In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, ...
... because there will be no words in which to express it.
I'm fine with removing the negative, racist connotations associated with "WhiteX" = good, "BlackX" = bad. Black Lives Matter.
However, Context Matters. I'm struggling to see the racial issue with 'grandfather' for example. It also captures a specific form of exemption, that which applies to conditions/users/contracts already in place, but not available to new conditions/users/contracts. 'Exempt' loses this subtlety. You would have to use 'legacy' or 'pre-existing'. I'll admit it's pointlessly gendered, but still, if alternatives are to be found, they need to be as useful, meaningful and unambiguous if this effort is to succeed.
'Abnormal' deliberately has a negative connotation. An abnormal program exit means an error has occured. 'Atypical' is too neutral. If folks start calling program crashes/bugs 'atypical', it will get a negative connotation and will become offensive; the language needs to retain negative words for use in the right circumstances; to describe behaviours, not people.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
