I think ideograms suck because they are an extremely bad writing system, and imperial units suck because they are an extremely bad measurement system… why is one racist and the other is not?
If someone around was still using roman numerals I’d also say it’s an excellent time to drop that system, but fortunately everyone already did.
edit: Bonus question: If I say it’s an excellent time to drop the Gregorian calendar do I win at racism for expanding it to the whole world?
The Chinese use ideograms so booo, but their local mix of lunar and solar calendar is great.
I think ideograms suck because they are an extremely bad writing system
That’s nice, but what you originally said was that “the Japanese don’t have a functional writing system”, which is bigoted, because it constitutes an unreasonable belief/prejudice against a particular group of people (“the Japanese”). It’s an unreasonable position because the Japanese writing system is obviously functional, as millions of people use it to great effect every day.
imperial units suck because they are an extremely bad measurement system
This is not bigotry because it isn’t an unreasonable belief, and it doesn’t target/prejudice against one specific group (other than ‘imperial measurement users’, which isn’t really an identifying or culturally significant group).
Bonus question: If I say it’s an excellent time to drop the Gregorian calendar do I win at racism for expanding it to the whole world?
Bonus answer: no, bigotry targets/prejudices against a specific identifying group. “The whole world” doesn’t qualify as a group that you can be bigoted against. Hating everyone makes you a grumpy curmudgeon, but not a racist.
Do you make it a habit to misquote people on purpose? My post is right there, if you want to use quotation marks to say I said something, at least write what I actually wrote instead of making something up, that’s very dishonest.
I’m very specifically saying ideograms/logograms aren’t a “functional” writing system (yeah, they are technically “functional” - as imperial units, they are just very bad). Ideograms/logograms aren’t exclusive to the Japanese - and neither do the Japanese use only that system (so your fabricated quote is non sequitur). The mention of Japanese is a context parody of the comment I replied to, had the guy said “Excellent time for Chinese…” then my sentence would say Chinese instead of Japanese. I’m roasting a writing system and you all trying to make it about race… quite sad and pathetic excuse to be outraged.
ps: “Imperial measurement users” are an “identifying or culturally significant group”, they are called Americans - technically, Liberia and Myanmar also primarily use imperial units, but they are not a culturally significant group over the internet. So if you are talking about “imperial measurement users”, you are talking about Americans.
Excellent time for the Japanese to drop ideogram/logogram system and have an alphabet like a functional language.
Your original comment (included above for convenience) very clearly implies that Japanese is not a functional language because it doesn’t use an alphabet. I didn’t misrepresent you at all.
“Imperial measurement users” are an “identifying or culturally significant group”, they are called Americans
First, plenty of other places other than America, Liberia, and Myanmar use imperial units. And even if they didn’t, the inclusion of Liberia and Myanmar means “imperial system users” isn’t just identifying Americans, so you’re just flat out incorrect about that. I’m ignoring the bit where you said “[Liberia and Myanmar] are not culturally significant groups over the internet” because that implies that you think bigotry only exists on the Internet, or maybe you think you can only be bigoted against a group with a large enough Internet presence or something? Which I know you can’t possibly think, so I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt there and chalking that up to a miscommunication.
Second, bigotry necessarily involves holding an unreasonable position or belief. The belief that the imperial system is worse than metric is not unreasonable, because there’s evidence supporting that belief, and there’s even a large number of imperial system users that hold that belief. The belief that it’s “time for the Japanese to drop ideogram/logogram system and have an alphabet like a functional language” is unreasonable for the reasons I explained previously.
Third, it doesn’t matter what ethnicity or nationality you used, the structure of your statement would still be bigoted, because it would still be an unreasonable belief that prejudices against a particular group of people.
“The belief that the imperial system is worse than metric is not unreasonable”
Is the belief that the logographic system is worse than alphabets (and abugidas, for that matter) unreasonable? You seem to suggest that, arbitrarily, for this case it’s not just unreasonable, but also bigotry…
“It’s time for the Japanese to drop their system” - racism.
“It’s time for the Americans to drop their system” - not racism.
Ok, whatever makes you feel better about yourself. I will still say logograms and imperial units are awful.
Is the belief that the logographic system is worse than alphabets (and abugidas, for that matter) unreasonable?
Lol yes. Both systems have benefits and drawbacks, it’s unreasonable to say either is “worse” than the other. It’s certainly not as clear-cut as the comparison between the imperial and metric systems.
In alphabets you learn a small set of letters. Using those letters you can logically form syllables. With those syllables you can write and read every single word in that language (yeah, through historical processes most languages fucked up the connection between syllables and phonemes, but that’s a different matter).
Meanwhile logographic systems have no logical way to form words (unless they are compound), as lots of words are their own symbol. In current logogram languages you are expected to learn from 2000 to 4000 different characters (compared to an average of 20-something letters in alphabets) just to read most publications - and odds are that if you try to read something from an area you have no expertise in, you are going to stumble upon several words you can’t even read (difference between ability to read and knowing the meaning. One may stumble upon a word they don’t know the meaning of while using an alphabet, but they can still read the word. While if you don’t know the right logogram for a word, even if you know the meaning of it, you can neither write nor read it).
I find the distinction even more clear-cut than imperial vs metrics, as imperial just uses very confusing conversions. Logograms are way more unnecessarily complicated.
