You can thank Bleuwater for today’s rant: https://bleuwater.me/2022/02/01/no-can-do/

The University of Washington has decided that there are words that are problematic: http://itconnect.uw.edu (The list I provide is not the complete list- I just picked a few randomly)

  1. blackbox
  2. gray hat hacker
  3. grandfather clause
  4. webmaster
  5. brown bags
  6. cakewalk
  7. gyp/gip
  8. mantra
  9. guru
  10. no can do
  11. peanut gallery
  12. redline
  13. jerry-rigged
  14. sherpa
  15. spirit animal
  16. blind spot
  17. crazy
  18. cripple
  19. dumb
  20. normal
  21. see
  22. housekeeping
  23. guys
  24. ladies
  25. lifestyle

Tennessee school board has decided to ban Maus because of the word:

  1. Damn
  2. a naked mouse

People want the government to step in and remove Joe Rogan from Spotify because of lies. FYI- if we were to remove things because of lies there would be nothing left. As a short list of examples of lies I refer you to the Pentagon Papers, the superiors in Flint, and 90% of online dating profiles…

Do not let the Government get involved in what gets published and what gets put on TV, internet and movies. If you need examples of why this is bad, please reference Pravda.

Let me start off by saying that in all these cases, people are trying to change things for the good of the people (remember my very cynical post last week regarding how I don’t trust people who say they are going to change the world?)

But is this how we change the world?

Is the word SEE really problematic because some people can’t see?

Really?

Is substituting the word “see” for something more “non-ableist” going to better serve the world?

And no can do, which is cited as being “slang” and can be inferred as an imitation of Chinese pidgin English? Really? We allow irregardless to become a word in the dictionary, but we can’t say No Can Do?

Enough is enough.

Stop thinking of words that are problematic.

Let’s look at behaviors that are problematic.

Banning things is problematic.

Censorship is problematic.

Groups that think they know best are problematic.

Just say NO to Government involvement in what we publish and produce.

If you want to look evil in the eye, look at the people who want to take things away. Look at the people who think they know better. Educating children means learning who, what when, where, how and WHY. It means teaching people to think for themselves, to advocate for themselves.

Say NO to censorship before the right to oppose things is taken away.

91 thoughts on “Anything Can Happen Friday: Problematic”

  3. I don’t understand how people that support these measures function in daily life. Their reaction to simple words should suggest that the actual vicissitudes of life would cause them to rapidly wilt – but, no, they just power on through somehow. Alas.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. Honestly, I can’t. I know such things and people must exist, but I can’t quite find a place for them in my picture of reality. It’s like they’ve slipped into our dimension from a satirical universe.

        What exactly could ‘see’ be replaced with? And even if it were replaced, it’d be replaced with a word meaning the same thing? It’s dumb, people are dumb – if not in fact crazy, which would give me some solace.

        Liked by 1 person

  4. Absolutely crazy!!! I really have no words, so I gueas I can’t be censored! Or is “No comment” problematic too? I will just go back to my Pa Dutch roots. People are acting like dummkopf’s and nincompoops!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      1. How much research and time went into that list? This reminds me of a book I read years ago called “Red Scarf Girl,” which is an autobiography of a young girl during the Cultural Revolution of China. It’s frightening how much is happening here today.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Unfortunately I don’t think there was bullying. They were probably eager to add words to the list and research reasons why they should be banned. Also, in Washington, a school district removed “To Kill a Mockingbird” because it made people feel uncomfortable.

        Liked by 1 person

  6. Oh crap, why does it have to be the biggest university in my state, so well known for their medical research and other positive and rational public service and involvement

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

      2. So humans don’t matter? IT rules all? This is obviously rhetorical, as I can’t comprehend this…and how some people don’t foresee what this means

        Liked by 1 person

  7. The world has gone mad. Some are just plain dumb. The rest are crazy. There should be a grandfather clause against this madness. Whoever came up with that list can’t be normal. This is where I draw the redline. Will I stop using those words? No can do. Great post LA!

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

      3. Unfortunately we live in a very narcissistic society. And narcissists cannot see anything from anyone else’s point of view. There can therefore only be one point of view that’s considered dogma. I hate to sound cynical, but it’s only going to get worse. That’s my two cents from the peanut gallery.

        Liked by 3 people

  8. I’m baffled? This is insane. I’m not a fan of censorship, it disallows important voices which could be dismissed if they have a dissenting opinion. It feels as if they’re trying to corral us and we’re not sheep! 💕C

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. That’s a great way to put it…do it our way or else. And in this case, the or else is refusing to allow differing viewpoints to be heard. When in unrevised history has that ever been a good thing?

