Political Correctness Goes Overboard on FriendFeed

26 | Posted In Opinion, Social Media by David

Part of me says to let this issue drop because, yes, it started out with me making a stupid ass of myself. But, the other side of me is a blogger and you don’t become a blogger by being a chicken when you make an ass of yourself.

It all started with a tweet I sent out yesterday:

Does anyone else think its kinda gay that Google used a comic to introduce Google Chrome? A frickin’ comic?

This tweet turned into a shitstorm over on FriendFeed over one word: gay. Apparently, a few people took it to mean I was referring to homosexuals. In reality, I was using what is admittedly ghetto slang to mean stupid, lame, etc. Often it is spelled “ghey“, actually, but that spelling was created mainly to avoid potential claim that it targets homosexuals.

So, here’s the deal: I NEVER meant nor intended anything remotely having to do with homosexuals. Not in the slightest. When I got berated on Friendfeed over the word, I immediately realized I had stepped into a huge pile of bad because my use of that word brought on all kinds of emotion. It is not an argument I can win, and I immediately apologized on Friendfeed. I’m an adult and I can live up to a case of drive-by tweeting.

This conversation has drawn the attention of a few notables, including Louis Gray, Robert Scoble…I even saw that Techcrunch’s Michael Arrington liked the conversation. But, Scoble is the one who reacted most harshly and is the guy whose reaction borders on dangerous. Scoble, in fact, is my motivation for this blog post.

Scoble’s reaction devolved quickly:

Simian: I think David needs to be sent on a trip to Berlin to study Germany’s history and where it went wrong. The use of language against other people is horrible. I won’t allow it to be used that way here. David is very close to getting a block.

This just earned David a block. David, you really need to go back and study Nazi world history. How you can use a perjorative against any group without expecting to see consequences is pretty over the line in my book.

So, apparently Scoble blocked me on FriendFeed. What is interesting, though, is that (1) he puts so much weight into the symbol (a word) without even once questioning my actual intention, (2) he is cocky enough to think him blocking me matters. Especially after I apologized and made clear I was not referring to homosexuals, Scoble continued to pounce on it.

This is dangerous and is political correctness to the Nth degree. Perhaps I should expect this from a San Francisco liberal, but Scoble needs to realize that censorship and the use of symbols to control people is EXACTLY the way Nazi Germany operated. Scoble can be high-and-mighty with me all he wants, but I think he, too, needs to become more familiar with history to realize the danger political correctness like this can lead to. He is reacting in a way which brings on what he says he despises, but in reverse.

A word is a symbol and should never be confused with intentions of the heart. ESPECIALLY on the Internet where you do not have the benefit of reading a person’s body language and judging his/her character.

While Scoble overreacted, many others realized that I simply screwed up:

I can relate to what the guy is going through. I went through it with a different word last week

Apparently, I’m not alone.

Wow. Godwin’s Law in response to someone saying ‘kinda gay.’ That hasta be a new record, even for you, Robert. You might as well have quoted President Bush: “If you say something’s ‘kinda gay,’ that means the terrorists win!

Loren Feldman reacted to Scoble in his usual, colorful way:

In response to Loren, I don’t think Scoble was referring to the word “David”. My name is David and I think, perhaps, you misread Scoble’s comments. He was referring to me.

Nonetheless, I think a message from “Simian DA (Amber)” on FriendFeed sums up the lesson best:

If it is slang that was never used in a discriminatory manner against a group of people, slang should be fine. Its just if its going to FF, a lot of really liberal minds are going to see it.

And that was my mistake. I was using the word as a slang, and given that it had a lot of negative weight behind it as another definition, it was stupid as hell for me to use it. Especially considering the audience of FriendFeed.

I still, however, think Scoble’s reaction was not only overboard, but extremely narrow-minded and cocky (using a frickin’ FriendFeed block as a weapon of social change?). Being afraid of a word isn’t exactly a sign of intelligence. Scoble, don’t turn FriendFeed into a case of 1984 (and if you haven’t read that book, do).

I’ve learned something because of this, but I think it also brings up a larger issue of political correctness and that is why I decided to post a response today.

EDIT: THE MOTTO

There is a motto here that I learned and I want to make clear for the benefit of others. Social media sites like FriendFeed cast a wide net and have a lot of different kinds of people on there. We need to have an environment of respect among us and, for that reason, it is advisable not to use such slang on these sites. I learned this the hard way. I didn’t mean anything by it, but some thought I did and that is reason enough to jut be smart about the words used on these kinds of social media sites. Period.

