Have you ever been stuck furiously debating a technical methodology, but you talk past each other, frustrated and unmoved? The solution is often surprisingly simple: ditch the brand names, and talk about how things work instead.
This post is about programmer stuff, but it came up in a conversation about politics and culture. My question was: how do I talk about communities/subcultures/beliefs that I think are harmful, without generalising over the people who participate in the not-harmful versions? The answer probably involves dropping the brand
—not levelling my criticisms at a particular group label—instead talking about the mechanism
by conveying my values while giving examples of how they’re being contradicted.