paul on Sat, 4 Mar 2023 07:44:44 +0100 (CET) |
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<nettime> New Inclusive English |
Hey all,I read this article yesterday: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/04/equity-language-guides-sierra-club-banned-words/673085/ (or https://archive.is/iPQ2D).
I'm almost concerned to open this can of worms, for reasons that are touched on in the article i'm sharing -- one takes a risk by asking questions about the Inclusivity™ orthodoxy. I hasten to add that i am all for more diversity where often there isn't/wasn't much, for more equitable outcomes in society, etc. etc., because clearly, we (i can only speak for those places i have experienced living) are a very long way away from living in just society. Having said all of that, i jokingly refer to Inclusive™ language since it seems to indeed be something co-opted by? invented by? pushed by? commercial entities to display their credentials, similar to how we might observe "greenwashing".
Like the author of the article, of course there are linguistic habits that are best relegated to history. But more and more i'm observing New Inclusive English being suggested: people in my circles avoid talking about things like "brown-bag sessions" (a phrase i already disliked, but for other reasons - it's so American! [sorry, US-ian]). Something that rubs me up the wrong way about a lot of these euphemisms is that their etymology (as far as i can tell) has no racist meaning - surely a brown-bag harks back to bringing one's lunch in a... brown paper bag? It's almost as if, indeed, people have sat down to look for potentially offensive words. Scraping the proverbial barrel of offence.
The thing is, though, i'm looking for something of a sense-check -- because i'd be sad if i'm being taken in by a right-wing rag (is it?), or by conservative agendas (is it?), etc. Is this just me worrying about becoming apostate as the article describes, of being a "bad person", basically. Because my upbringing makes me want to say the right things, rather than think too hard for myself. I find the link with Protestant ethics, a spiral of purity, an interesting angle. But i'm wondering if folks here have more nuanced things to say about the little article, or will i just be shooting fish in a barrel?
All the best, tell me i'm not a neocon, p. # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject: