Eliott Dumoulin is a journalist who covers Canada for the French newspaper Le Monde. In this article, he tries to explain to readers back home what’s going on.

  • spirinolas@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Look, I don’t mean to antagonize you but you’re looking at it in a very American-centric (and quasi-chauvinistic) way.

    In other countries the c-word doesn’t have the same connotation as in the US. You are assuming American culture, and its concepts, are universal. They’re not.

    There’s nothing inherently wrong in the c-word and the n-word, but it’s the context where those words got to be used that made them so repugnant. Since the n-word was mostly a US thing, its taboo meaning passed over to all variants of English. The c-word though, was already used in other variants and didn’t have the same bad connotation it does in the US. So it kept being used in a different way.

    Trying to force the American meaning on other English speakers comes, at best, as ignorant and, at worst, chauvinistic. I don’t think you have bad intentions since you clearly don’t understand how a word can have very different meanings in different cultures. But now you know.

    • Justus@lemmy.ca
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      3 days ago

      I mean, it’s a Canadian sub talking about Canadian politicians. It may be different if we were talking about Aussie politics. I’ve been to Australia, lived in nz for a year, I’ve used the term with buddies pretty often.

      It is different when you’re speaking about a woman in power (awful woman in power) and take all her horrid aspects and boil them down to a demeaning misogynist term. There are a million different insults that can be thrust upon her. Why does it have to be one that means vagina. Whether it’s been appropriated or not by other cultures, here in Canada it is misogynistic and is interpreted so by nearly every woman here

      • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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        3 days ago

        I assure you that I’m Canadian and I say Donald Trump is a miserable cunt all the time. Because he is.

        Some people are cunts. Some cunts are men and some cunts are women. Both Pierre Pollievre and Danielle Smith are cunts. They’re miserable people that never say anything positive and seem to derive joy from fucking things up for everyone. They’re miserable cunts.

      • spirinolas@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Whether it’s been appropriated or not by other cultures

        Uh? Englishmen appropriated the English language now?

        here in Canada it is misogynistic and is interpreted so by nearly every woman here

        And as such I strongly discourage anyone to use that word in Canada. The thing is, this is not Canada, it’s Lemmy and lots of people commenting here (me included) are not from the Americas. And they were pretty clear in what way they meant it. You don’t have to become comfortable with the word but you must understand it doesn’t mean the same in other places and you have no right to impose on them the meaning it has in your country.