JD
David HoWe got a message from the university to remove any use of "DEI", "diversity", "equity", or "inclusion" from all public-facing documents. They said that even "biodiversity" is being flagged by the federal government. We live in the dumbest timeline.
can@davidho what are you going to do?
Now at @@can @davidho Can you send back an email asking if it's okay to put a trigger warning over words that sound like DEI words but aren't?
That way, easily offended snowflakes white billionaires can make an informed decision about whether they continue reading?
For example, an electronic engineering paper about transistors might say: "Warning: This paper contains electronics terms some readers may find confronting. Reader discretion is advised."
If this is not possible, is there a list of recommended politically correct alternative terms for words like "biodiversity" that white billionaires will find less triggering?
Mirishuli@ajsadauskas Wait. First let’s deal with woman, women and female. Are we non-male? Or are we cunts, pussies and bitches now?
What is a female child? Pussyette?
Can you feel the anger?
DavidI think the term they prefer is birthing machine
Tirrimas 
🚫👑
Misja van Laatum@MiriShuli @ajsadauskas Women? Well, there's a plethora of terms for them in Lower Trumpian: "incubators", "servants", "prey" - take your pick. \s 🤦♂️🤬
@misjavanlaatum @MiriShuli Some of the alternative phrases Trump has used to describe women have included the following:
"I'm automatically attracted to beautiful... I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star they let you do it."
https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37595321
"Blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever."
https://edition.cnn.com/2015/08/08/politics/donald-trump-cnn-megyn-kelly-comment/index.html
"Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything."
Donald RoyThere is long and proud history of euphemisms in the #english language. A few of them I can remember were 'not otherwise interfered with' - used to describe female victims of homicide, 'fun-loving' - promiscuous, 'expert on bedroom ceilings' - also promiscuous, and my own invention 'biomass expert' - otherwise known as a bullsh*tter!
Susanna the Artist 🌻@ajsadauskas @can @davidho Dumb it down: “many different kinds of plants and animals and insects.” Make the whole thing sound like a kindergarten text so these idiots are less confused.
enmodo ⚛️ 🧬 🇺🇦 🍉@davidho just substitute it with Donald Elon Incels
merely rhys@davidho We simply must crack down on biodiversity to ensure that only the best and brightest, most meritorious organisms can succeed.
NKT
Wayward Sun (yak shaver extraordinaire)@davidho Sounds indeed like utter stupidity, but given the people driving this, might as well be booked under "not-that-collateral damage" or "not-quite-unintended side effects".
Jorge StolfiWhhich "university" is that?
Esther #antifa@davidho
Don't remove but replace.
Don't remove but replace.
🟥 Eveline Sulman 🇳🇱🇪🇺🇺🇦@src_esther @davidho does it help to add a hyphen? They cannot have anything against e-quality?
Androcat@davidho The last gasp of the polluter class, a desperate power grab.
Some people ought to save a copy of the pages, for the Shadow University.
BashStKid@davidho Ok, global search and replace to put a letter q in the middle of all Naughty Words and list them in the endnotes.
@BashStKid @davidho Not a bad plan.
sanpan@davidho What happened to our intranet?
Well, most topics are influenced by such a broad variety of diverse parameters with the inclusion,
but not limited to xyz...I had to delete everything.
Does despair count as a viable solution?
Well, most topics are influenced by such a broad variety of diverse parameters with the inclusion,
but not limited to xyz...I had to delete everything.
Does despair count as a viable solution?
Thomas Lindvig@davidho what can the federal government do, if a university sincerely wants to focus on some of these issues?
Ellyse@davidho is this because they get federal funding ?
Knud JahnkeThe war on biodiversity has also been raging for decades now.
slowtiger@davidho Can't you just run a script and ROT13 all those words? It would follow the message to the point ...
cholling@davidho What happens if you tell them to fuck off?
grooviz
Ozzy@davidho if you remove these things from science and government then corporations can slash and burn the planet and its resources to the ground.
Cassandrich@davidho Hope your plan is to not comply...
Alanna 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️@davidho Change to EDI - Equity, Dilligence and Integration. Manipulate it so the bastards can't deny compliance:
- Equity of Merit - All people with the same "level" of academic achievement are treated equally in matters related to department functions.
- Diligence - Ensure people are "qualified" for the job.
- Integration - Ensure Integrated Horizontal Communication between departments.
Iris Young (he/they/she) (PhD)@davidho a classmate in college thought the best response to people using "homo" as a slur was to ban the word. A chemistry major, no less, who used the prefix regularly, and the abbreviation HOMO for highest occupied molecular orbital. We'll come up with different words, she said. I think about this conversation pretty much every time I hear homo, hetero, trans, or cis used in scientific contexts.
Anyway, I propose using the acronym IDEA (not my idea, implemented at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab a while back) but instead of standing for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accountability, have it stand for .. hmmm.... Integration, Distribution, Entropy, and Access.
Integration: anyone involved should be fully integrated into the institution, workforce, systems, etc.
Distribution: deliberately plan and be able to justify distribution of resources, time, effort, and responsibilities.
Entropy: recognize that many different states and combinations are more stable than fewer. Be able to justify any patterns arising in contradiction to this law.
Access: ensure people can access everything they need, including any systems, places, and tools relevant to their work or general wellbeing.
If they really want to ban the words idea, integration, distribution, entropy, and access... well, they're going to encounter the same problems as you're seeing here, where they accidentally ban discussion of biodiversity or escalation of user privileges. I do think it's poetic that banning DEI is having rammifications across the scope of the organizations affected.
