Meta post I’ve decided to make. I enjoyed the unixporn subreddit a lot when I used reddit more. I enjoy customizing my linux de as much as the next nerd.

But you definitely shouldn’t use racist slang to refer to the process.

To be clear, I didn’t know the origin of the term ‘ricing’ until fairly recently. I was chattimg with my friend and used it to describe my de setup. They informed me that apparently it’s from car customization, and is a pejorative against generally asian men who customize their car to look like a racecar.

After learning this I was sad to realize just how engrained it is in linux de customization culture. I personally have stopped using the term, and I would ask everyone here stop as well.

  • @midnight
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    10 months ago

    Sheesh, there sure are a lot of hexbear users here piling onto anybody with a different opinion

    Edit: I went ahead and queried the lemmy database from a federated instance I have access to.

    These are the top 3 instances commenting in this specific post at the time of writing (2023-08-25 08:02 UTC):

    instance   | count
    -------------+-------
    hexbear.net |   205
    lemmy.ml    |   106
    lemm.ee     |    61
    

    These are the top 3 instances and their comment counts on any post in lemmy.ml/c/unixporn this month at the time of writing:

    domain    | count
    -------------+-------
    lemmy.ml    |   210
    hexbear.net |   210
    lemm.ee     |   100
    

    You’re reading that right, hexbear has a whopping FIVE comments in this community that are not part of this post.

    For the curious, those 5 comments at the time of writing are:

    One of which is especially hilarious as we see a hexbear user that’s been railing on people in this post using the very term they’re condemning here. Strong convictions? Perhaps bandwagoning the hexbear teet? Who knows. Definitely not suspicious 🙄

      • @midnight
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        1211 months ago

        Look ma, another one! Do you all take shifts on duty watching this thread?

        Different opinions being challenging your collective definition of the word being inherently racist. You can hem and haw all you want but meanings can change over time. If it can start being used racially at one point it can surely stop at another.

        • Sasuke [comrade/them]
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          11 months ago

          sicko-biker NEW POSTER REPORTING FOR DUTY!

          do you ‘‘different-opinion-havers’’ also take shifts whenever there’s a racist term to defend?

          • @eskimofry@lemmy.ml
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            211 months ago

            Why are you stirring up shit about a word that a majority of users associate with Linux modding? What number of people exactly know the old meaning? Is your teaching the people that it’s a racist word help anyway?

            • silent_water [she/her]
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              11 months ago

              because it’s racist. learn to take mild criticism and adjust behavior. it’s not hard and it’s a basic part of living with other people.

        • QuietCupcake [any, they/them]
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          3411 months ago

          Look ma, another one! Do you all take shifts on duty watching this thread?

          This is my only comment in this thread. I clicked on this post because it showed up in my feed, simple as. Everyone who talks about hexbear brigading, piling on, or “taking shifts” doesn’t understand how federation works. Hexbear has been a highly active website with a large userbase for years now, so I don’t know what you would you expect to happen when a large discussion-based website shows content… the people on that website are going to discuss that content.

          meanings can change over time. If it can start being used racially at one point it can surely stop at another.

          This is true. But the group of people who get to decide whether or not something is racist is the group that is the target of that racism. White people don’t get to decide the n-word is no longer racist. Hetero people don’t get to decide the 3-letter f-word isn’t homophobic. And no individual gets to decide because it’s a cultural issue. Obviously meanings of words change and evolve, but they do so organically, and trying to force a racist term into regular usage and then say “it’s not racist anymore because I wasn’t intending to use it that way” is itself some really racist shit.

          • @midnight
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            311 months ago

            Everyone who talks about hexbear brigading, piling on, or “taking shifts” doesn’t understand how federation works.

            Just because there are some users that stumble upon content semi-organically doesn’t mean brigading and piling on isn’t happening. I would hope you guys aren’t actually taking shifts. Hello hyperbole. And none of that indicates someone doesn’t understand how federation works, are you sure you understand how it works?

            the group of people who get to decide whether or not something is racist is the group that is the target of that racism

            They’re also the group that gets to decide if they’re offended/if something qualifies as racist toward them. You’ll notice OP never indicated if they were part of this group, and by them recently learning the roots of the term as it relates to the car scene I’d guess they’re not. Hello virtue signaling.

