Beep boop - this is a robot. A new show has been posted to TWiT…
What are your thoughts about today’s show? We’d love to hear from you!
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Great show, as always! However, this show’s don’t-be-a-dick-doctrine just a few shows after the section 230 discussion made my head spin just now so I wanted to drop a line before fully finishing the episode. If need be, I shall revise when completed.
It seems like not being a dick must at all cost be achieved individually and on your own (or when set straight by someone who is not-a-dick who, of course, by definition, is always right) but cannot, by any means, be reached by giving platforms the duty to moderate since then the internet as we know it would cease to exist and the first amendment would cease along with it.
I do get that the US are individualistic and all, but there is a more efficient way to reach the goal of don’t-be-a-dickishness, also on the internet. It may just be a question of how to organise it. If there is no push to organise this, dicks abound. No?
Maybe both perspectives can be conciliated and I’m looking forward to the first of you helping me see the light.
Given the intense I-know-linotype-and-you-don’t-gloat, the show lightheartedly opened up again to show that less than courteous behaviour comes in many shapes and sizes.
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As an ‘old guy’ yes we are still learning when it comes to language sensitivities.
I shudder when I think of expressions we used in the past without really understanding the origins. Hats off to those still learning. For those not willing to learn all I can say is DBD.
Would like a podcast on that. Would have liked to have had the opportunity to take that class 45 years ago.
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A lot of the examples used on the show seem to be very colloquial Americanisms, I’d never heard of half of them.
What “annoys” me is that words I grew up with, which had no negative connotations have been corrupted in America since and are now unacceptable world-wide.
A couple of example are gay, fag and faggot (happy or care free, a junior in school who does your chores or a cigarette and either meat balls or a bundle of kindling wood). All of those words are innocent (well, a fag is a derogatory, almost slave like position in boarding schools), but:
- try and tell someone their child is gay (they have a child with a happy disposition)
- or ask someone if you can “bum a fag” off them (borrow a cigarette)
and not get hit or at least get a funny look.
There are many other words that have been corrupted over the years, so yes, there are old sayings that are no longer appropriate, but there are dozens “acceptable” words that have been corrupted in American culture in the last half century and exported back to the rest of the English speaking world.
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Well, I guess, one can argue, either the language evolves, or it is dead/extinct/no longer used. I REALLY dislike that phones have made it okay to speak in a lower case abbreviated form, but I have to accept this from one of my cherished younger contacts. I’m still struggling with the evolution of some concepts, and adapting to using “they” more often, but I refuse to become old and irrelevant quite yet, so I struggle on 
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But that is the point, these aren’t dead or extinct words, these are words that are still in common use with their original meaning in many parts of the world, but suddenly they become unacceptable, because some idiot corrupts its meaning.
You can still buy faggots in the UK, they taste really great in a lovely thick gravy with mash or chips (not American chips (crisps), British chips).
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That was not my point. The usage of the word has evolved. Time to adapt or you will be extinct 
Here’s some other words that have changed over time:
I assume if you’re in the Midlands and tell a neighbor that you’re a big fan of faggots with onion gravy you’ll be fine (i.e. context matters).
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Please watch this video and stop using the f-word. Thanks in advance.
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I don’t think I’ll ever really understand American humour. That was embarrassing, degrading and simply disrespectful.
I’d never heard of Louis CK, but if that is an example of his humour, I’ll think I’ll give it a miss.
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To me, the humor is less important than the message it conveys about the origin of this word.
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The information about where the misuse of faggot came from is important, the “message” though is that you can call people names, as long as you know where the name originated. That is a very poor message, in my books. 
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See, I think that was just the humor part, not the meat of the message.
For me, the message was that although the term is used in a derogatory way in the US but not in the UK, its origins, even before modern UK usage, were particularly grisly.
Using incorrect English such as using plural (they) to describe a singular (he/she) will never be acceptable to me
“Someone rang the doorbell earlier while we were away. I wonder what they wanted?”
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I called my cousin to tell them to come for dinner
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I feel bad for anyone actually named Karen.
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Yeah. It’s weird sometimes how random facets of pop culture are both offensive and somewhat recognisable to so many people. Calling people “a Karen” is one of those potato chip feasts of social behaviour - you know it’s not really sensible or appropriate, but it’s miraculously hard to stop.
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It seems like keeping up with the latest meanings of such words has become a test of various sensitivities and awareness, regardless of the thoughts words or phrases are meant to convey.
Why? That is a new one to me…