Google bans terms like ‘senior citizen,’ ‘dummy variable,’ and ‘black box’(wsj.com)
wsj.com
Google bans terms like ‘senior citizen,’ ‘dummy variable,’ and ‘black box’
https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-inclusive-language-cancel-culture-censor-free-speech-offended-woke-micro-aggression-microsoft-11642800484
17 comments
I think these updates retard our ability to effectively communicate and do not effectively combat ANY form of discrimination nor incease inclusivity.
I think there is a dual purpose. Maybe triple:
1. The Orwellian sense of constraining thought. Personally I think this gives the people making these rules too much credit.
2. "Virtue signaling" or whatever you want to call it. There is a self-reinforcing desire to show everyone how progressive (or devout generally) one is and it spirals out of control
3. The origin of a lot of this stuff is essentially agitators who want to cause trouble and find things to get unhappy about generally. Another way of looking at it is that it's just a bunch of trolls. I think it starts with trolling, and then terrified, risk averse administrators end up at my point 2 above because they don't want to risk standing up to the trolls.
1. The Orwellian sense of constraining thought. Personally I think this gives the people making these rules too much credit.
2. "Virtue signaling" or whatever you want to call it. There is a self-reinforcing desire to show everyone how progressive (or devout generally) one is and it spirals out of control
3. The origin of a lot of this stuff is essentially agitators who want to cause trouble and find things to get unhappy about generally. Another way of looking at it is that it's just a bunch of trolls. I think it starts with trolling, and then terrified, risk averse administrators end up at my point 2 above because they don't want to risk standing up to the trolls.
Google would probably fine you for using the word "retard". /s
There is a story about a public figure having to resign for using the word niggardly which derives from an old Norse root (same as "niggling") and has nothing to do with the offensive near-homonym. This is not some principled desire not to offend, it's people looking for something to get upset about. It would not surprise me at all if one could find a real example of "retarded" in its original sense being proscribed
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_about_the_word...
"Google has created guidelines for “inclusive” language in software and documentation that describe how software should reflect the hypersensitive feelings of programmers who are immersed in woke culture and fixated on victimhood and offense. Apparently these guidelines will be enforced in the future in all new open-source projects, and the company will scrub earlier versions as well.
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It isn’t surprising that standard programming terms such as “master/slave” and “whitelist/blacklist” are now verboten. Nor is the nixing of gendered pronouns. But apparently, for reasons that elude me, the use of “black box,” which has no negative connotations I am aware of, is also inappropriate, according to Google’s guidelines.
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Other terms describing computer programs have also been proscribed. A developer can no longer say that some functionality is “crippled” by a bug or that anomalous data seem “crazy.” And “dummy variable,” a key term in coding, should now be replaced with “placeholder,” which seems no more inclusive to me, and I doubt a dummy variable, even if it could care, would.
My favorite proscription is against the word “smartphone.” Presumably Google assumes other phones will be offended.
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It isn’t surprising that standard programming terms such as “master/slave” and “whitelist/blacklist” are now verboten. Nor is the nixing of gendered pronouns. But apparently, for reasons that elude me, the use of “black box,” which has no negative connotations I am aware of, is also inappropriate, according to Google’s guidelines.
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Other terms describing computer programs have also been proscribed. A developer can no longer say that some functionality is “crippled” by a bug or that anomalous data seem “crazy.” And “dummy variable,” a key term in coding, should now be replaced with “placeholder,” which seems no more inclusive to me, and I doubt a dummy variable, even if it could care, would.
My favorite proscription is against the word “smartphone.” Presumably Google assumes other phones will be offended.
...
It amazes me how such intelligent people can be so stupid when it comes to the topic of meaning. The new terms over time will of course develop the same positive/negative connotations because meaning doesn't have anything to do with the sign vehicle.
I call their strange way of thinking "the magic-spell theory of meaning". New age people have a similar notion of a "true name" like abracadabra.
I call their strange way of thinking "the magic-spell theory of meaning". New age people have a similar notion of a "true name" like abracadabra.
Do they fail to understand or are they just unwilling to fight over it?
Plenty of decisions that I view as stupid I acquiesce to avoid having to fight.
Plenty of decisions that I view as stupid I acquiesce to avoid having to fight.
I think this is most people's attitude. But the problem is that you wake up one day and find a new religion and power structure has been imposed on you. I don't think it's valuable fighting every little thing either, but I also don't want to live in a world where we cover in fear of professional agitators. If we want to ignore this stuff, it needs to be in the sense of "yeah I'm not doing that" as opposed to participating in their theatre to avoid conflict
I had someone get triggered and start crying on a zoom call, when I used a common technical term to describe the effects of a database failing in it's appropriate context.
Next day my boss schedules a meeting to say that there would be no HR repercussions for me.
If this is the sort of s*t-show is going on, I decided to move to another team, and got the heck out of there.
Management are petrified of offending anyone vocal, regardless of how unreasonable their threshold of offense may be.
Next day my boss schedules a meeting to say that there would be no HR repercussions for me.
If this is the sort of s*t-show is going on, I decided to move to another team, and got the heck out of there.
Management are petrified of offending anyone vocal, regardless of how unreasonable their threshold of offense may be.
What are the now acceptable alternatives for "senior citizen" and "dummy variable"? For myself, I welcome senior discounts wherever I can get them and use plenty of i / j / k in code.
https://developers.google.com/style/inclusive-documentation says to use "older adults" or "aging population", and "placeholder", respectively.
Way to go. « older adults » can refer to just anybody depending on who you are. I’m 28, people being 32 are « older adults » to me. Same goes with « aging population », wtf is a non aging population?
Which is so funny because in Latvian the recent trend is to avoid using older person because it sounds ageist and disrespectful and replace it with senior citizens which sounds more dignified.
Pathetic as usual, Google...
ok, just so you guys feel comfortable, whatever man. keep coding.
There's a great piece on Diversity Inclusion and Equity or (DIE) https://outline.com/4URN6Y