San Francisco creates PC terms to protect criminals from "hate speech".

[morvoran]

GOOD NEWS, EVERYBODY!!! Those of us who may or may not download software illegally are no longer to be call "Pirates". We are to be referred to as "Persons who are involved in the downloading of digital media." Thanks to San Francisco we can now erase the stigmatization of illegally downloading software, so we will no longer be thought of as criminals. Maybe GBAtemp will change its rules to reflect this change? (No, I am not being serious.)

--------
From the San Francisco Chronicle:

The words “felon,” “offender,” “convict,” “addict” and “juvenile delinquent” would be part of the past in official San Francisco parlance under new “person first” language guidelines adopted by the Board of Supervisors.

Going forward, what was once called a convicted felon or an offender released from jail will be a “formerly incarcerated person,” or a “justice-involved” person or simply a “returning resident.”

Parolees and people on criminal probation will be referred to as a “person on parole,” or “person under supervision.”

A juvenile “delinquent” will become a “young person with justice system involvement,” or a “young person impacted by the juvenile justice system.”

And drug addicts or substance abusers will become “a person with a history of substance use.”

“We don’t want people to be forever labeled for the worst things that they have done,” Supervisor Matt Haney said.
--------

My favorite is the drug addicts one. Now instead of calling my siblings meth heads, I will now call them people with history of substance abuse.

I would like to know your opinion on this matter. Is this just going to far or was this needed to protect our "persons with justice system involvement" to be protected from "hate speech" in order to assimilate back into society?

 

[FAST6191]

Has this sort of thing ever worked to achieve much of anything? I tend to look more to the mental health world and the historical cycling of terms there.

After invalid fell out of fashion (not sure when as I have cook books going to about the 70s using it, though those look like older things getting reprints or reused for device bundled cook books) we got retard.

Retard is not so popular any more (to some it probably joins cunt in terms of words that might get you in trouble, though UK wise cunt is rather milder than in the US) so we got special needs, though for some this too enjoys diminished status.

On the street then at least in the UK we got... not sure how it was spelled but thalid/flid (as in thalidomide baby, which is odd because a lot of those were just physical), retard got popular for a while though even by the 90s and 2000s that was frowned upon, cripple was always fun (you also have the Cockney rhyming slang raspberry, as in raspberry ripple. Though today you will likely hear it more as raspberry spot for disabled parking space), and some time back I heard the term scopey (one of the bigger disability charities in the UK is called Scope). I had left schools by the time autism and Asperger's (then a separate diagnosis, by some measures still is but probably not for long) became known to more than psychiatrists but dyslexia at least was commonly known (if few accommodations made) so not sure what goes there.

Trying to keep straight the list of names for user of the mental healthcare system also gets fun -- I only have minor interactions with such things and trying to keep straight the distinction between patient, resident, service user and the half dozen other preferred terms for people what are in receipt of mental healthcare treatment, observation or assistance in a given facility is no fun at all, especially when getting it wrong (not in front of a patient either*) might get you the classic sharp intake of breath.

*one time I was helping a shift lead (not a terribly computery person) at some elderly care facility make a spreadsheet to fill in observations a doctor asked for. I tap in patient name at the top as you do and proceed to figure out the meat of the project. Much like I had someone get hyper focused on the background colour of a website once she pretty much defocused there and almost got twitchy before informing me of the "error" some minute and a half later.


Anyway usual boo those that would try to police my words for no particular reason or gain (such that there ever is one).

 

[DBlaze]

"We don’t want people to be forever labeled for the worst things that they have done"
So what do we call killers, rapists and pedophiles?
"Person with involvement of taking ones life", "Person who was formerly extremely sexually frustrated" and "Person who used to love kids a little too much"?

 

[Paulsar99]

Lol would this really change anything? Murder is murder, rape is rape, robbery is robbery, and so on.

 

[b17bomber]

Glad to see the city is tackling the important issues, besides pesky things like dung on the streets and rampant homelessness.

 

[morvoran]

Lol would this really change anything? Murder is murder, rape is rape, robbery is robbery, and so on.

Careful, your logic may trigger a leftist. They'll be like, "Um, excuse me, we don't use those right wing racist hate terms around here. We prefer legally aborting an over developed fetus, exercising your right to love somebody, and spreading the wealth of others to the less fortunate."

Glad to see the city is tackling the important issues, besides pesky things like dung on the streets and rampant homelessness.

Why fix the issues when you can just spin the meaning of words to make people think everything's fine? Dung on the streets is now "street fertilizer" and homelessness is "new age camping".

 

[Bullseye]

This is just utter nonsense... but wanting Trump dead and hating on him and calling him names is still ok...

Double morale...

 

[Saiyan Lusitano]

That's ridiculous but not surprising. Pregnant women are now in some places called "pregnant people".

Women are the only ones who can actually get pregnant. Men can't.

 

[Panzerfaust]

thats already a thing in germany. if the media refers to "a man" or "a group of men" then you can be 100% sure it's someone who is not german. mostly middle-easterns, arabs or africans. they say "sea rescue" but in reality it's smuggling. the call ppl refugees, but in reality most of them are undocumented immigrants, who are mostly healthy young men. i guess black / african / afroamerican ppl are now colored ppl here, but I'm not sure, cause it changes everytime. saying "gypsies" is also racist here, the are now "gyratory europeans" (I dont know, whether I translated it correct or not. such stupid shit can only exist here). the list goes on and on. A good friend of mine is a research assistent in math at an university and he is forced to use gender neutral language in the tests and emails he's writing. This crippled crap is so far away from beeing german, that it's realy hard to understand for a normal person.

