la ninpre
there are some things named after some people, who discovered/invented these things. at some point later sometimes people discover some unpleasant things about these inventors/etc. should we stop calling these things after those people after discovering such facts? please see follow up post, i can't fit within this char limit >.< 12 comments
la ninpre
anyway, i just think that straight up forgetting about those people is like rewriting history to make it more comfortable/safe. i am NOT saying that we shouldn't know about those bad things those people did, and i'm NOT in any way accepting their behaviour. i just don't think that if someone did something bad it undoes all good things they did. oh, btw, i'm primarily talking about past events here, where you can't do anything about it. btw, feel free to disagree, i am open to changing my mind. 
R E K
@la_ninpre It's tricky. The name does distract. I like the knot, it's very useful, but sharing it with that name will likely always attract conversations about the inventor's past instead of ones about the many uses of that knot. So it makes it difficult now to want to share that knot with that name.
la ninpre
@rek thanks for telling that, i can see why one would want to use a generic name for such things. unfortunately, tho, it's not always possible to predict what will trigger some people. it's like some people just want to spread some hate they have inside so they'll pick anything actually :neofox_sad:
R E K
@la_ninpre Posting on Mastodon is like walking on egg shells, but again... i don't know what's going on in ppl's lives, they may not be in a good place, or have somekind of past trauma.
R E K
@la_ninpre oh no no, don't worry, you didn't say anything unsettling, it's important to talk about this sort of thing.
ipso
@la_ninpre Small take, but I work in an environment with many spoken languages and everyone avoids names as much as possible due to the extra burden they place on communication. If there's a generic term for a concept that describes it well, it ends up being naturally preferred over tangentially introducing and explaining some historical figure (that will be difficult to remember and pronounce, anyway). |
Gregory's Server
i can think of both pros and cons of such exclusion, but i think even if the person who made something other people use, did terrible things, still naming their things after them is not necessarily accepting their bad behaviour. it's more like remembering something good about these people.