A Montreal business owner who posted a video of himself throwing water on a homeless man sleeping outside his establishment says he now recognizes what he di...
Every few years some people decide you can’t use certain words because they have become negative terms to some group. So they invent a new term for the same thing and as the years go by and more people use the new term, it gets the same negative association that the old one had. Then the cycle begins anew.
Sometimes it’s good - a lot of slurs that were ok for anyone to say when I was a kid are now socially unacceptable and that’s great. But sometimes the SJWs take it too far and I think this is one of those times. I don’t understand the reason for the push to call them “unhoused” but I’m willing to be educated.
Once you hit middle age and have seen this happen a few times you’ll usually just roll your eyes and carry on.
Also, homeless is far from a slur in my opinion, and a similar term is used in many language. Using unhoused doesn’t change anything, the people you talk about still don’t have a place to live, but now you can feel better about yourself by using a different word.
Very interesting, thanks for linking it! And they even have a name for the phenomenon I described.
“Intentional shifts in terminology might seem like a game of Whac-A-Mole – an ultimately unsuccessful effort to outrun a concept’s ugly implications. The Harvard professor Steven Pinker dubbed it the “euphemism treadmill”.”
The (good, imho) reason is that “homeless” can quickly become a defining label when used to describe an individual, when what we are after is really just a description of someone’s current circumstance.
It’s honestly the exact same thing, almost the exact same word and it means the exact same thing. It isn’t gonna help anything. These labels just help the keyboard activists feel like they did something
I work with a nonprofit that works closely with children in this circumstance, and yes, it does make a huge difference to the individuals involved.
Having it be understood and acknowledged that this is something we are going through, and not who we are gives a healthy framing for families to lift themselves up…and not be “homeless people.”
I think the only reason this happens is because people associate negativity with a group of people for long enough to tie the negativity to the phrase or word itself. Homeless used to be the sensative replacement for Hobo. After enough time, this new name will just be another tag people can use hatefully.
edit: I must admit, though, I can’t see “someone experiencing homelessness” making a very impactful slur.
I see absolutely no difference whatsoever between the two terms. Even stigma wise. Being homeless isn’t a good thing, stop trying to make it sound nice unless you want people to think it’s nice and ignore it
What the hell, is saying homeless not PC now? Unhoused??
Every few years some people decide you can’t use certain words because they have become negative terms to some group. So they invent a new term for the same thing and as the years go by and more people use the new term, it gets the same negative association that the old one had. Then the cycle begins anew.
Sometimes it’s good - a lot of slurs that were ok for anyone to say when I was a kid are now socially unacceptable and that’s great. But sometimes the SJWs take it too far and I think this is one of those times. I don’t understand the reason for the push to call them “unhoused” but I’m willing to be educated.
Once you hit middle age and have seen this happen a few times you’ll usually just roll your eyes and carry on.
Also, homeless is far from a slur in my opinion, and a similar term is used in many language. Using unhoused doesn’t change anything, the people you talk about still don’t have a place to live, but now you can feel better about yourself by using a different word.
Good article on the topic, highlighting the origin of the word, and the reasons many try to use it: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/20/homeless-unhoused-houseless-term-history
Very interesting, thanks for linking it! And they even have a name for the phenomenon I described.
“Intentional shifts in terminology might seem like a game of Whac-A-Mole – an ultimately unsuccessful effort to outrun a concept’s ugly implications. The Harvard professor Steven Pinker dubbed it the “euphemism treadmill”.”
It’s actually someone experiencing homelessness.
The (good, imho) reason is that “homeless” can quickly become a defining label when used to describe an individual, when what we are after is really just a description of someone’s current circumstance.
So the new wording is simply more accurate.
It’s honestly the exact same thing, almost the exact same word and it means the exact same thing. It isn’t gonna help anything. These labels just help the keyboard activists feel like they did something
I work with a nonprofit that works closely with children in this circumstance, and yes, it does make a huge difference to the individuals involved.
Having it be understood and acknowledged that this is something we are going through, and not who we are gives a healthy framing for families to lift themselves up…and not be “homeless people.”
I think the only reason this happens is because people associate negativity with a group of people for long enough to tie the negativity to the phrase or word itself. Homeless used to be the sensative replacement for Hobo. After enough time, this new name will just be another tag people can use hatefully.
edit: I must admit, though, I can’t see “someone experiencing homelessness” making a very impactful slur.
I see absolutely no difference whatsoever between the two terms. Even stigma wise. Being homeless isn’t a good thing, stop trying to make it sound nice unless you want people to think it’s nice and ignore it
Didn’t take long for Dunning Kruger to come along huh