How Far Can We Go With Utter Crap Like This?

[Herlock Sholmes]

https://news.sky.com/story/university-department-removes-the-word-field-over-racist-connotations-12784945

[String]

Why does this annoy you?

[Herlock Sholmes]

Because it’s moronic and completely pointless. “Field work” is a phrase used by any number of people. Archaeologists for example. It in absolutely no way implies a reference to slavery except in the minds of these idiots. Are we next going to erase the phrase “the whip hand?” Or any mention of ‘cotton’ shirts because slaves used to pick cotton. Perhaps they’ll try and delete the word ‘trade’ because it’s contained in the phrase ‘slave trade.’ They are completely empty and meaningless gestures and the people that do stuff like this do it because they think it makes them look good (storing up a bit of credit in case they slip up in some way in the future and the howling mob gets after them.) Standing up to real racism often takes bravery and strength of purpose - so avoiding having to do difficult stuff like that these types resort to this kind of triviality.

[c.d.]

This kind of stuff is really prevalent here in the U.S. with Civil War Confederate statues being removed, names of schools and streets changed and even the names of sports teams. The name of the Washington, D.C. NFL football team was recently changed from The Washington Redskins to the Washington Commanders. Apparently Redskins was deemed offensive.

Completely ridiculous and it ain't going to do a damn thing to end racism.

c.d.

[Herlock Sholmes]

This kind of stuff is really prevalent here in the U.S. with Civil War Confederate statues being removed, names of schools and streets changed and even the names of sports teams. The name of the Washington, D.C. NFL football team was recently changed from The Washington Redskins to the Washington Commanders. Apparently Redskins was deemed offensive.

Completely ridiculous and it ain't going to do a damn thing to end racism.

c.d.

I genuinely don’t get it c.d. It creates a huge issue when people start reading too much into things when people say something with absolutely no ulterior racist motive. The intolerant mob then takes over.

There is a guy over here called Danny Baker, he’s a journalist/ radio and tv presenter/ comedy writer. He was looking to make a comic comment about Royal privilege on Twitter at the time when Harry and Meghan were expecting a baby. To make his point about privilege he posted a photo of a mum and dad holding hands with a chimp dressed as Lord from a collection of comic images online. He got slaughtered. He immediately apologised saying that there was no racist intent on his part whatsoever. He hadn’t even known at the time that Meghan was of mixed parentage. It made no difference. The increasingly PC BBC sacked him in a gross piece of over-reaction. Did they really think that an intelligent man (or even a not very intelligent one) would have posted a picture of a chimp knowing the obviously racist connotation that might have been suggested in that particular circumstance? Did they think that Baker was so mind-bogglingy stupid. Of course he wasn’t. Had he any previous for racism…..absolutely not It was clearly simply an unfortunate choice of image with zero racist intent. His apology should have been sufficient but no, they needed blood. It’s becoming the norm sadly.

[mpriestnall]

https://news.sky.com/story/universit...tions-12784945

I don't know the answer. But here is a link to some quotes from George Orwell's 1984. Perhaps the answer can be found there?

https://www.goodreads.com/work/quote...ty-four?page=1

IOW is "wokery" a disguised form of fascism?

[Dupin]

When asked what he was reading, Hamlet replied "words".

Words carry meaning and may cause change. Words holding some things to be self evident sparked a revolution. So cancelling words, or at least as many words as possible, mitigates that risk.

Poor old left wing lovey Ken Livingston discoverd that an H-word can bomb your career and cause your membership to be revoked and portrait to be removed (actually he was saved from that by the closure of the entire gallery). And don't mention the other H word. Whatever you say, you will become a "denier". Using N words or Q words when not part of the appropriate community is of course H speech. (In fact, I would never use them since I'm not, but I dont think they should be cancelled from the dictionary. "Derogatory". There, that's it.) And then there is C word C word which you can never mention unless you assert that it is caused by Huperoffspringkind (see what I did there). Or as a UK MP recently found, the V word and the H word together will see your £200K pa out the door.

Anyway, we seem to be in a new era of Puritanism, not based on religion, but many other shiboleths. All we can do is to refuse to be cowed. And hope the various acronymical mobs don't get us and wrap us up in wicker baskets :-(.

[Herlock Sholmes]

Maybe we’ll all have to start carrying around our own Little Red Book that we can consult during each conversation so that we can keep up with what we are or aren’t allowed to say? I pity those that will be adults in 50 years time. Language will have been pruned so much that the average dictionary will be in pamphlet form.

