Nitty Gritty Laura Kuenssberg!

Soldato
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Yeah it started off as a p-take by 4chan iirc, saying that the hand signal was associated with white supremacist movements (for the lulz), then some of those groups genuinely adopted it and now it's a bona fide white supremacist hand signal. And thus banned, lol.

Crazy times we live in.

So they don't ban the groups but since it was adopted (ironically) by them everyone else is banned from using it? I despair.
 
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Now personally I cannot stand Ms Kuenssberg but what paranoid lunatic came up with this bizarre etymological theory

I think you've probably answered your own question - a paranoid lunatic. Like that paranoid lunatic ranting about "black hole" being super duper hyper racist because it has the word "black" in it. Although maybe it was a canny liar who knew it was nonsense but thought it would be politically useful.

I think it's far more likely to come from grit, i.e. the small stuff, the stuff used for detailed work. Sanding material is measured in grits, for example, with higher grit for more detailed work. Same for objects for sharpening blades. It also fits (though less directly) for construction, e.g. the size of the pieces used for aggregate in concrete. That matches the meaning of the phrase, which is usually a good sign for etymology. The "time travelling slavery connection" etymology has no match with the meaning of the phrase. The "nitty" part might indicate "fine, precise" or might just be rhyming nonsense added for the sake of it, which is surprisingly common in sayings.
 
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Funnily enough they managed to get the "A-OK" diving hand signal banned, as it's now associated with white supremacy, lawls.

Reality doesn't matter, only offense. Believing oneself to be the victim of systemic racism is proof that systemic racism exists. Feelings are proof. If I feel discriminated against, somebody must pay! Preferably by being hounded out of their job!

Only if you claim a higher status group identity or to be acting on behalf of a higher status group identity. The underlying idea is to support and strengthen prejudice and discrimination based on a hierarchy of group identities, so it rests on that idea.

It's not a new thing, although different versions of the idea use different group identities and/or place them in different places in the hierarchy. For example, in a feudal society a peasant claiming to be offended by a noble was treated as a very different thing to a noble claiming to be offended by a peasant.
 
Caporegime
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Norman Cook/Fatboy Slim might be in trouble for this track then - or is he OK because it's a black guy saying nitty gritty?

 
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If you want a picture of the future they'd usher in, read Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut. It'll only take you 5-10mins.

I think Orwell's "1984" is a better picture of the future they'd usher in, with some aspects of Orwell's "Animal Farm". Or maybe just skip the middle step and look at Stalinist USSR, which is what "Animal Farm" was based on. Or Hitler's Germany or the Kim regimes of North Korea. There are plenty of examples of regimes of authoritarianism and irrational prejudices.
 
Soldato
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I think Orwell's "1984" is a better picture of the future they'd usher in, with some aspects of Orwell's "Animal Farm". Or maybe just skip the middle step and look at Stalinist USSR, which is what "Animal Farm" was based on. Or Hitler's Germany or the Kim regimes of North Korea. There are plenty of examples of regimes of authoritarianism and irrational prejudices.

I assumed the average attention span in GD would be significantly less than what would be required to get read a book so was going for short and snappy.
 
Soldato
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....What alarms me the most about stories like these are that people are seemingly unable to decouple actions and intent.

When she used the words, there is absolutely no way in her head she was thinking the phrase had any racist connotations, she just used a phrase that she thought best suited the moment.

But it seems the attitude of some is "he/she used word x therefore he/she is racist"

It's just not how it works. People can be racist but never use any racist language, and people can be completely un-racist and experience a slip of the tongue (within reason) just because they aren't clued up on etymology.

At this rate soon anyone will just be terrified to get in front of a camera/microphone.
 
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....What alarms me the most about stories like these are that people are seemingly unable to decouple actions and intent.

It's worse than that - they outright deny there is any difference between actions and intent and they outright deny that any context exists other than the "context" of which group identities they perceive as being superior and which inferior. Like all profoundly irrationally prejudiced people, they have no problem with anything a superior group identity says or does to an inferior group identity, up to and including explicitly calling for genocide. Which they call "punching up", because they are also devout liars.

When she used the words, there is absolutely no way in her head she was thinking the phrase had any racist connotations, she just used a phrase that she thought best suited the moment.

But it seems the attitude of some is "he/she used word x therefore he/she is racist"

It's just not how it works. People can be racist but never use any racist language, and people can be completely un-racist and experience a slip of the tongue (within reason) just because they aren't clued up on etymology.

Or they are clued up on etymology and thus know the true etymology rather than the fake one made up by people who are either hard of thinking or are lying.

At this rate soon anyone will just be terrified to get in front of a camera/microphone.

Which is probably the intention - suppress all speech other than mindless praise of the authoritarian ideology and its leader(s).
 
Soldato
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Funnily enough they managed to get the "A-OK" diving hand signal banned, as it's now associated with white supremacy, lawls.

Are you sure this is true? I learned to scuba dive just over a year ago now and the ok sign was taught and was still in the course theory books.


Oh and nitty gritty to me means digging into the detail of something. So perhaps digging, dirt, yeah could have come from slavery I guess, not that it matters.
 
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Are you sure this is true? I learned to scuba dive just over a year ago now and the ok sign was taught and was still in the course theory books.

It's true. For the time being, some of them acknowledge that it's not always a white supremacist symbol (in reality, it rarely if ever is) but that will probably change and of course they will claim it's a white supremacy symbol whenever they think they have something to gain by doing so.The origin of the story is known - it was some jokers on 4chan trolling the professionally offended by making the knowingly false claim that the "OK" symbol was a white supremacy symbol, to see if any of them were gullible enough to believe something so obviously nonsensical. It turned out that many of them were.

Oh and nitty gritty to me means digging into the detail of something. So perhaps digging, dirt, yeah could have come from slavery I guess, not that it matters.

The fake etymology is that it refers to general detritus at the bottom of slave ships. Which makes no sense, has no connection to the meaning of the phrase and would require time travel since the phrase didn't exist until the mid 20th century. So no, it can't have come from slavery. But you're right that it wouldn't matter if it did, since the phrase itself still wouldn't have anything to do with slavery even if the fake etymology was true. Which it isn't.
 
Soldato
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It's true. For the time being, some of them acknowledge that it's not always a white supremacist symbol but that will probably change and of course they will claim it's a white supremacy symbol whenever they think they have something to gain by doing so

What i meant was is it true its been banned in diving? I dont dispute the origin/use of the symbol.
 
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