Do most people not do that? In my experience if I tell people not to do certain things (as long as the things aren’t too ridiculous—I have no expectation that anyone would stop breathing because KATYDEE COMMANDS IT), they stop doing those things, or at least stop doing them around me. There are some irritating exceptions—the number of people who respond “Why?” to “Be quiet” or “Don’t talk to me” is staggeringly high—but by and large people tend to respect such preferences in my experience.
I wouldn’t have been uncommonly impressed if shokwave had agreed to use “blackmail” and “extortion” as I prefer while talking to me (although the local context makes that sort of acquiescence less likely than it would be in most social groups, I think). But the great-grandparent seems to indicate a commitment to use the words the way I like them in all contexts and to go so far as to evangelize my linguistic beliefs.
Most people will indeed adopt different terminology, given a good reason; it’s just that some people have extensive experience of others not complying with such requests because the reasons are ridiculous, and then infer such rejection to be a more general phenomenon.
Example:
A: [Activity X] will tend to make you more sexually attractive to [group Y] because of [mechanism Z]. B: You shouldn’t say that because it’s offensive to Ys and treats them like non-persons mindlessly responding to X, and I don’t like that. And I don’t like X, either. C: Are you insane? I can’t ignore real-world social phenomena that affect my life like what A described, just because it offends you and you have unusual preferences. Try to think about how others might feel. B: Bah! Blast these terrorists who won’t listen to the voice of reason! Where can I find less defective people?
Not at all, it’s nifty. I’m sort of tickled to have discovered someone who will use words how I want them if I explain why they should.
Do most people not do that? In my experience if I tell people not to do certain things (as long as the things aren’t too ridiculous—I have no expectation that anyone would stop breathing because KATYDEE COMMANDS IT), they stop doing those things, or at least stop doing them around me. There are some irritating exceptions—the number of people who respond “Why?” to “Be quiet” or “Don’t talk to me” is staggeringly high—but by and large people tend to respect such preferences in my experience.
I wouldn’t have been uncommonly impressed if shokwave had agreed to use “blackmail” and “extortion” as I prefer while talking to me (although the local context makes that sort of acquiescence less likely than it would be in most social groups, I think). But the great-grandparent seems to indicate a commitment to use the words the way I like them in all contexts and to go so far as to evangelize my linguistic beliefs.
Most people will indeed adopt different terminology, given a good reason; it’s just that some people have extensive experience of others not complying with such requests because the reasons are ridiculous, and then infer such rejection to be a more general phenomenon.
Example:
A: [Activity X] will tend to make you more sexually attractive to [group Y] because of [mechanism Z].
B: You shouldn’t say that because it’s offensive to Ys and treats them like non-persons mindlessly responding to X, and I don’t like that. And I don’t like X, either.
C: Are you insane? I can’t ignore real-world social phenomena that affect my life like what A described, just because it offends you and you have unusual preferences. Try to think about how others might feel.
B: Bah! Blast these terrorists who won’t listen to the voice of reason! Where can I find less defective people?