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  9. Ladies and Guys,

    Many people have blind spots. They can’t tolerate what most people consider normal. They’re out to ban things they think are problematic. It’s dumb. It’s crazy! Did something happen somewhere in their lives to cripple their logical thinking? If someone asks me to no longer use certain words, I say, “NO CAN DO!”

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  10. How are we even supposed to talk anymore? Ridiculous. Agree with you about the censorship. However, I do think there should be more fact checking before lies get spread, especially in the media and from the mouths of some people. There are a lot of gullible people out there.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  12. This has been going on for years across many institutions, so this list does not surprise me at all. Censorship, of course, is not about “protecting” anyone, it is about control. And we have given more and more control to the authoritarians without most people batting an eye. The only reason a list like this catches anyone’s attention is because most of us deem it as silly. If this list contained words that we collectively felt were wrong, there would be demands and cheers for censorship. Too many people, when it aligns with their personal values/morals, are more than willing to allow government/educational/financial/corporate, etc. overreach. A ridiculous list such as this can only come to fruition as a result of past compliance. You know the old saying “give them an inch and they take a mile.” Human beings tend to not know when too far is too far.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

      5. By the way, they don’t want to remove Joe Rogan for just hosting people with a differing narrative from the mob/establishment, they want him removed because he is a major catalyst in main stream media becoming insignificant.

        Liked by 2 people

      9. Exactly. If we didn’t put these people up on a pedestal then when they say something ignorant, it wouldn’t carry so much weight. But then again, people would just come up with something else to be outraged over. We’ve become a species of anger-addicts. Oh . . . Uh-oh . . . Am I mansplaining again?

        Liked by 2 people

      10. It’s like I said to swing cat…one of the problematic words is preferred pronoun…didn’t some group just come up with that as being the right thing to say?

        Liked by 1 person

      11. Much of this contradicts itself. By design. A confused, divided populace is easier to control. By refusing to play the game, you are doing exactly what needs to be done. People have forgotten how powerful the word “no” is. Peaceful non-compliance is their greatest enemy. If enough of us simply say no and then turn our backs on these despots and walk away, they will have no power.

        Liked by 2 people

      12. People don’t think about what they are doing. No one questions if they think they are following the “right”. Maybe that’s why they want to get rid of words linking to seeing and hearing

        Liked by 2 people

  13. There are just not enough words in the English language left after all this censorship to describe what they are doing to us. I refer everyone back to Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm if they are still available. Censorship is wrong in so many ways and on so many levels. I can’t even twist my head far enough around to see what could possibly be wrong with many of the words on the list. My favorite example is “sherpa.” I don’t know what’s wrong with that word. I do know that my favorite personal motorcycle is a Kawasaki Super Sherpa. Fortunately for Kawasaki, that model is no longer made or I suppose the company would have to rename the bike. LA, you hit all the major points and arguments, and I am incensed! I do plan on continuing to ignore the PC police. I don’t set out to offend anyone, but it sounds like you can do it even when you aren’t trying.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  17. Another YA book worth the read on this topic: “Ella Minnow Pea.” That’s along with “Red Scarf Girl” I previously recommended.

    Here’s a snippet from Amazon’s description:

    Ella finds herself acting to save her friends, family, and fellow citizens from the encroaching totalitarianism of the island’s Council, which has banned the use of certain letters of the alphabet as they fall from a memorial statue of Nevin Nollop. As the letters progressively drop from the statue they also disappear from the novel. The result is both a hilarious and moving story of one girl’s fight for freedom of expression, as well as a linguistic tour de force sure to delight word lovers everywhere.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  18. I have this wild idea. Ready? Let’s have the government work on something that actually harms, nay, kills people every year, because of access issues to adequate food and proper housing. Poverty. Let’s have the government work on banning that word and the practical manifestation of it from our vocabulary and society forevermore. Leave off the semantics and censorship. Seriously. Strong feelings on this one obviously.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  19. I’m so glad you wrote this. It amazes me how people can think this is okay. Or to believe they are “right” in telling everyone else how they should feel or believe about things. America is losing it’s freedoms when we censor and ban. The government is overstepping. How can anyone in their right mind go along with this????

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  20. As my counselor affirmed, the only logical reasoning is a middle-ground of discussion. I actually like some censorship, which means it gets carried away sometimes and sometimes doesn’t get taken far enough. At those edges, though, I ask myself what the consequences would be if we kept up that pattern. No one wants that.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

      5. That term (ableist) is also new to me but otherwise I agree with Chel overall. Then again, I’m going to save this list to go over it more deeply, line by line, and give each some more thought so thanks for sharing it.

        Liked by 1 person

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s