Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by dictum 2595 days ago
Personally, I'd prefer "fucking up" to go away, along with "rape" as a colorful equivalent of ruining/causing damage to someone or something.

It associates sex with violence and destruction.

A similar thing used to happen with "gay", which kids would use as an adjective for frustrating or annoying situations.

My preferences notwithstanding, it's still better to be clearer about what's happening. "Fucking up that variable" says very little about the cause of the problem, and its possible solution.

3 comments

Personally I'd prefer to work in a company where basic elements of the English language aren't policed with authoritarian fervor and would seek out alternatives ASAFP.
What does fucking up have to do with sex? I’d imagine it’s used in a sexual context in a significant minority of the time. And that’s not what it’s associated with.
When I think of something being "fucked up", the last thing I think about is sex. Those words have grown a meaning of their own, away from the one they had.