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  • Guest

    From one of those liberal minds lemme just say this: Scoble’s public blocking was retarded.

  • http://tehkenny.blogspot.com tehKenny

    From one of those liberal minds lemme just say this: Scoble’s public blocking was retarded.

  • http://www.pcmech.com/ David

    Pointing out the dangers of the reaction is different from defending the use of the word in the first place.

  • http://www.pcmech.com David

    Pointing out the dangers of the reaction is different from defending the use of the word in the first place.

  • http://www.1938media.com/ Loren Feldman

    I know, but you know what as I was out of my mind angry and my point is exactly the same which is about Scoble lecturing people about language and world history. Not to mention trying to censor people and how they choose to communicate. Your comment was obviously innocent and meant no harm to anyone.

  • http://www.1938media.com Loren Feldman

    I know, but you know what as I was out of my mind angry and my point is exactly the same which is about Scoble lecturing people about language and world history. Not to mention trying to censor people and how they choose to communicate. Your comment was obviously innocent and meant no harm to anyone.

  • http://scobleizer.com/ Robert Scoble

    Loren: how is a “block” censoring? It doesn’t keep other people from seeing his content. It just keeps it out of my view. I don’t allow that kind of language to be used in my living room, why should I allow it to be on my screen?

    tehKenny: a “block” is a perfect instrument for removing people from your view and keeping them from interacting with you further.

    More on Louis Gray’s post here: http://beta.friendfeed.com/e/8ed0aa8f-0d0e-523e-11c8-0d5bf1cc7ae1/Political-Correctness-Goes-Overboard-on/

  • http://scobleizer.com Robert Scoble

    Loren: how is a “block” censoring? It doesn’t keep other people from seeing his content. It just keeps it out of my view. I don’t allow that kind of language to be used in my living room, why should I allow it to be on my screen?

    tehKenny: a “block” is a perfect instrument for removing people from your view and keeping them from interacting with you further.

    More on Louis Gray’s post here: http://beta.friendfeed.com/e/8ed0aa8f-0d0e-523e-11c8-0d5bf1cc7ae1/Political-Correctness-Goes-Overboard-on/

  • http://www.chickenteriyaki7.com/ Diane

    I was really turned off by Scoble’s harsh, knee-jerk reaction. He needs some perspective in his life!

  • http://www.chickenteriyaki7.com Diane

    I was really turned off by Scoble’s harsh, knee-jerk reaction. He needs some perspective in his life!

  • http://faboomama.com faboomama

    Wow. You're still defending the use of a derogatory term.

  • http://www.1938media.com/ Loren Feldman

    Robert,

    You can block whomever you like. The point is the word Gay can mean many things depending on context. It was apparent to any normal reader that David did not mean harm to gay people. Gay can mean just not cool. People communicate in many ways and for you to totally misunderstand him and then berate him via your knowledge of Nazi history because of your trip to Berlin is idiotic. That aside language and the proper use of it is not an area in which you should be lecturing people.

  • http://www.1938media.com Loren Feldman

    Robert,

    You can block whomever you like. The point is the word Gay can mean many things depending on context. It was apparent to any normal reader that David did not mean harm to gay people. Gay can mean just not cool. People communicate in many ways and for you to totally misunderstand him and then berate him via your knowledge of Nazi history because of your trip to Berlin is idiotic. That aside language and the proper use of it is not an area in which you should be lecturing people.

  • Guest

    And all this time I took ‘gay’ to mean happy and joyful.

  • Peter

    And all this time I took ‘gay’ to mean happy and joyful.

  • http://scobleizer.com/ Robert Scoble

    Diane: maybe you need some perspective. Why don’t you come to Berlin with me next time and we’ll talk about these things in context. You might also look into my family history. My great grandfather was arrested by the Nazis for speaking out against them.

    Loren: that whole thread happened in, what, three minutes? For you to take it out of context (and misquote me, nonetheless, your quote about my use of David was totally wrong) is just as disrespectful.

  • http://scobleizer.com Robert Scoble

    Diane: maybe you need some perspective. Why don’t you come to Berlin with me next time and we’ll talk about these things in context. You might also look into my family history. My great grandfather was arrested by the Nazis for speaking out against them.

