@elight I agree that it's hard to have nuanced conversations about complex topics on social media. And I think a lot of the smoke out there around “woke scolds” does come from a certain sector of Terminally Online discourse where accounts—even well-meaning—post nothing but screeds 24/7. It can be a lot. I try not to be that way. My natural demeanor is happy-go-lucky, believe it or not!

I don't agree terminology has changed too quickly. People harmed by bad speech have a right to expect change.

@fbecart @jaredwhite Exactly. I've seen it the same way. However, I adapted. But, then, I'm a Progressive. I want to respect others and adapt accordingly. Many are not so flexible. They see the rate of change as troublesome. And they haven't felt so misunderstood until we came along and told them that so much of what they take for granted is inherently wrong and even evil. I don't see how that doesn't create an us versus them dichotomy.

Part of being Progressive is a certain impatience for change. And that's understandable. Much of that change took too long before and much needed change (to us) still has yet to occur. For example, we still need to codify into law, preferably Amendment, that all people, LGBTQ and otherwise, are entitled to the same legal protections as are currently held by cisgender folks (although "cisgender" appears to be another trigger word for many non-Progressives).

@fbecart @jaredwhite And yet this is part of the problem, yes? That these terms have become used for so long that they have become engrained in us as normal.

Yet when we look at the meanings and histories of these words, their established place in a relatively new field (as, in the grand scheme of things, our field is relatively new) only reaffirms a normalcy that should not be.

That's to say, perhaps we should be viewing the words "master" and "slave" as the equivalent of four-letter words because of how they've been used—as verbotten as a certain "n" or "c" word, in American culture.