[teucris]

It’s definitely used as a generic slur, but there is a need to call out the problematic parts of tech culture that have led to some of our recent problems with social media, privacy, bias, etc. I don’t know of any terminology that hasn’t been weaponized, so I resort to using “bro culture”. The reality is that terminology is a treadmill - terms get “used up” as they’re laden with connotations and baggage, forcing us to find new terms, ad infinitum.

[MichaelZuo]

> The reality is that terminology is a treadmill - terms get “used up” as they’re laden with connotations and baggage, forcing us to find new terms, ad infinitum.

Perhaps for those lacking courage.

There are plenty of real world examples that demonstrate people, including sizeable organized groups, are capable of doing otherwise, at least for a few hundred years.

e.g. Vatican hardliners sticking to their canon.

[dragonwriter]

I dunno, the Vatican seems a perfect example of people needing to come up with new terms as old ones get “used up”, even when the ideas don’t change.

I mean, that’s pretty much the reason why we have the “Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith” rather than the “Congregation of the Holy Inquisition” and “Dicastery for Evangelization” rather than “Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith” (or, and this perhaps indicates how the name had worn out better, in Latin short form “Propaganda Fidei”.)

[jimmaswell]

Is it really accurate to imply there are no women willingly complicit in or benefitting from evil corporation deeds?

[rurp]

It's a broad generalization that isn't meant to be precisely accurate in all cases. I'm not claiming it's a great term, but it does succinctly describe a notable attitude and culture. If there's a better term to use that conveys the same message I'm sure many folks would be happy to adopt it.

[agalunar]

For many younger speakers, "you guys" is legitimately a second person plural pronoun (like "y'all") and implies nothing about the gender^1 of the referents, even if they consider singular "guy" to be a synonym for man.

Some older speakers use "guy" as a term of address, as in "Hey, guy", similar to how one might say "hey, bud" or even "hey you".

I don't think it will ever happen, but it's funny to imagine something similar happening and "bro(s)" coming to be a nongendered term.

Anyway, it's never crossed my mind before that "tech bros" singles out men; for me it evokes a stereotype of, yes, men, but it's really an attitude, value system, world view, or collection of behaviors that are being alluded to. (Of course, it's also only implication in the sense of "hinting at", because it's not contradictory to say "tech bros are the worst, and tech women are too").

[1] The... non-grammatical gender. English no longer has grammatical gender in any case, so it's unambiguous, but it feels weird to use "gender" in a linguistic context and not mean grammatical gender.