 January 2004 A friend asked me to give some examples of labels used to suppress ideas. I started searching, and the list grew and grew. Most of the terms listed below were found online, in laws, regulations, acceptable use policies, the codes of conduct of schools, universities, businesses, and government agencies, descriptions of web filter criteria, and articles about censorship. It was depressing reading, rather like all the spams I used to read before I tried writing statistical filters. I've tried to include every label used to criticize statements in the past 100 years except truly neutral ones like false, untrue, mistaken, etc. So there are of course contradictions. For example, some web filters forbid access to web sites mentioning homosexuality, whereas many university speech codes forbid remarks critical of it. I've only included labels used in the English-speaking world, which unfortunately excludes the marvellous efflorescence in the Soviet Union and China during the twentieth century. The most interesting thing I found was the Hays Code, which controlled the American movie industry from 1930 to 1966. What a piece of work. I had no idea that it forbade, for example, the depiction of racially mixed couples. Another surprise: I found these labels included some words that I myself use: "unscientific", for example. Is it wrong to call something unscientific? I think it can be. Labels are lazy. It is not enough merely to label an idea as unscientific, or any of the other terms below. One ought to provide more detail. If you made a graph representing which of these words occurred together, I think you'd find the central node was the one representing "inappropriate". That seems the most general (and thus least meaningful) label at the moment. As far as I can tell, it is little more than a five-syllable synonym for "bad". ableist abnormal abusive adult age-inappropriate ageist aggressive annoying anti-arab anti-black anti-disability anti-gay anti-intellectual anti-semitic atheistic biased bigoted blasphemous bourgeois classist coarse communist corrupting critical crude dangerous degenerate degrading defamatory defeatist demeaning derogatory destructive deviant dirty disabilist discriminatory disgusting disloyal disrespectful disruptive distasteful disturbing divisive elitist ethnocentric erotic eurocentric exclusionary explicit extremist fascist fifth columnist filthy frivolous foul gay genderist graphic gross harmful harrassing hateful hate-ist heterosexist holocaust-denying homophobic homosexual hostile hurtful illegal immodest immoral impertinent impious impolite improper impure in bad taste inappropriate indecent indecorous indelicate inflammatory insensitive insulting intimidating intolerant irregular irreverent judgemental lecherous lesbian lesbophobic lewd libellous licentious lookist low lubricious lustful malicious menacing militant misogynistic mocking morbid nationalistic nazi negative objectifying objectionable obscene off-color offensive orientalist out of line patriarchal perverted phallocentric pornographic prejudiced profane provocative prurient questionable racial racially insensitive racist radical reactionary revisionist risque rude sacrilegious salacious satanic scandalous scatalogical scurrilous selfish sexist sexual sexually explicit sexually oriented shameful sinful sizeist slanderous smutty speciesist stereotyping subversive suggestive supremacist tactless tasteless threatening treasonous unacceptable unamerican unauthorized unbecoming uncalled-for unchaste unchristian uncivil unclean undemocratic undesirable undignified unethical unfair unfit unfitting ungenteel unhealthy unlawful unnatural unnecessary unmentionable unpatriotic unprofessional unrefined unscientific unseemly unsuitable untasteful unthinkable untoward unwanted unwelcome unwholesome outdated violent vulgar wanton xenophobic |