

I honestly think the intent is both. It's funny because we can recognize it's a bit ridiculous, and still see ourselves in that position

That's exactly the problem. Anything can be touchy or sensible for at least one person. You don't know what will trigger someone. That kind lf overcorrectionism is hazardous as it might cause everyone to freeze and be unable to say virtually anithing out of fear of touching anyone else's sensibility.

I think freedom of speech should only be limited in the case of immediate and/or evident danger, but not just by mere feelings or sensibilities.

[-] Stefan_S_from_H@piefed.zip 6 points 2 days ago

Now I'm thinking of the politician who was offended by black holes.

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 5 points 2 days ago

There is a long tradition of "black" being used to describe evil things, which may or may not be related to racism. I think being conscious of this can be useful, but black means a lack of light, and a black hole is something that light can't escape from. It's a perfect term for that.

[-] crayons_to_chaos@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago

Yeah lots of repressed racism with whoever does these shitty strips.

this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2026
464 points (89.1% liked)

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