 

[morvoran]

Women are the only ones who can actually get pregnant. Men can't.

What about transgender men? They can get pregnant. This is most likely the reason for saying "pregnant people".

thats already a thing in germany. if the media refers to "a man" or "a group of men" then you can be 100% sure it's someone who is not german.

That is how the "news" is in the US as well. If a person of color commits a crime, it's a man or a woman. If a white person did it, they are labeled a white supremacist who committed a hate crime. Very biased media here in the states.

 

[Hanafuda]

Glad to see the city is tackling the important issues, besides pesky things like dung on the streets and rampant homelessness.

I think you meant to say "facilities location confusion" and "residence challenged."

Check that privilege.

 

[Josshy0125]

This is so silly. Next thing you know murderers will fight for their right to be called "body puncturers" or something because being called a murderer is too demeaning. What the fuck is up with the world and their obsession over subtle things regarding identity these days? Its absolutely ludacris!

 

[Viri]

If I break into your house, am I an "undocumented home owner"?

 

[osaka35]

here's the source:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea...upervisors-sanitizes-language-of-14292255.php


I've read a lot about "person-first" words. The goal is to have people known as having an attribute/descriptor, not to be known as that attribute or only by that attribute/descriptor. You're putting the person first instead, attribute/descriptor secondary. The thinking being this will get people to see the person as they truly are; just a human person who has this thing going on along with the rest of their ilfe, rather than them being encompassed by a particular label. Folks aren't just one single "thing".

I've only seen one research paper on the issue and it didn't seem to help too much in the one particular instance they tested for, but it might prove beneficial in a more general way (it was a tiny study anyway).

I dunno, it's something. I mean, I can understand wanting to do this in an official capacity, to be as accurate as possible. Which is all this really is; a desire for accuracy and clarity. It's not going to hurt anything. The goals are valid enough, though don't know how successful it'll be.

after reading the article, the goal in this particular case is so folks that have been rehabilitated and are trying to find jobs or become contributing members of society can do so without this stigma. They did their time, they served their sentence, and are still stuck as "criminal". Thus the wanting to change the language a little bit to help the problem. not sure it'll work, but can't hurt to try.

 

[Viri]

thats already a thing in germany. if the media refers to "a man" or "a group of men" then you can be 100% sure it's someone who is not german. mostly middle-easterns, arabs or africans. they say "sea rescue" but in reality it's smuggling. the call ppl refugees, but in reality most of them are undocumented immigrants, who are mostly healthy young men. i guess black / african / afroamerican ppl are now colored ppl here, but I'm not sure, cause it changes everytime. saying "gypsies" is also racist here, the are now "gyratory europeans" (I dont know, whether I translated it correct or not. such stupid shit can only exist here). the list goes on and on. A good friend of mine is a research assistent in math at an university and he is forced to use gender neutral language in the tests and emails he's writing. This crippled crap is so far away from beeing german, that it's realy hard to understand for a normal person.

Something like that happened here too. Gee, I wonder what race they are...!

Also, if I was one of the victims, I'd be pretty livid at this decision. I bet they continued to do it, because why not? The city is going to give you special treatment.

If you're part of a group, and robbing people, you deserve to be shamed on camera. IMO, doing stuff like this actually causes even more racism.

Spoiler

https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2...illance-videos-of-crime-to-avoid-stereotypes/

 

[morvoran]

Can't see what's wrong with that.

So what you're saying is that, for example, we shouldn't label Jeffrey Dahmer a cannibalistic murderer, rather, he was a "person of exquisite taste for exotic meats who prematurely put other persons to rest"? I think it's best to call a duck what it is, a duck.

 

[osaka35]

So what you're saying is that, for example, we shouldn't label Jeffrey Dahmer a cannibalistic murderer, rather, he was a "person of exquisite taste for exotic meats who prematurely put other persons to rest"? I think it's best to call a duck what it is, a duck.

that's definitely not the goal, method, or situation that's outlined in the article. And I doubt Jeffrey Dahmer would ever have gotten out of prison . The focus is obviously on reformed criminals, troubled youths, and the like. Because currently, once you get into the system, you're far far more likely to return to the system. It has a way of institutionalizing you. This is an attempt to help people actually be free on the outside once they're out.

again, i'm not sure how successful this will be. applaud the goal, uncertain of the means. But it makes sense, so long as you restrict it to this specific purpose.

 

[dAVID_]

I think the same logic behind this is the same logic behind the following hypothetical statement:
If we out law the use of the word "n****" then racism will no longer be an issue.
Discrimination is not just a matter of how you speak to other people, it is inherently a cultural problem.
I'm not saying that referring to black people by "n****" is acceptable, just that discrimination isn't such a simple issue.

 

[morvoran]

that's definitely not the goal, method, or situation that's outlined in the article

This is the very last line of the article---
“We don’t want people to be forever labeled for the worst things that they have done,” Supervisor Matt Haney said.

What I said seems to be exactly the goal of this situation.

 

[Xzi]

I think the same logic behind this is the same logic behind the following hypothetical statement:
If we out law the use of the word "n****" then racism will no longer be an issue.
Discrimination is not just a matter of how you speak to other people, it is inherently a cultural problem.
I'm not saying that referring to black people by "n****" is acceptable, just that discrimination isn't such a simple issue.

It is a pretty simple issue in the end: discrimination is a means by which to keep the working class divided and fighting over scraps so they don't organize to overthrow the people taking the whole pie for themselves.

This story in particular is boring though, usually the only local news worth discussing comes from Florida.