I remember when "picnic" was believed to be a racist word.
Millennials police each other
This is a cross post from my substack:
As a Millennial this doesn’t shock me at all. My generation is constantly policing each other for “problematic” language or ideas.
Once a friend of mine corrected me for using the word “bootstrapping” to describe people self-funding their own businesses.
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I don't remember "picnic" but I remember there was a whole list of words that were suddenly not allowed, like "blacklist" and "master bedroom."
I wonder how many of these linguistic changes were adapted not because people were personally upset that these terms were racist, but because most of the time it's not really something worth arguing about. I encountered something similar when setting up a github repo with a collaborator. He told me that the term "master branch" was considered problematic these days, so we named it the "main branch" instead.
Crazy. Insane. Delusional. Stupid! I still see the Left attempting to scare others away from using these words. Listen, I can understand omitting the R-word. I wouldn't use it either, personally. But if you're telling me to delete half of my vocabulary when words have different contextual meanings, I'm putting you in Idiot Timeout.
😂
I have spent so long trying to understand the psychology behind this. It opens the left up for extreme contemptuous mockery from the right, and their natural left-leaning allies are also sick of this behavior.
My conclusion after years in the trenches is that it's a giant power trip, and on top of it they get to feel morally and intellectually superior to everyone else around them.
I’m confused by that being considered racist. Can you explain why it was? Why would picnic be racist?
Just a weird rumor. Something about it being connected to lynchings (it isn't).