I have a question about for you about this if you don’t mind. In certain mechanical situations the word is used to describe a delay added (for example in a car engine you may use this word to describe a certain timing adjustment).

Does the word in a context like that still cause that visceral reaction or does the context make it different - is it only when used to describe people that it hits that way?

I’m only asking this because it popped into my head the other day when I was reading my service book on my engine and ran across it.

It’s kinda similar to how people commonly used a shortened form of ‘transmission’ in the automotive industry but it became a slur for trans people - I feel like I haven’t heard that one in a while so I’m guessing it’s fallen out of use, but I was just always curious if the taint of people bullying with that word crossed over into other contexts.

[–] Gigagoblin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

there's the initial sting, yeah, but it'll subside once my brain remembers the context. when used in a bigoted way, the feeling sticks for a while.

[–] die444die@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

That’s along the lines of what I expected. I’m always just curious how our brains work, so thank you.

I always try to find an alternative to the word regardless of the context because it’s not like it’s hard to do and I’d rather not cause that reaction in anyone if possible.

It sucks that we keep doing the same thing over and over as a society as this is not the first word ruined by being used in the exact same manner as a way to bully and harass and make fun of people.

You’d think some day we’d learn that we can actually teach people not to be shitty and we don’t have to accept this behavior from people at all.