The word “Master Race” is clearly equivalent to terms which were used by Nazis and so are today’s far right wing and alt-rights.
There are other communities which created similar narratives, especially from the 4chan side, and I think the origin of “PC Master Race” comes from there.
This is just cringe. You realize the term “master race” in this context is derived from “PC master race” which in turn was coined as part of the console gamers vs. PC gamers rivalry, i.e. the “console ‘tards” vs. “PC gamer master race”… sigh…
This take is as cringy as gamergate, TBH.
In my experience, if you let a hate group co-opt a term or euphemism, it emboldens them in that usage.
For example, “Oh you did the OK symbol 👌? That’s a white supremacy symbol.” No it isn’t, in most contexts it means OK and in some cultures it represents a butthole.
So by using “master race” for a trivial and humorous concept that a person’s choice of OS makes them superior to others, it belittles its xenophobic usage. A person’s race or skin colour is (or should be) just as irrelevant as OS choice when it comes to their place in society.
Thank you!!! dilute the hate!
You have a very good argument right there, thank you for enriching this discussion!
The inflationary use of these words leads to generalization in common usage and removes taboos from them. Of course, one could argue that this loses its initial “power”. However, language changes very slowly and the terminology of the past remains. People will see you as people who see themselves above everyone else because of their operating system.
It also empowers Right Wing People and adopts narratives and disseminates ideas from that movement.
Small side info: In Germany, football clubs that would describe themselves as „master race“ would quickly end up on the list of enemies of the constitution, for the simple reason that it also attracts certain alt-rights, as I can see from this post.
The main problem with your argument is that this is not an e.g. racist insult, but a glorification. People are using faggot for themselves to fight the negativity of the word, but by using the word race, you will always recreate racism.
And while we’re on the subject of Nazi words, we can also adopt other terms: how about „Windows concentration camps“? (It’s funny, Isn’t it?)
‘race recreates racism’ lmao with that attitude racism would always exist everywhere cause races ain’t going anywhere
Total non-issue
Why do you think this using racist language is a non-issue?
Because?
“Master Race” will still be referring to this kind of “We are over everything, because our race is over everything” narrative.
Which is basicly the Linux community in a nutshell. We all see ourselves as superior
Which is part of Consumerism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumerism
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Jesus christ. People go out of their way to be offended by the most non-offensive shit these days.
It’s “tongue in cheek”. What you’re implying, is all of the comedy and parodies of nazis, or the KKK throughout history is actually supporting them? No, it’s making them smaller, and smaller, and completely laughable.
Perhaps we should rename it to Linux-Care-Bears. You can be Overly-Sensitive-Bear, or Whoosh-Bear.
Are you finding issues where there really isn’t any?
Well then let’s just not talk about discrimination. Easy fix
We live in a so called attention economy. That makes your rather negligent overuse of the term “discrimination” a problem because it shifts attention to situations where it’s easy to argue that discrimination is negligible or doesn’t exist at all. That in turn means people are less likely to have any attention left to inform themselves about cases with actual discrimination.
Basically, comments like yours are what I’d make if I wanted to stifle progress and foster structural racism. Heck, maybe you actually are a bad faith actor.
Glad you agree
The origin of pcmr is a video by zero punctation.
Ok, my mistake, but does this change the fact that the term still characterizes structural racism? Also, due to the nature of anonymity, we cannot know much about the motivations of any particular person on the internet. 4chan and alt right are exactly where you least expect them to be.
You realize that Linuxmasterrace is the parody of penguins feeling superior to other right and you fell for it by blowing it out of proportions?
I’m not familiar with the history of the sub, could you elaborate a bit more please?
thats imho all there is to it.
Fair enough, thanks 🙏
Better post this on PCMR as well, I’m sure it will be well received
I will. I just thought Linux users had a higher moral standard.
The name is actually poking fun at both the concept of believing in the existence of a master race and the users themselves. It’s not because the creators or users of the community actually think they’re the master race of OS preference.
Calm down.
This reeks of thought policing. If language doesn’t contain the “bad words” you can’t think about it. I for one will not support a society that strives to become doubleplus good.
Language is more than just what Orwell thought it is.
Language can be harmful to others and recreate structures, which harm others.
I wish you wouldn’t use the word “harm”. I find that term hateful and hurtful.
Thank you OP, for your important comment! The unthinking use of Nazi vocabulary only unnecessarily reproduces their rhetoric. It’s not about language policing, it’s about knowledge of history, a sense of appropriateness and style of language. Unfortunately, most people here don’t want to deal with this, yet it is an important part of “Never Again.” Unfortunately, the U.S. is running blindly into a new fascism, and language in particular is a catalyst. It helps the fascists push the boundaries of what can be said (and maybe done).
I actually agree… the name does make me uncomfortable :I