            Hetero people don’t get to decide the 3-letter f-word isn’t homophobic

            When it relates to homosexuality, I agree. When in another context, like… oh say British slang, it’s not at all. Context matters, that’s the whole point here.

            trying to force a racist term into regular usage … is itself some really racist shit

            I’m not going to concede your assertion that ricing in this context is racist. Nobody is forcing anything, ricing in this context has been a non racial term for as long as I’ve seen it used to describe customizing DEs. This is what something changing organically looks like. Unless you can point me to a source showing the term as it relates to linux was intentionally used to try to dull the racist origins in the car world you can go sit with the other hexbear virtue signalers in this post.

            • space_comrade [he/him]
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              3111 months ago

              Just because there are some users that stumble upon content semi-organically doesn’t mean brigading and piling on isn’t happening.

              You have any proof of this or are you just assuming that happens because you can’t fathom that many people actually disagreeing with you?

              • @midnight
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                311 months ago

                You’ll notice your comrade is the one that mentioned brigading. I only said there were a lot of hexbear users piling onto people that disagree with OP, which is obvious reading through the post. I can’t hold your hand on that though, if you don’t possess the reading comprehension to see that that’s on you.

                • space_comrade [he/him]
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                  11 months ago

                  You’re obnoxious. Hexbear is one of the largest instances, comparable to lemmy.ml which is where this was posted. There are also users from lemmy.ml and other instances agreeing with OP.

                  You’re just a huge fucking baby that thinks encountering lots of opposing opinions must be some grand conspiracy against you.

                  • @midnight
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                    211 months ago

                    Again with the lack of reading comprehension. Did I say it was only hexbear users piling on? No. I just pointed out that there are a lot of hexbear users piling on. Your persecution complex is showing.

                    I’m not sure where you assumed I"m upset about anything here or that I think there’s a conspiracy against me. Hello projection.

            • ProfessorOwl_PhD [any]
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              511 months ago

              Yes, there must be brigading going on, it’s not like there’s some sort of “front page” for federated instances that just anyone can browse, where active discussions like this would be promoted over less active content.

              • @midnight
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                211 months ago

                🥱 read your shift change notes. The line you’re taking has already been quashed.

                • ProfessorOwl_PhD [any]
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                  111 months ago

                  Been quashed? You’re claiming that users could only semi-organically stumble upon this post, when your continual engagement has kept it at a healthy position in the active feed for the past 2 days. If it weren’t for your insistence on being racist none of us would have seen the post at all.

                  • @midnight
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                    10 months ago

                    Right, I forgot you fools lack reading comprehension skills and the ability to recognize nuance.

                    I didn’t say there was brigading going on, your comrade brought that up. I simply said just because some users were arriving organically doesn’t mean brigading is out of the question. The original point, which continues to be evident, is that there are a ton of hexbear users piling on to anyone that doesn’t fall in line with OP. You all seem to conveniently ignore that and straw man into bringing up brigading and hurling insults. You prove my point every time a new one engages. Every. Time.

                    The only remotely racist users I’ve seen here are, unsurprisingly, hexbear users. You’re the main ones attempting to nurture a term in a different context to try to get a completely different community to use your preferred racist definition. If you truly were anti-racist I would have expected celebration of the death of a racist term in the car community by way of the unixporn community using it with pride to show off their DEs.

                    Instead you cling for dear life onto your racist definition like conservatives do to the fucking electoral college and FPTP. It’s really telling.

                    Edit: I went ahead and queried the lemmy database from a federated instance I have access to.

                    These are the top 3 instances commenting in this specific post at the time of writing (2023-08-25 08:02 UTC):

                    instance   | count
                    -------------+-------
                    hexbear.net |   205
                    lemmy.ml    |   106
                    lemm.ee     |    61
                    

                    These are the top 3 instances and their comment counts on any post in lemmy.ml/c/unixporn this month at the time of writing:

                    domain    | count
                    -------------+-------
                    lemmy.ml    |   210
                    hexbear.net |   210
                    lemm.ee     |   100
                    

                    You’re reading that right, hexbear has a whopping FIVE comments in this community that are not part of this post.