I also think it’s an excellent time for Americans to drop imperial units and use metrics like a functional measurement system - is this also racist?
No, that’s a whole new unrelated topic. Any other questions?
I think ideograms suck because they are an extremely bad writing system, and imperial units suck because they are an extremely bad measurement system… why is one racist and the other is not?
If someone around was still using roman numerals I’d also say it’s an excellent time to drop that system, but fortunately everyone already did.
edit: Bonus question: If I say it’s an excellent time to drop the Gregorian calendar do I win at racism for expanding it to the whole world?
The Chinese use ideograms so booo, but their local mix of lunar and solar calendar is great.
And I think you suck because you are an extremely bad person.
Equivalent statement right?
Oh no, now you are being bigot towards *whatever ethnicity I belong*
- if I was to use the logic going on here.
I did not mention an ethnicity. I mentioned you, specifically.
I mentioned logograms specfically, but this made me racist toward Japanese people. So hey, congratulation, you now hate latinos.
That’s nice, but what you originally said was that “the Japanese don’t have a functional writing system”, which is bigoted, because it constitutes an unreasonable belief/prejudice against a particular group of people (“the Japanese”). It’s an unreasonable position because the Japanese writing system is obviously functional, as millions of people use it to great effect every day.
This is not bigotry because it isn’t an unreasonable belief, and it doesn’t target/prejudice against one specific group (other than ‘imperial measurement users’, which isn’t really an identifying or culturally significant group).
Bonus answer: no, bigotry targets/prejudices against a specific identifying group. “The whole world” doesn’t qualify as a group that you can be bigoted against. Hating everyone makes you a grumpy curmudgeon, but not a racist.
Hope this helps.
Do you make it a habit to misquote people on purpose? My post is right there, if you want to use quotation marks to say I said something, at least write what I actually wrote instead of making something up, that’s very dishonest.
I’m very specifically saying ideograms/logograms aren’t a “functional” writing system (yeah, they are technically “functional” - as imperial units, they are just very bad). Ideograms/logograms aren’t exclusive to the Japanese - and neither do the Japanese use only that system (so your fabricated quote is non sequitur). The mention of Japanese is a context parody of the comment I replied to, had the guy said “Excellent time for Chinese…” then my sentence would say Chinese instead of Japanese. I’m roasting a writing system and you all trying to make it about race… quite sad and pathetic excuse to be outraged.
ps: “Imperial measurement users” are an “identifying or culturally significant group”, they are called Americans - technically, Liberia and Myanmar also primarily use imperial units, but they are not a culturally significant group over the internet. So if you are talking about “imperial measurement users”, you are talking about Americans.
I’m not being dishonest, I paraphrased.
Your original comment (included above for convenience) very clearly implies that Japanese is not a functional language because it doesn’t use an alphabet. I didn’t misrepresent you at all.
First, plenty of other places other than America, Liberia, and Myanmar use imperial units. And even if they didn’t, the inclusion of Liberia and Myanmar means “imperial system users” isn’t just identifying Americans, so you’re just flat out incorrect about that. I’m ignoring the bit where you said “[Liberia and Myanmar] are not culturally significant groups over the internet” because that implies that you think bigotry only exists on the Internet, or maybe you think you can only be bigoted against a group with a large enough Internet presence or something? Which I know you can’t possibly think, so I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt there and chalking that up to a miscommunication.
Second, bigotry necessarily involves holding an unreasonable position or belief. The belief that the imperial system is worse than metric is not unreasonable, because there’s evidence supporting that belief, and there’s even a large number of imperial system users that hold that belief. The belief that it’s “time for the Japanese to drop ideogram/logogram system and have an alphabet like a functional language” is unreasonable for the reasons I explained previously.
Third, it doesn’t matter what ethnicity or nationality you used, the structure of your statement would still be bigoted, because it would still be an unreasonable belief that prejudices against a particular group of people.
Hope this helps.
“The belief that the imperial system is worse than metric is not unreasonable”
Is the belief that the logographic system is worse than alphabets (and abugidas, for that matter) unreasonable? You seem to suggest that, arbitrarily, for this case it’s not just unreasonable, but also bigotry…
“It’s time for the Japanese to drop their system” - racism.
“It’s time for the Americans to drop their system” - not racism.
Ok, whatever makes you feel better about yourself. I will still say logograms and imperial units are awful.
Lol yes. Both systems have benefits and drawbacks, it’s unreasonable to say either is “worse” than the other. It’s certainly not as clear-cut as the comparison between the imperial and metric systems.
In alphabets you learn a small set of letters. Using those letters you can logically form syllables. With those syllables you can write and read every single word in that language (yeah, through historical processes most languages fucked up the connection between syllables and phonemes, but that’s a different matter).
Meanwhile logographic systems have no logical way to form words (unless they are compound), as lots of words are their own symbol. In current logogram languages you are expected to learn from 2000 to 4000 different characters (compared to an average of 20-something letters in alphabets) just to read most publications - and odds are that if you try to read something from an area you have no expertise in, you are going to stumble upon several words you can’t even read (difference between ability to read and knowing the meaning. One may stumble upon a word they don’t know the meaning of while using an alphabet, but they can still read the word. While if you don’t know the right logogram for a word, even if you know the meaning of it, you can neither write nor read it).
I find the distinction even more clear-cut than imperial vs metrics, as imperial just uses very confusing conversions. Logograms are way more unnecessarily complicated.