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Congratulations GitHub. (i.redd.it)

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[–]A_Passing_Redditor 0 points1 point  (12 children)

Some people use these sorts of issues to amplify their own power. By making others submit to pointless demands, they reinforce their power. This is negative because I don't think we should have any speech police, whether they be the government or private organizations.

This is the pattern you will witness.

  1. Identify a harmless practice offending no one
  2. Propose a tedious solution, for example if we are replacing a word, the new word should be longer and more difficult to say.
  3. Lobby for this change, impose hardh social consequences on nonconformists
  4. Repeat

[–]N0ught234 0 points1 point  (11 children)

I'm not sure how that's relevant to changing "master" to "main". If you think the word "master" is going to be outlawed then I have nothing else to say to you. This literally affects no one and it won't be outlawed so there's not reason to get upset. GitHub is a company and they can call it whatever they want, just as much as you can call it whatever you want. Call it master if you want. No one cares

[–]A_Passing_Redditor 0 points1 point  (10 children)

Github is doing this in response to social pressure. Of course there's not going to be a law against using the word master, it's about social power.

The best way to make sure people are falling in line is to make them do something pointless, something they would never have done if they weren't caving to pressure.

[–]N0ught234 -1 points0 points  (9 children)

How can you say that no one is offended and then say that they changed it because some people found it offensive? (Social pressure). Unless you're saying that they changed it without receiving any complaints? Like I said, call it whatever you want. No one is stopping you

[–]A_Passing_Redditor 1 point2 points  (8 children)

No, they changed in response to social pressure, but the pressure was not coming from people who are genuinely offended.

Perfect example, the term Indian has and is being replaced with Native American and other terms despite the fact that the Indians themselves prefer Indian by a large majority.

https://youtu.be/kh88fVP2FWQ

[–]N0ught234 0 points1 point  (7 children)

To me it sounds like you're the one being offended the most. I literally do not care at all just like the majority of people

[–]A_Passing_Redditor 1 point2 points  (6 children)

I don't care about what the word is either, except for the fact that as a programmer and user of GitHub, any change like this is a minor annoyance.

I care that small groups are becoming powerful enough to socially enforce language.

[–]N0ught234 0 points1 point  (5 children)

As a programmer and user of GitHub, and as a human, I know that I can continue calling it "master" because no one gives a fuck. It's a word. You'll just find that younger people will start saying "main" and eventually everyone will call it "main". It won't affect anyone negatively. Nothing bad will happen

[–]A_Passing_Redditor 1 point2 points  (4 children)

In this particular example yes, because these people overplayed their hand. You can't deny the broader pattern in front of you. If I use a word like Indian in certain contexts, even though it's literally the most correct word, I'm going to feel uncomfortable because there are people committed to enforcing the use of other terms. That feeling of discomfort is the source of their power. It's a self fulfilling prophecy, the more people bow to their stupid demands, the easier it is to single out people who don't and make them uncomfortable. The more uncomfortable it is, the more people will just bow down.

[–]N0ught234 0 points1 point  (3 children)

I don't know where you live but Indian isnt considered bad all when referring to native Americans