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Scrabble players quit game after 400 offensive words banned from list (www.news.com.au)
submitted 2 days ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world
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[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 61 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)
  1. I don't think the competitive Scrabble scene (of which there is a very intense one) really needs to be in charge of the game for everybody. But I get why that contingent is incredibly upset. The set of allowed words is locked in stone, such that people practice and optimize particular memorizations around the particular set of words, and they are barely words at that point, just random collections of letters that form the stepping-stones in their grand strategic endeavor. There are Scrabble experts who do not speak the language, just have memorized the words and are good at the strategy. I get why they're upset.
  2. They're not releasing the exact list, which is automatically a red flag of some fuckery to me.
  3. Nonetheless it has been confirmed that “Paki,” “fenian,” and “shiksha” are all on the banned list. Bro what?
  4. "Bitch," "faggot," and "slut" are all still in the game. 👍

Deciding the list of officially banned words was always going to be a hopeless task, but even within that it looks like they've been doing a bad job.

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/uproar-over-scrabble-words-that-can-no-longer-be-used/news-story/bb72350938e787cf5566c01109c98dd0

Edit: Uncapitalized

[–] frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Those 3 would already have been banned for being proper nouns, wouldn't they?

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 13 points 2 days ago (1 children)

"Paki" maybe. The other two I don't think are.

I think it's especially hilarious that "fenian" is a slur. For any Irish person for whom it would become relevant at all, I feel like if you called them a "fenian" they would swell with pride.

[–] JudahBenHur@lemm.ee 14 points 2 days ago (1 children)

a pakistani woman I knew explained to me that Paki was deeply offensive and that I should never use it, but she knew I probably didnt know that. she did suggest I never use it again unless I was trying to upset someone

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 3 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Yes, but presumably if avoiding that situation was the goal they would have removed "faggot." I can't even really understand what is the reasoning which might have led them to be extremely aggressive about finding weird slurs that very few people use to root out and remove, while leaving the ones that are actual issues alone. In some way, I think the impotence of the final decision set is somehow connected with the performative nature of it all. Maybe? I have no idea.

Ultimately it seems like they're just trying to fit in with the times as their clueless executives understand them. I think they're a few years behind the times, though, actually. Maybe if they were a little more hip they would be trying to release a "free speech" Scrabble with a bunch of new words added and with "liberal" and "woke" removed, now that the 2010s' brand of stupid performativeness is being replaced with a new type of performativeness that's different and much darker.

[–] notabot@lemm.ee 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Faggot is a real word with actual, non offensive, meanings, 'paki' is not.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat -2 points 2 days ago (2 children)

No. It absolutely is not. Historically it did sure, but I challenge you to go to any corner of the English-speaking world and use it in any sentence at all and have any single person hear you and assume that you mean a bundle of sticks.

[–] notabot@lemm.ee 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Faggots can also be meatballs, you can walk in to a supermarket and buy some faggots, or make them yourself.

The use to mean "a bundle of sticks" is definitely more rare now-a-days though, you're correct.

[–] kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 19 hours ago

"'cigarette' is short for 'meatball'" is certainly a sentence.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat -3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Like I said, using the UK is cheating (I guess I should have specified that). I can take a walk down Butthole Lane, look up the bus schedule from Shitterton to Twatt, and then I can go pick up 6 faggots for £1.60. It's all just part of the nature of the place.

[–] wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm sorry, using the place where English came from as an example of modern English usage is somehow against some imaginary rule of argument? What a take.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Pretty sure George Washington invented English, it was right about the time he was teaching the Wampanoag about thanksgiving and the Iroquois about federal democracy.

😃

(I am joking don't get all upset. Here, here's Al Murray to soothe the English pride: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x2ovlPr2IE)

[–] wolframhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

My dude, I'm in america.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 3 points 21 hours ago

I am clearly just talking nonsense. I actually didn't know that meatballs were called that in the UK, so I guess it's perfectly legit. There actually was a big rift in the Scrabble community, decades ago, about using the British official word list versus the American official word list, and apparently they've more or less standardized on a combined list that includes all the words on both. So anything in British English is completely fair game, which may to be fair explain why some of the words that aren't real friendly in the US are still on there.

[–] imsufferableninja@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

The last time I was in the UK they still called cigarettes fags, so who knows

[–] garbagebagel@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm not able to see the removed word and my mind is running wild with imagination. Can you give me the first letter?

