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by yeetsfromhellL2 1512 days ago
As a general rule of thumb, things like this are named to compensate for what they aren't. Look at the PATRIOT Act.
2 comments

I'm not sure if it's named for what it isn't or rather named to make it clear that no reasonable or virtues person could disagree with it. Another, more harmless example for me is "natural scroll direction" in macOS.
Unrelated to the main thread, but I would content “Natural” scrolling is a different epistemological process. There is/was a lot of user research on this topic. Inverting the scroll direction on a trackpad relative to the display is more in line with how people expect it should move. This configuration was determined to be the better configuration through a rigorous program of experimentation. Calling the default “inverted” or “reversed” sends the wrong message. The term “natural” is just trying make people feel comfortable with the default configuration. It is trying to convince people of the results of an experiment. Naming a law that is not passed is trying to bias the results of the experiment itself.
My point exactly was that the thing being named is not necessarily bad. I use the "natural scrolling" every day with my trackpad. It's the same pattern though where you couldn't possibly want the other thing (which btw. with a mouse is a reasonable option)
How is "intuitive" different from "natural"? They both have an empty meaning.
I find it extremely natural. Was delighted to find out that chrome books support it as well!
Every OS released in the past ten years supports it.
I couldn't find out how to enable it on Windows 10 without toggling a registry key.

I only use it for a few hours a month but unnatural scrolling just feels wrong now.

Touchpad -> Scroll and zoom -> Scrolling direction.
Oh yeah I meant with a mouse. The one thing I still rely on Windows for is managing and editing my photos (Capture One, Affinity, Topaz).
Only really using macOS, so I wouldn't know. But that's great to hear! Maybe they will also catch up with trackpad technology at some point, the £150 Chromebook I tried was astonishingly good!
Is there a word for this? Like misnomer but even further. Maybe “antinomer”?
Doublespeak?