170. Actively Passive

The Allusionist

Helen Zaltzman

Arts, Education, Words, Linguistics, History, Entertainment, Helen Zaltzman, Etymology, Society & Culture

4.7 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 10 February 2023

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Over the past few years, numerous products and places with the word 'plantation' in their names have rebranded. As for the word 'plantation' itself, architect and writer Kennedy Whiters of unRedactTheFacts.com advocates for replacing it with a more truthful term. She also watches out for use of the grammatical passive voice, because "It hides who did what to whom."

Content note: this episode contains discussions of anti-Black racism, violence and sexual violence.

This is an instalment of the Telling Other Stories series, about renaming. Find out more about this episode and get extra information about the topics therein at theallusionist.org/actively-passive, where there's also a transcript.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The Illusionist, in which I, Helen Zoltzman, run the latest software update on language
0:09.1	and it doesn't work now.
0:11.0	This episode is another installment in the Telling Other Story series about Rename, and
0:16.2	in response to the last episode, the box about Irwin Trodiner of the Economist Cat and
0:21.1	Equation, Emerson got in touch to offer the following idea.
0:25.5	You could call Shrodinger's cat theory simply the Milton theory.
0:30.1	This is because I just searched if Shrodinger ever had a cat, and indeed he had one named
0:34.8	Milton.
0:35.8	Certainly a feasible interpretation.
0:40.0	James also asks, if we're not referring to the quantum cat by the name of a pedophile,
0:45.5	how should we refer to platonic ideals, solids or loves?
0:49.4	I'm taking suggestions.
0:51.1	Theillusionist.welfth such contact.
0:53.5	You can also tell me about any renaming you've been involved with such things as mountains,
0:58.6	products, foods, streets, all sorts of things.
1:02.5	This episode contains discussions of anti-black racism, violence and sexual violence.
1:09.2	On with the show.
1:13.2	Recently, I had a conversation with my parents in law about a food stuff local to them.
1:26.6	It's a meatball made of bits of pig awful and meat scraps.
1:30.6	And where my indoors live in the West Midlands, the name of it is the same word as the
1:35.3	Eftsler used against gay men.
1:38.2	We discuss possible replacements for the name.
	...

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