Hereforpron2

Hereforpron2 , 3 months ago

Largely true, but it's crazy what the difference of just a few feet of slowing down does (rather than zero feet of abrupt stopping) to acceleration forces. The crumple zone on a car only has to be 3 feet long to turn a 60mph crash from a fatality to a horrific injury.

Hereforpron2 , 3 months ago

Totally. Every next safety measure from airbags to seatbelts are about adding extra inches, rarely even full feet, and they are shockingly effective.

Hereforpron2 , 5 months ago

I think the point is that to you, it's just semantics. But, to use your example, given that some people have started intentionally using "female" in place of "woman" as an (arguably) subtle way to exclude trans women, it suddenly becomes more than semantics to both trans and anti-trans populations. That's what Smotherlove is saying about "dog whistle" language only being transparent to the perpetrator and the victim.

So from your/my perspective (admittedly assuming you're neither trans nor anti-trans), it's largely a case of "a few rotten apples ruining it for the rest of the bunch." What should just be a semantic difference has been coopted and intentionally weaponized by some, so all of us have to be conscious of whether or not we're making that worse.

It's also not a new phenomenon. Many epithets start as PC terms and then become offensive based on how a specific group starts to use them, notably, almost every one-time PC terms for Black Americans and people of color. Unfortunately, it's basically the reason that, for at least 100 years, (responsible) individuals/media have had to change terms for many marginalized peoples every 10-20 years, with many other examples, like "Oriental" and the terms that predate it, and plenty of others.

Hereforpron2 , 5 months ago

Good to know, thank you! Yet more reasons to avoid it