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this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2026
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Unpopular Opinion
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You shouldn't be racist against people because that's unethical. But this is against AI, and AI isn't people. And because it's socially acceptable to say that, people have a lower threshold. Then there's also good reasons to say it. There's incredible unfairness in the way AI is implemented, who it affects, the problems it exacerbates and the side-effects it comes with. This is why people like saying it, as a form of protest.
And I agree with them. I don't say it, but I can emphasize with most of those people and it's generally useful to highlight the wrongs it is doing.
Now it's hard for me to understand how this affects people who are not implicated in the development of AIs. I can agree not everyone who develops AIs is bad, but the development of AI as a whole comes with some obvious baggage. And you're not calling the people clankers, you're calling the AIs clankers.
So in short: I feel like "clanker" is not hurtful, and it's fine to say and I have a hard time understanding your issues with it, if you're not an AI.
You genuinely can't understand that all of the terms I listed are very slight variation on terms racists and homophobes have hurled at other humans for generations?
You can't understand why how cute everybody now thinks it is to use clanker might not be exactly wonderful and comfortable for black people who have grown up hearing the very similar term to that used against their family their entire lives?
Once again, I repeat that I see nothing wrong with insulting ai. The problem is using slight variations on existing racial slurs to do that. Come up with a new word. If the only words you can possibly come up with to insult AI are slight variations of racial slurs there is a serious problem in your head.
There are plenty of posts elsewhere about the same thing. They get the same response as this post. Down voted to oblivion by people who call them things like "clanker lover" because they can't think their way through understanding something that doesn't match their own life experiences and are angry at the thought of giving up a slur they enjoy.