Botanists vote to remove racist reference from plants’ scientific names

Why is caffra insulting? I’ve never even heard the word before except in plant names.

I feel the same... While some words are best avoided, I find the obsessive focus on language ridiculous sometimes, especially in the anglosphere. That gives us Voldemort/Yahweh words, controversy around master/slave, ""latinx"", censorship with asterisks that doesn't fool anyone...

But I also remember that it's not the big deal Twitter rightoids make it seem to be. I have rarely seen anyone get seriously offended over just a word in real life, even when talking with fellow progressives. What triggers people in real life in my experience is arguments and ideas. Social media is not the real world in that regard.

Sometimes, I worry that the language puritanism might be offputting when defending progressive ideas, because it makes it seem that feminists/antiracists are shallow and only about dictating newspeak, but I found while talking with people not onboard with these causes that they were smart enough to make a distinction between Twitter pedants and a genuine defense of feminism/antiracism.

But, at the same time, I agree wholeheartedly that it makes a lot of sense to not call a black person racist names, or to stop calling people hysteric or retarded!

I mean when is the last time a new plant was discovered? Surely the discoveries must be dwindling by now!