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by eridius 4132 days ago
You can't use a politically-charged term as a name and then claim that it's purely technical. I'm not trying to inject a political issue in here. And in fact I don't even care about the politics. But what I do care about is the fact that naming a product "Gun" is quite distasteful and, as a result, I will go out of my way to avoid using it.
1 comments

I never claimed the name is "technical". The product itself if though, and instead of discussing the product itself you're expressing your opinion on the distastefulness of the name as fact. You might say you're not trying to inject a political issue, but you sound just like that guy that said "darkmail" is racist against white people.
Your argument seems to be that everybody should just ignore the name and focus on the product. And that's bullshit. Names are important, they have meaning, and they cause reactions in people that see them. To claim otherwise is being willfully blind.
No, my argument is that "gun" is not "rape", "terrorism", or any other socially unacceptable word that's linked to morality and the ethically correct. You know what's bullshit? You saying you have absolutely no political intentions regarding your opinion.

You obviously live in the US. You obviously feel strongly about gun control. Anything anywhere can be found to be offensive to someone. As such we all need to have a little restraint and realize that if we start policing people because they gave something the made a name you don't like you're contributing to the problem instead of the solution.

I did not say "rape", I did not say "terrorism", I did not say anything about morality or ethics or politics.

You're making some pretty big assumptions as to the motivation for my comment, and they're wrong. I do not appreciate having my concern trivialized or dismissed as "political" when it's nothing of the sort.

My issue with the name "Gun" is that it's violent imagery. It has nothing to do with gun control, or anything political. It's about the glorification of violence. Our culture is already oversaturated with violent imagery. Objecting to unnecessarily violent names is not the problem. Immediately dismissing anybody who raises a concern about naming is the problem. You are contributing to the problem, not me.

You might not have said the words (and I never said you did, for the record) but you're giving the word "gun" an equal connotation as per your "kill" and "genocide" references. So, you say it's wrong. You say it's violent. That's your prerogative and you're entitled to it. You can dislike the name if you wish, but it's insulting to attack other people's choices of a product name when it doesn't violate any valid and widespread social moral constructs.

So now I'm the problem you say? Well, I could say the same exact thing about _you_. You're the type of person that will take the freedom to own firearms and the right to defend yourself from the people. Guns to me mean security and discipline. My life has been saved by myself or a person wielding a gun on multiple occasions (no deaths mind you), and I think that while the human race is littered with despicable human beings it's incredibly irresponsible for anyone to try to take away our right to defend ourselves.

I'm not dismissing your concerns, and I haven't down voted you either because even though we disagree wholeheartedly I find it's a valid discussion topic. I truly don't mind your criticism and can at some point respect it. What I don't respect is your super heightened moral compass and to a point denigrating a product and it's creator because it doesn't fly with what you believe, either morally and/or politically.

> but it's insulting to attack other people's choices of a product name when it doesn't violate any valid and widespread social moral constructs

That's complete bullshit.

> You're the type of person that will take the freedom to own firearms and the right to defend yourself from the people

What on earth are you going on about? I have never once expressed an opinion on gun control, yet here you are attacking me for a position that you've entirely manufactured in your mind. It's entirely possible to support the right to own and use guns while still decrying the overabundance of violent imagery in our society.

> denigrating a product and it's creator because it doesn't fly with what you believe

When did the mere questioning of the name of a product suddenly become equal to publicly denouncing a product and castigating its creator? You, and everybody else who've been responding, are acting as if it's some great crime to express a dislike for an unnecessarily violent name. I have to assume this overly-defensive behavior is actually a reflex to defend the term "gun" rather than anything about this particular product.