                    For the curious, those 5 comments at the time of writing are:

                    One of which is especially hilarious as we see a hexbear user that’s been railing on people in this post using the very term they’re condemning here. Strong convictions? Perhaps bandwagoning the hexbear teet? Who knows. Definitely not suspicious 🙄

            • @eskimofry@lemmy.ml
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              211 months ago

              Just because there are some users that stumble upon content semi-organically doesn’t mean brigading and piling on isn’t happening

              That’s some next level mental gymnastics to justify why people are disagreeing with you. Look, ricing isn’t racist. It’s better this way. Let the old meaning die. Let racist inventions be superseded. Don’t complain something organic is reminding YOU about some bad meaning associated with a word in the past.

              • @midnight
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                211 months ago

                You’ve given me whiplash. No mental gymnastics involved in casting a wide net.

                The rest of your post seems to agree with me? Did you mean to reply to someone else?

        • @inasaba@lemmy.ml
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          1011 months ago

          They’re not the only ones calling y’all out. Stop defending using racist terms.

          • @midnight
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            111 months ago

            Y’all need to learn to understand context. Someone born in 1988 with 88 tattooed on them is not inherently racist. Someone with 88 tattooed right under their swastika tat is racist.

            I don’t have time to run every term through the book of hidden meanings for racists that you people seem to have. It’s not racist in this context and the only ones trying to make it that way are those like you. Let it die.

              • @midnight
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                111 months ago

                Last I checked unixporn isn’t the car community. It’s literally a different context. There’s zero pejorative tones. It’s literally being used with pride, not hate or disdain.

          • @midnight
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            211 months ago

            Ooh shift change. Why do you lot latch onto a rehtorical question so hard? Is your victim complex really that strong? I simply pointed out that a lot of hexbear users are piling onto those that disagree with the OP and you’re proving my my point. You detach from the discussion and start going after the person almost every time.

            Btw you should really share notes, one of your comrades already tried to say I didn’t understand how federation works and you’re both wrong. Keep trying though 🥱

            • @HuntressHimbo@lemm.ee
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              11 months ago

              Perhaps you should click my profile before talking out of your ass. I am a lemm.ee user that explicitly supported defederating Hexbear in our meta thread on it. I’m not super fond of how they participate generally, but they are quite right about this one.

              • @midnight
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                311 months ago

                Oops, did you forget to switch accounts the first time you commented? Or do you just share the lack of reading comprehension with your hexbear friends? I didn’t say it was only hexbear users piling on, just that there were a lot of them.

                Big Dean Browning vibes my internet person. If you think I’m talking out of my ass I don’t want to know where you’re talking from right now. Yikes.

                • @HuntressHimbo@lemm.ee
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                  311 months ago

                  It showed up as you replying to me talking about shift change at hexbear so idk what you want from me man. You can pretend I am a hexbear that inexplicably posted about wanting to defed them days ago just so I could gotcha someone, but I’m just a Linux guy who would rather we didn’t use racist terms.

                  • @midnight
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                    211 months ago

                    The shift change comment was to a hexbear user, as the screenshot shows. For what it’s worth I had to go to the hexbear instance to see the full thread, your reply was coming up with no way for me to view context so I wasn’t sure if I actually fucked up or what happened. We can blame Lemmy growing pains I suppose.

                    I’m also just a Linux guy getting by. But I reject the notion that a term considered racist in one context continues to be so outside of that context, terms that only exist in a racist context (n word) not withstanding. All of the times I’ve seen rice used to describe a person’s DE changes has always been a point of pride and not pejorative. This one’s ripe to defang and the people interested in perpetuating it as racist are largely hexbear users and some stragglers that align with them on this point.

                    That said I don’t care if the term changes or not, but the apparent brigading and piling on centered around hexbear users masquerading as “omg we’re just so popular” is laughable.