    Loren: that whole thread happened in, what, three minutes? For you to take it out of context (and misquote me, nonetheless, your quote about my use of David was totally wrong) is just as disrespectful.

  • http://www.1938media.com/ Loren Feldman

    No it’s not Robert. My point is still perfectly valid regarding the use of the word gay, and your complete inappropriateness in comparing David’s use of the word gay and Nazi Germany. In terms of your family history and their nobility in speaking out against Nazis, I assure you the price they paid was far less than the others you speak about including my own. If I were you now is about the time to just be quiet on this matter..

  • http://www.1938media.com Loren Feldman

    No it’s not Robert. My point is still perfectly valid regarding the use of the word gay, and your complete inappropriateness in comparing David’s use of the word gay and Nazi Germany. In terms of your family history and their nobility in speaking out against Nazis, I assure you the price they paid was far less than the others you speak about including my own. If I were you now is about the time to just be quiet on this matter..

  • oliv

    there is something I do not undestand :
    what is the relation between “gay” as in “not cool” and the nazi ?

    Robert if you have troubles with the word gay then create a greasmonkey filter to remove entries which contain it.

    Why should you allow this kind of language on comments ? because you are not in your living room, FF is NOT your living room.
    FF is open to comments, posting something means allowing comments, this is it. If you want to react to a comment, do it, but overreaction does not serves you, on the contrary.

    And By the way Nazis are (are and not were) not a consequence of people using words against any group, I wonder were this comes from ? a trip to Berlin ? You think that a trip to Berlin allows you to compare anything that you don’t like with Nazis ? come on !

    [ using words - even pejorative - against groups never created an ideology ]

    About the Nazis :

    Once installed Hitler used populism and the anger at the Treaty of Versailles to create an enemy so that people would be focused on something and he would be able to do whatever he wanted (does it sounds familiar to you ? )

    ———- start of quote —————–
    FYI taken from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism#Racism_and_discrimination :

    ….Nazism was not a monolithic movement, but rather a (mainly German) combination of various ideologies and groups, sparked by anger at the Treaty of Versailles and what was considered to have been a Jewish/Communist conspiracy to humiliate Germany at the end of the First World War…..
    ….The Nazi racial philosophy was influenced by the works of Arthur de Gobineau, Houston Stewart Chamberlain, and Madison Grant, and was elaborated by Alfred Rosenberg in the Myth of the Twentieth Century.

    ….Hitler also claimed that a nation was the highest creation of a “race”, and “great nations” (literally large nations) were the creation of homogeneous populations of “great races” working together…..

    ….“Races without homelands”, Hitler proclaimed, were “parasitic races”, and the richer the members of a parasitic race were, the more virulent the parasitism was said to be. A master race could therefore, according to the Nazi doctrine, easily strengthen itself by eliminating parasitic races from its homeland. This idea was the given rationalization for the Nazis’ later oppression and elimination of Jews, Gypsies, Czechs, Poles, the mentally and physically handicapped, homosexuals and others not belonging to these groups or categories that were part of the Holocaust…….
    ——— end of quote ————

    it’s all about ideology and a political view he only had one goal : rule the world !

  • oliv

    there is something I do not undestand :
    what is the relation between “gay” as in “not cool” and the nazi ?

    Robert if you have troubles with the word gay then create a greasmonkey filter to remove entries which contain it.

    Why should you allow this kind of language on comments ? because you are not in your living room, FF is NOT your living room.
    FF is open to comments, posting something means allowing comments, this is it. If you want to react to a comment, do it, but overreaction does not serves you, on the contrary.

    And By the way Nazis are (are and not were) not a consequence of people using words against any group, I wonder were this comes from ? a trip to Berlin ? You think that a trip to Berlin allows you to compare anything that you don’t like with Nazis ? come on !

    [ using words - even pejorative - against groups never created an ideology ]

    About the Nazis :

    Once installed Hitler used populism and the anger at the Treaty of Versailles to create an enemy so that people would be focused on something and he would be able to do whatever he wanted (does it sounds familiar to you ? )

    ———- start of quote —————–
    FYI taken from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism#Racism_and_discrimination :

    ….Nazism was not a monolithic movement, but rather a (mainly German) combination of various ideologies and groups, sparked by anger at the Treaty of Versailles and what was considered to have been a Jewish/Communist conspiracy to humiliate Germany at the end of the First World War…..
    ….The Nazi racial philosophy was influenced by the works of Arthur de Gobineau, Houston Stewart Chamberlain, and Madison Grant, and was elaborated by Alfred Rosenberg in the Myth of the Twentieth Century.

