Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Please Shut Up (Formerly: STFU*)
Rename Swine Flu Edition

Turns out that the name 'Swine flu' is insensitive to Jewish and Muslim sensibilities, so the name should be changed to 'Mexican flu.' [Via Sullivan]

Oh for chrissake. This is what PC wrought. People sit around spending untold person-hours ferreting out obscure linguistic peccadilloes that might "offend" someone somewhere and attempting to politically correct them.

Please, for the love of God, stop it.

Nobody with half a brain is going to be "offended" by this. You want to know who's denigrating Jews and Muslims here? The people who think they'll be offended if they catch swine flu...and the people who think we can change this by calling it something else.

If people spent any energy at all thinking about the actual content of what they say 3/4 of this stuff would never be uttered.

Now hear this:

1.
So far as we know, this flu comes from pigs. That's a fact. Changing the name will not change that. (Q: How many legs does a horse have if we call its tail a leg? A: Four. Calling it one doesn't make it one.)

2.
If someone has a religious/supernatural/superstitious reasons for not eating pigs, that does not mean they have a prohibition against catching the flu from pigs.

3.

Look, everybody's seen pigs, ergo photons that have bounced off of pigs have entered your bodies through your corneas!!! If you want to adopt a more expansive version of the anti-pig position, you're already screwed.

4.
No sensible God is going to hold it against anybody if, through no fault of their own, they catch a disease that once passed through pigs. For one thing, there's little doubt that some of the carbon you've consumed has been piggy carbon in the past. So, again, on the more expansive notion, and if you're subject to the commands of one of the more vindictive and irrational gods, you're already screwed.

Jebus this kind of thing makes me crazy.



* Now 87.4% more polite!

5 Comments:

Anonymous SR said...

That is a silly reason. But the name should be changed for other reasons.

The most important reason is that the name "swine flu" has been confusing some people into believing they might get the flu from consuming pork. I know, I know, it shouldn't confuse them, but it has. We don't want people to waste effort avoiding eating pork when they should be doing more effective preparation (see cdc.gov and ready.gov).

5:11 PM  
Blogger Winston Smith said...

See, now that's what we call a good reason...

6:15 PM  
Blogger lovable liberal said...

"No sensible God" is a rational argument and therefore impractical.

5:48 PM  
Anonymous SR said...

Egypt is providing another example of why a name change might be a good idea. They're killing all of their pigs. Which just happen to be almost entirely owned by a religious minority...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/swine-flu/5247771/Swine-flu-Egypt-orders-cull-of-all-pig-herds.html

5:50 PM  
Anonymous Jimmy Doyle said...

"If you want to adopt a more expansive version of the anti-pig position, you're already screwed."

That's very funny.

7:16 PM  

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