FC: Bowdlerized by Microsoft (or, politically correct software)

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

********

From: "Trei, Peter" <ptrei () rsasecurity com>
To: "'declan () well com'" <declan () well com>
Subject: Bowdlerized by Microsoft
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 16:47:47 -0400

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/23/opinion/23GOLD.html
(requires free registration, blah blah blah...)

October 23, 2001

Bowdlerized by Microsoft

By MARK GOLDBLATT

I was hard at the grindstone, crusading against hypocrisy and chaos, armed
with my laptop and Microsoft Word 2000. I'd just typed: "Only a fool would
believe." But "fool" did not seem right. So I hit Shift-F7 to call up the
thesaurus. The lone synonym that Word provided was a verb: trick.

[...]

Tim transferred me to Kate, also cheerful, who promised to look into the
matter. Several days later, Kate sent me an e-mail message with an
explanation: "Microsoft's approach regarding the spell checker dictionary
and
thesaurus is to not suggest words that may have offensive uses or provide
offensive definitions for any words. The dictionary and spell checker is
updated with each release of Office to ensure that the tools reflect current
social and cultural environments."

[...]

But maybe this isn't oversensitivity. Maybe it is what postmodernists call
erasure: since language creates reality, if we erase every noun connoting
below-average intelligence, the world instantly becomes a smarter place.

Now, if only Microsoft would erase "hypocrisy" and "chaos" . . . .




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