    ….Hitler also claimed that a nation was the highest creation of a “race”, and “great nations” (literally large nations) were the creation of homogeneous populations of “great races” working together…..

    ….“Races without homelands”, Hitler proclaimed, were “parasitic races”, and the richer the members of a parasitic race were, the more virulent the parasitism was said to be. A master race could therefore, according to the Nazi doctrine, easily strengthen itself by eliminating parasitic races from its homeland. This idea was the given rationalization for the Nazis’ later oppression and elimination of Jews, Gypsies, Czechs, Poles, the mentally and physically handicapped, homosexuals and others not belonging to these groups or categories that were part of the Holocaust…….
    ——— end of quote ————

    it’s all about ideology and a political view he only had one goal : rule the world !

  • http://www.tomstechblog.com/ Tom

    Pardon my double posting (this comment was posted on Loren Feldman’s site first) but I think this is important to the discussion and worthy of being posted here too…

    You want to know the true irony here?

    Whether people realize it or not the term “Gay” as used in the pejorative is not referring to homosexuals. In fact, it’s used (negatively) in literature as early as the 1800s even though it didn’t begin to be used to refer to homosexuals until the 1920s.

    That’s why the pejorative use of the word is generally used to connote “lameness” as opposed to any trait that is necessarily related to homosexuality. That use is derived from the original meaning of being “Cheery” in that people who are overly cheery are generally considered lame by those around them.

    In fact, a quick trip over to Wikipedia (under “Pejorative non-sexualized usage”) will show you that the British Board of Governors has actually considered the topic and ruled that the word has a dual meaning and that one of those meanings has nothing to do with homosexuality. I quote…

    “The word ‘gay’, in addition to being used to mean ‘homosexual’ or ‘carefree’, was often now used to mean ‘lame’ or ‘rubbish’. This is a widespread current usage of the word amongst young people… The word ‘gay’ … need not be offensive… or homophobic”

    So when used to refer to a homosexual the word is not a pejorative at all and is in fact descriptive. When used as a pejorative it is not referring to homosexuality. Next time, perhaps Scoble should consult a dictionary.

  • http://www.tomstechblog.com Tom

    Pardon my double posting (this comment was posted on Loren Feldman’s site first) but I think this is important to the discussion and worthy of being posted here too…

    You want to know the true irony here?

    Whether people realize it or not the term “Gay” as used in the pejorative is not referring to homosexuals. In fact, it’s used (negatively) in literature as early as the 1800s even though it didn’t begin to be used to refer to homosexuals until the 1920s.

    That’s why the pejorative use of the word is generally used to connote “lameness” as opposed to any trait that is necessarily related to homosexuality. That use is derived from the original meaning of being “Cheery” in that people who are overly cheery are generally considered lame by those around them.

    In fact, a quick trip over to Wikipedia (under “Pejorative non-sexualized usage”) will show you that the British Board of Governors has actually considered the topic and ruled that the word has a dual meaning and that one of those meanings has nothing to do with homosexuality. I quote…

    “The word ‘gay’, in addition to being used to mean ‘homosexual’ or ‘carefree’, was often now used to mean ‘lame’ or ‘rubbish’. This is a widespread current usage of the word amongst young people… The word ‘gay’ … need not be offensive… or homophobic”

    So when used to refer to a homosexual the word is not a pejorative at all and is in fact descriptive. When used as a pejorative it is not referring to homosexuality. Next time, perhaps Scoble should consult a dictionary.

  • http://faboomama.com Anika Malone

    Wow. You're still defending the use of a derogatory term.

  • Ken

    Robert,

    Why focus on Berlin? There are plenty of issues regarding gay-rights discrimination right here in the US. Better yet, just stick to TECH. You don’t see Jesse Jackson throwing around video card recommendations on his blog, do you?

    I cancelled my Fast Company subscription today, and let the editors know it was because of you.

  • Ken

    Robert,

    Why focus on Berlin? There are plenty of issues regarding gay-rights discrimination right here in the US. Better yet, just stick to TECH. You don’t see Jesse Jackson throwing around video card recommendations on his blog, do you?

    I cancelled my Fast Company subscription today, and let the editors know it was because of you.