[GUT]

This kind of stuff is really prevalent here in the U.S. with Civil War Confederate statues being removed, names of schools and streets changed and even the names of sports teams. The name of the Washington, D.C. NFL football team was recently changed from The Washington Redskins to the Washington Commanders. Apparently Redskins was deemed offensive.

Completely ridiculous and it ain't going to do a damn thing to end racism.

c.d.

Unfortunately taking hold here in Australia too, Australia Day is coming (Jan 26 recognising the arrival of the first fleet) and the objections are starting all over again, every bloody year

[String]

Of course these stories are ridiculous. People having nothing better to do than make up stupid rules about nonsense. I just ignore this nonsense. What really gets me annoyed is my wife having to lie on a trolley in a&e for three days, getting treated but very uncomfortable and not getting the treatment she should be getting all due to a decade of Tory underfunding of the NHS. She’s on a ward now getting much better care thank goodness.
When the spivs and bankers got caught out on their gambling habit in 08 the Tories decided it was the poorest who should pay and so 13 years later the NHS along with the police, justice all public services are on their knees. The disastrous Brexit also caused thousands of skilled European workers to go back home leaving huge numbers of unfilled vacancies. Bad pay and conditions are causing more workers to leave.
Freezing Granny’s, hungry children and people living in mould infested housing.
This is the **** that should be annoying people not these silly distractions.

[Herlock Sholmes]

I agree Sting. I’m 57 and have never voted any other way than for Labour. I hate the Conservative Party and their obsession with the well off and their utter disregard and contempt for anyone who isn’t an entrepreneur or a ‘wealth creator’ (which is a phrase that I hate). I’ve sat for hours (although certainly not as long as you as you had to with your wife) with my dad, who suffered from Emphysema, waiting to be seen in A&E. Issues like this are obviously more important than issues created by political correctness but I still feel that this kind of thing is a serious problem in terms of freedoms. I can be angry about the above whilst still being angry about the state of the NHS. Perhaps it’s just because it would be easier do something about these issues regarding political correctness (or wokeness) People can just stand up and say ‘no more,’ rather than just keep accepting these non-stop erosions and examples of utter stupidity and pointlessness. The NHS is a bigger (and more important) issue of course. I don’t know whether Labour would be any more successful in solving the problems although they couldn’t be worse and a commitment to the NHS is more ingrained in the party and it’s voters.

I hope that your wife is well by the way?

[Al Bundy's Eyes]

I'm at a loss with this one. I understand why there would be a revision of terminology to reflect changing social standards, this happens in every field (sorry, no pun intended), we don't use 'spastic' or 'mongoloid' for example when up until recently they were accepted medical terms. So reviewing language isn't a problem. But this particular instance seems to make no sense. Was there many times the use of the word 'field' in the context of their work caused a problem? How did this decision come about?

[Herlock Sholmes]

I'm at a loss with this one. I understand why there would be a revision of terminology to reflect changing social standards, this happens in every field (sorry, no pun intended), we don't use 'spastic' or 'mongoloid' for example when up until recently they were accepted medical terms. So reviewing language isn't a problem. But this particular instance seems to make no sense. Was there many times the use of the word 'field' in the context of their work caused a problem? How did this decision come about?

It’s a baffling one Al. Maybe I’m being cynical but I can’t help seeing it as an attempt to ‘get in on the act.’ A kind of “aren’t we sensitive, caring people?”

Im a cricket fan so I’m hoping that they don’t try and change the term ‘fielder?’ Ball Retrieval Operative perhaps?

[c.d.]

And speaking of "field":

Black parent sues after school project had students pick cotton to teach about slavery:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/18/los-angeles-school-lawsuit-picking-cotton-slavery

c.d.

[PortilloMoment]

There are many interesting works dealing with the after effects of slavery but one thing that seems to come from those with an economic focus is that we - at least in the UK - have all benefited to some extent. This seems outrageous to many, but from just a UK perspective much of the stuff that has existed in our society for getting on two centuries is found to have extensive economic roots in money produced by the slave trade or by its abolition. Of course! That's how complex economies work - money moves around.

If anyone wants to check, this website is an eye-opener.

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs//

If people were really serious about abolishing all vestiges of slavery they'd be refusing to use certain banks or take a train journey or visit a National Trust property or a world renowned museum or send their offspring to certain universities. Or better yet, they'd be campaigning to remove this blight from those places that still practice it, or a version of it. That would inconvenience people and make them poorer though, so we get childish gesture politics and 'word pretend', and World Cups in dubious places.

People are weird.