Russell 🏴🇺🇦🍉I hide you ignore all 'requests' since the equality act still prevails?!
waldi@davidho s/diversity/BEEP/g
chebra"We have a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws"
-- Martin Luther King, Jr.
meduz'@davidho Does the gov decision prevent from using these words with a typo (diversity, equity, inklusion…)?
Jack@davidho what university is it you referring too ?
@davidho All biology is a monoculture now.
Your university will require the services of a scholar or scholars with knowledge of the expurgation process carried out for several centuries in #europe principally by or on behalf of the #romancatholicchurch so that expurgated versions of scientific and other works could be kept off the prohibited list and thus used in universities and elsewhere. The career of Doctor #ThomasBowdler in #england in the early nineteenth century is worthy of study also.
Thomas The Dank Engine ❤️🔥@davidho do not comply
mattlqx@davidho Now is definitely not the right time to apply for a HELOC I guess.
GezThePez@davidho fight it
Turing Incomplete@davidho Reminds me of a very old segment from the Colbert Report when the author of a book called "The Evolution of Football" (or something similar) said religious groups were protesting his book signings.
Except this is dumber.
myrmepropagandistIt’s so easy to miss an email. A simple first step is to simply pretend you didn’t see it. They are counting on lots of people being scared and hustling to comply. This *is* the “comply in advance” we keep talking about. Do not do it. Make it harder for them than that. This is a low bar but this can work if done in large enough numbers. Have quiet conversations with coworkers. If they want you to start goose stepping around don’t do it at the mere suggestion!
If you can challenge it more directly do that but what I describe above is the minimum and I expect at least that much from everyone— even those who are nervous and in a pinch. The people who adopt such suggestions with glee are collaborating and can’t be trusted.
PhDogAbsolutely all of this.
toni 
@davidho @futurebird I practiced this on a much lower stakes level in university. We were a student group selling snacks and drinks in our room.
University issued a decree “no more alcohol on campus”. We never got a direct order to stop selling beer, so we didn’t. Even if we did get one, we would’ve ignored it at first.
We held a small christmas party, that included alcoholic punch. We applied for a room for a “special communication seminar for students and teachers”. Didn’t mention that it was a party, got approved every year. One time security came and told us to put out the candles because “no open flames”. We did exactly that. I am sure they saw the long flame from the Feuerzangenbowle in the back, but we and they ignored it.
I learned a lot about “don’t ask for permission, ignore rules you don’t agree with” there.
AsakiyumeMy practice for this, when I was still on Twitter, was to just keep calling Twitter by that name. I still do that even now that I'm off it, and I haven't been arrested yet! That example is inconsequential, but the point still applies: a lot of minor noncompliance is absolutely doable.
“remove references? which ones? I don’t think there are any? where? I don’t get it. What do you mean?” and if pressed “oh I see, I will consider that when I have the chance”
never bother to have the chance. be too busy— when and if you do “consider it” decide you do not think the rule applies in your case and you will need more clarification— which you will ask for when you have a chance to consider asking for it.
Alan Bucknam@futurebird @davidho tell them you will need to form a committee to consider which references are removable. Make sure the quorum and voting rules are nearly impossible to meet for those who participate. Argue over every point of order in the committee. As someone who has served on a local government council, I can confirm these methods will ensure nearly nothing will be accomplished.
`Da Elf
n3wjack@elfin @bucknam @futurebird @davidho It's from that "How to sabotage the Nazi's book" right?
I forget the exact name, but it's silly it's becoming useful in its own home country.
I forget the exact name, but it's silly it's becoming useful in its own home country.
Randall Lee@futurebird @davidho Now is a good time for a Rage Against the Machine song. Any of them are appropriate but one gets right to the point.
Alliecat@futurebird @davidho this is so important. A much lower stakes example: our college decided we were all going to have standardized email signatures. Ok, but then they said it had to include a long, legally dubious confidentiality notice. So I just ignored it. And the second message. And the third. I figured that I'd change it if directly asked by an immediate superior, my chair or lead. And the first thing I heard from either was "they're scrapping the policy."
Don't comply until you have to.
Alexander The 1st@futurebird @davidho In particular, you can send that email to junk mail so that it'll automatically clear itself out.
And if you *must* comply, force them to "Be the baddies" about it; you could call it "D13v3517y, 3qu17y, & 1nc1u510n" instead of "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.". Or only part of it until it becomes unreadable.
Or "Pr1v313dg3 35ca1a710n" for privilege escalation.
@futurebird @davidho Ideally, the Americans can pull what we did with calling the site Elon bought and attempted to rebrand "Twitter".
But they can also pull this [ https://theglen.livejournal.com/16735.html ].
Keith Devlin
John Maxwell@davidho - We will shortly enter a golden age of euphemisms. So to speak.
James 🦉 #FBPE 🇪🇺@davidho Tump's ignoring the law and constitution, so you can ignore his executive orders. Can you tell them it's unconstitutional so you can't do it?
JillL@davidho The free speech absolutists are banning words.
JWcph, Radicalized By Decency@davidho Perfectly serious question: How about just... not doing that? Anything they try to do about it, either ignore that too or sue the shit out of them? Or both?
notsoloud@davidho
Are you a federal employee? Do you have to do this?
If yes, make a very simple search and replace that substitutes black censorship bars. At least make it clear what's happening.