How important is it to call things by their right name?
9
Replies
1
Boost
Depends what those things are. Organs during a surgery? Very important! Background characters in an anime? Not so much.
@evan I said "very important" because I believe that understanding a "right name" is an important part of understanding the named thing. My exception, and not enough to change my vote to "somewhat important," is cats which have a right name, and many silly nicknames, and it's okay to call them by any of those. My sister's cat is silly nicknamed "Serves Twelve" at this moment and her "right name" is Miss Woo.
@evan it is important to be respectful of other's views, but "right name" starts taking you down a rabbit hole. Who gets to say what the Right Name is?
@evan What do you mean by "the right name" of a thing?
@diesch one good example might be saying Free Software instead of Open Source, or GNU/Linux instead of Linux. Another is using the right names for people, like Inuit or Roma. Or using the right terms for difficult social issues, like CSAM or death by suicide.
@diesch another might be using up-to-date binomial names for plants. Or the precise names for data structures.
@evan "Their right name" is subjective. Mt. McKinley, Bombay, Rangoon, and the Falklands might be either evidence for or counter-examples.
@evan
Hello, brother Ivan. Greetings to you from the heart of Gaza—and from the heart of Palestine as a whole. Could you please boost my posts and the link to my campaign?