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

B*lg*um

[–] thetreesaysbark@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Only thing I can think of with faggot is that on the UK at least that's a organ based dish

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faggot_(food)

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 0 points 2 days ago

The UK doesn't count man. If that's the metric for obscenity then everything is allowed.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Butthole+Ln,+Shepshed,+Loughborough,+UK/@52.776606,-1.2752399,17z

[–] CrypticCoffee@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Here in the uk , the P word is probably the most offensive word you could use against a person of Indian descent. Up there with the n word. removed (f word) is also probably the most offensive slur you can use in reference to gay people. It's correct that they banned them.

Guessing you're from America where being offensive is cool. Historically people used to justify the n word based on the origins rather than the highly offensive connotations.

UK ain't woke, just has some acceptance that people from different backgrounds have some value rather than pandering to grumpy white folk who care about nothing but themselves and how inconvenient it is to possibly consider other words.

[–] the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago

UK ain't woke, just has some acceptance that people from different backgrounds have some value

Lmao. Of all the countries to say this about.

[–] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Is "jew" still on the list? That one didn't make a damn bit of sense.

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Yeah, that's weird.

JEW
JEWED
JEWING
JEWS

All removed.

On the other hand, quite a lot of the list does make perfect sense for them to remove. "Jewed" probably needs to go. The next word is"jigaboo", also. 😬 😬 😬

Full list: https://ia903406.us.archive.org/31/items/csw21/CSW19-removed-words.txt

[–] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago 
FAGGOTRY
FAGGOTY
FAGGY

So close, yet so far.

[–] fossilesque@mander.xyz 29 points 2 days ago

My grandma, a very sweet, timid small old lady, once threw down a "C U N T" then innocently said, "What? It's a word."

[–] codexarcanum@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

  1. This article is 3 years old.

  2. Good luck finding the actual list. This redditor apparently compiled one themselves. https://www.reddit.com/r/scrabble/comments/my5tie/the_419_words_erased_from_csw/

  3. Like all censorship: this is ineffectual and incomplete. Do enjoy digging around the list of words still allowed "because they have secondary nonoffensive definitions" like bitch, cunt, asshole, suckhole, sonofabitch, and of course....

FUCK FUCKED FUCKER FUCKERS FUCKFACE FUCKFACES FUCKHEAD FUCKHEADS FUCKING FUCKINGS FUCKOFF FUCKOFFS FUCKS FUCKUP FUCKUPS FUCKWIT FUCKWITS

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Holy shit, my sides.

ASPIE
ASPIES

...

BUBBA (?)

...

BULLDIKE
BULLDIKES
BULLDYKE
BULLDYKES
BUMBOY
BUMBOYS
CHINKIE
CHINKIES
CHOLO
CHOLOS
COCKSUCKER
COCKSUCKERS

...

DAGO
DAGOES
DAGOS
DARKEY
DARKEYS
DARKIE
DARKIES
DARKY
DIKEY
DIKIER
DIKIEST
DOGAN
DOGANS
DYKEY
DYKIER
DYKIEST
FAGGERIES
FAGGERY
FAGGIER
FAGGIEST
FAGGOTIER
FAGGOTIEST
FAGGOTRIES
FAGGOTRY

Okay, on some of these, they have a point lol.

Also, I got curious and scrolled down to "N", and all I can say is holy holy shit man. I get it. People cherry-picked out some stupid decisions, but it honestly makes a lot of sense now that I can see the list. I also understand why they didn't publish the list...

[–] the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

TF is a dogan?

[–] PhilipTheBucket@ponder.cat 2 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Canadian slur for Irish Catholics, apparently.

🤷

[–] the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 hours ago

Interesting. I didn't know Canada had their own racial slurs, I figured they imported them from the US and UK.

[–] LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Unacceptable tbh

[–] intensely_human@lemm.ee 7 points 2 days ago

It’s in urban dictionary. It means “to be honest”

[–] TheGingerNut@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

"scores" = groups of 20

so somewhere between 40 and 100 players quit the game because they couldn't say a racial slur. In a game with apparently 2.5 million daily players. That can't be right. In a playerbase that size I'd expect the percentage of bigots with no life to be somewhere in the tens of thousands.

Guess it was a slow news day

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 days ago

I feel like the amount of bigots in a game that requires knowing lots of words is below the population average.

But not THAT far.

[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 days ago

Well that sure is of them.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 2 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

As long as they don't ban antidisestablishmentarianism or pnuemonoultramicroscopicsilicovolvanoconisis I'll be okay.

If I can get just one of those on the board, I automatically win.

[–] humanspiral@lemmy.ca -1 points 2 days ago

But those are the only ones I know, asswipes.