OT (resend)

[Graham Todd]

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On Thu, 06 Sep 2007 14:34:04 -0500
John Clizbe <JPClizbe at tx.rr.com> wrote:

> From a wiki of US Navy slang
> (http://www.mshtawy.com/en-wiki.php?title=U.S._Navy_slang):
> 
>     Cryppy/Cryppy Critter: Cryptographer, also seen on a highway near
> the Cryptography School (aka Goodfellow Air Force Base) in San
> Angelo, Texas without vowels, as CRYPPY CRTTR.
> 
> The US Navy has a long (very long) and honored history of SIGINT and
> cryptography going back to the beginnings of radio. This early
> history may be found in public histories of what are now the NSA and
> the CIA.
[snipped]

John, I respect your point of view and I shall defend to the death your
ability to say it.  However, whether the US Navy uses slang of this
kind doesn't make it part of the English language, nor whether these
things can be found in the histories of the CIA and NSA is irrelevant
to me as a Brit (except as an academic exercise).

I use the English language (maybe not always the correct Queens
English) and if I might be so bold as to say, not a version of it for
American usage.  But both our versions of English have to be
understandable to people in other countries who use the internet
without it being their first tongue, and its well not to muddy the
waters with cultural and linguistic allusions that might not be
generally accepted nor understood in the same way by those people.

I think this is what Vedaal meant in his OP.  Its not a matter of
"political correctness", but of using the English language in a way
that's not misunderstood or which causes offence.  In speaking to
people in the US I have found that the phrase "political correctness"
means different things to those of us in the UK, and in any case
"politics" by itself often means different things and conjures up
different images. So its best not to use the phrase.

Can I ask that people think before they write and realise that the
internet has lots of different people, from differing cultures and
backgrounds, and which can be easily offended by things which you find
innocuous in your culture.

- -- 

Graham Todd
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