<story><title>Stanford&apos;s “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative</title><url>https://itcommunity.stanford.edu/ehli</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>testfoobar</author><text>They apparently spider and scan their own websites for &amp;quot;harmful&amp;quot; language:&lt;p&gt;I just find this wild.  How and when did language itself become so dangerous to this degree?  Along with most adults in my social circle, I care and think about my health, my family, my friends, my work, my dog, my environment, my community, etc.  I could not give a flying fuck about language policing.  Language isn&amp;#x27;t going to protect me on my bike from speeding cars on my street.  Language isn&amp;#x27;t going to fill the dams in a drier and drier California.  Language isn&amp;#x27;t going to do jackshit about 400+ ppm CO2 levels.  And on and on.&lt;p&gt;These language policing idiots, and I am choosing my language here, are fucking clueless about the real challenges we face as individuals and as a society.  Even worse, they are redirecting valuable resources to stupider and stupider bullshit.&lt;p&gt;How do we close this Pandora&amp;#x27;s box?  How do we go back to debating meaningful problems and solutions and tell these language policing idiots to do something useful?&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;itcommunity.stanford.edu&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;poc-it-2022-progress-and-looking-ahead-2023&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;itcommunity.stanford.edu&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;poc-it-2022-progress-a...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;EHLI Scans
In addition to the educational website, EHLI involves scanning Stanford University domains and sites to determine where and how identified harmful language is being used. The end goal is to help individuals and units eliminate harmful language that could be perpetuating stereotypes, inequality, violence, and racism.&lt;p&gt;Seven web domains authorized by the CIOC were scanned in a pilot phase to test the process of receiving, analyzing, and addressing scan results. This pilot phase led to a change in how terms are categorized from the scans, using these three priority levels:&lt;p&gt;Most egregious terms that need to be addressed immediately
Terms we do not expect to find on our sites but will scan for due diligence
Terms that can be used in a non-harmful way, generating many false positive results
For the seven domains in the pilot, baseline scans have been recorded, and scan results are now recorded monthly. The process for working with content owners for remediation is still in a planning phase. Additional domains to be included in the scanning process are being evaluated, in close partnership with the CIOC.&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Dalewyn</author><text>The thing more of us need to understand is this has never been about &amp;quot;safety&amp;quot;, it&amp;#x27;s about power and control.&lt;p&gt;Becoming able to control someone&amp;#x27;s thoughts is very, very powerful and sought after, and what are thoughts composed of? Language. Define the language and you define how people think.&lt;p&gt;Define people of latin origin should be referred to by &amp;quot;latinx&amp;quot; and nothing else and congratulations: An entire collection of cultures was removed of their identity and subjugated.&lt;p&gt;Define all environmental concerns as &amp;quot;global warming&amp;quot; and later &amp;quot;climate change&amp;quot; and congratulations: You just invalidated swaths of inventions and solutions created by our forefathers and turned entire fields of science into a handy little political tool to fling around for profit.&lt;p&gt;Define science as something to be unconditionally trusted and congratulations: You just turned science into a religion and gained one of the biggest religious forces known to man to use for profit.&lt;p&gt;The people behind all this are very ingenious and very dangerous; he who controls language owns the human world.</text></comment>
<story><title>Stanford&apos;s “Elimination of Harmful Language” Initiative</title><url>https://itcommunity.stanford.edu/ehli</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>testfoobar</author><text>They apparently spider and scan their own websites for &amp;quot;harmful&amp;quot; language:&lt;p&gt;I just find this wild.  How and when did language itself become so dangerous to this degree?  Along with most adults in my social circle, I care and think about my health, my family, my friends, my work, my dog, my environment, my community, etc.  I could not give a flying fuck about language policing.  Language isn&amp;#x27;t going to protect me on my bike from speeding cars on my street.  Language isn&amp;#x27;t going to fill the dams in a drier and drier California.  Language isn&amp;#x27;t going to do jackshit about 400+ ppm CO2 levels.  And on and on.&lt;p&gt;These language policing idiots, and I am choosing my language here, are fucking clueless about the real challenges we face as individuals and as a society.  Even worse, they are redirecting valuable resources to stupider and stupider bullshit.&lt;p&gt;How do we close this Pandora&amp;#x27;s box?  How do we go back to debating meaningful problems and solutions and tell these language policing idiots to do something useful?&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;itcommunity.stanford.edu&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;poc-it-2022-progress-and-looking-ahead-2023&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;itcommunity.stanford.edu&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;poc-it-2022-progress-a...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;EHLI Scans
In addition to the educational website, EHLI involves scanning Stanford University domains and sites to determine where and how identified harmful language is being used. The end goal is to help individuals and units eliminate harmful language that could be perpetuating stereotypes, inequality, violence, and racism.&lt;p&gt;Seven web domains authorized by the CIOC were scanned in a pilot phase to test the process of receiving, analyzing, and addressing scan results. This pilot phase led to a change in how terms are categorized from the scans, using these three priority levels:&lt;p&gt;Most egregious terms that need to be addressed immediately
Terms we do not expect to find on our sites but will scan for due diligence
Terms that can be used in a non-harmful way, generating many false positive results
For the seven domains in the pilot, baseline scans have been recorded, and scan results are now recorded monthly. The process for working with content owners for remediation is still in a planning phase. Additional domains to be included in the scanning process are being evaluated, in close partnership with the CIOC.&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>soundnote</author><text>&amp;gt; These language policing idiots, and I am choosing my language here, are fucking clueless about the real challenges we face as individuals and as a society. Even worse, they are redirecting valuable resources to stupider and stupider bullshit.&lt;p&gt;This is spot on. They are cultural parasites who siphon resources and attention from their host.</text></comment>