On Thu, 2019-04-25 at 18:13 +1000, Michael Gratton wrote:
On Thu, Apr 25, 2019 at 00:20, mcatanzaro gnome org wrote:We should go to reasonable lengths to avoid offending reasonable people, but if someone is offended by innocuous phrases like Master's degree, master plumber, Masterpiece Theater, or the word "masterful," then I'd suggest rethink why and consider that it's probably not reasonable.This is objection 1) from the original proposal. Sadly, neither you, nor I, nor dictionaries get to choose what terms carry current or historical significance, positive or negative.
But we do. When faced with the deterioration of language, with people bizarrely choosing to interpret a given word using one meaning of it, when that is clearly not the meaning that was actually intended... we have a choice. We can capitulate, and say "oh, well if you're *offended* then you must be right, however bizarre and illogical your assumptions are". Or we can stand up and say "no, stop being silly." People in this case seem to be doing the latter. I can't say that I disagree with them.
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