Art and Culture # 65
Microsoft Office Creating Error lines for Misusing Gender Pronouns
-For the Uncensored!
When this broke the Internet, I wondered if this was just the Internet making fun of itself to get people angry. According to Sam Baker and David Averre of the DailyMail.com, report on January 13th, 2022, “Microsoft has rolled out a new 'inclusiveness' spellchecker for the latest version of Office 365 which highlights text and offers politically correct alternatives to phrases it perceives to be 'problematic'.” Microsoft Word is going to include a purple underline within words that do not represent gender based situations. As if the world couldn’t get any dumber, the dumbing down of language has become one more slab on the chopping block. Pressures from woke communities that prove effective always destroy the neutrality of a company. Inclusivity is a word that seeks to mend the world of its anger seems to only create more division. “Black list’ and ‘White list’ in favour of ‘Accepted List’ and ‘Non Accepted List’.”[i]
For a person who understands language, and many others who read my work, as well, have to shake their head. It’s unfair to consider that this is a good thing. Black List and White List represent a shared thinking in the world that moves beyond just color. It represents who is allowed and who isn’t. The rationale on the left is simple. Taking away these terms might help create more inclusion. This only creates a stupider version of the saying, rather than an inclusive term that helps bring everyone together.
While this might seem like a small win for the left and their imposing restrictions on language in order to fight racism and sexism, it’s short lived. The Daily Mail article continues, “The inclusivity spellchecker is only included in the version of Word that comes with a Office 365 subscription, so users with a standalone version of Office 2019 or an earlier version of Office will not be affected.”[ii]
But I wish this wasn’t true. Not that it won’t affect people who buy a singular version of Microsoft word, that remains to be seen. But Microsoft doesn’t deny this at all.
Under an article entitled, “Bias Free Communication,” it does create a list of words that they would deem offensive in the eyes of inclusive language. The list given creates this weird framing issue. It lists words to the left that you should use and to the right to refrain from writing. Like “Operates, staff” to represent a wide range of workers, and to the right it lists, ‘Mans’[iii] as a negative inflection. It’s somewhat stiff language, and it doesn’t sound right, if you just read it here.
Sometimes, being inclusive is fine, but in this case, if words are meant to fit such a specific language, is this only meant to denigrate language or just create a mockery of language itself. Instead of “manpower” Microsoft encourages to use, “workforce, staff, personnel,” which in some business models, maybe works.
But to impose this on a program that people pay yearly to use, seems like an overreach. To pay people to use a product and then impose gender rules that sometimes don’t fit, is almost posturing some invisible line on an artists life. To someone born before the time of Identity politics, old school artists, have problems with this. I certainly do.
I’m not against inclusivity, but can people really be inclusive when companies charge you to use their product. I don’t imagine a dictionary, a book, by itself, would charge monthly fees to represent its pages and time it was printed. Gendered language is also taught at Chapel Hill in North Carolina. Stating, “English has changed since the Declaration of Independence was written. Most readers no longer understand the word “man” to be synonymous with “person,” so clear communication requires writers to be more precise.”[iv] But should this be Chapel Hill’s place to decide that the Declaration of Independence has no place in the culture?
So this is not fakery. As prestigious place as Chapel Hill in North Carolina is, this is just confirming what Microsoft has already confirmed in the Daily Mail reported on January 13th.
I get that businesses need to be more inclusive, but the nutjobs in the lefty circles, are going to try and push that toward creative writing. And creative writing, no matter what, is a basis of freedom. Not to be meddled with. To be free to use he/she pronouns is fine, and trying to merge weird corporate language into creative fields, is why the business of creativity is being strangled by huge corporations.
To consider that language is up to everyone’s interpretation, the problem is simple. It’s not allowing anyone to use the language they think is specific to what the individual thinks. To make people bow under one common use, is absurd, even by creative standpoints. I understand what creativity is. It’s not allowing yourself to be held to one specific set of terms. I have no problem allowing such language in creative settings, because aliens sometimes don’t have a gender. So I understand it from a creative stand point.
As far as we know, aliens are not among us. They haven’t yet identified themselves before the public, ready to communicate with us. Aliens, by definition would respond more to data and math statistics, and language. But Microsoft believes that gender is the correct knowledge of thinking, not creativity.
Again, you can take off the function, and it won’t affect older models of Microsoft Word. But to make people pay for such preaching is another gain of function within society. To watch people use words as being written down is not only limitations of creativity, but also an invasion of privacy. Those are the only things I worry about in Art and Culture.
If this means that corporations can make you pay for gender inclusive BS, then when they get absolute power, what will happen to the Constitution then? To protect the past, and remember what it truly means, is how art and culture will be affected later on. To destroy objective truth is to destroy creative writing and individual perspective.
To fight back is to not pay for Microsoft or upgrade it either. Or at least use a version that won’t punish you for not using gender based terms. In the power of ending sexism, Microsoft only emboldens censorship.
[i] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10398999/Blacklist-postman-mankind-just-words-wont-fly-Microsofts-woke-filter.html. Found 01/23/2022.
[ii] See source one for original source note.
[iii] “Bias Free Communication” 09/21/2021. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/style-guide/bias-free-communication. Found 01/23/2022.
[iv] https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/gender-inclusive-language/. Found 01/23/22.
-Louis Bruno is the author of more than 19 books, including, The Michael Project, The Michael Project: Book 2: The Lost Children of Eve, Thy Kingdom Come, The Disintegrating Bloodline (and the original text re-released in 2019), Apocalypse Soldier, The Data Chase, Selection: The First Book of the Life and Death Saga, and Blinking Eyes: The Second Book of the Life and Death Saga, Hierarchy of Dwindling Sheep, The City of Sand, To the Moon and Back, The Villain Lives and The Villain Lives: The Divided Pinpoint, Come Home, Young One. He has a Bachelor of Arts in English from University of Phoenix. His books can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Lulu. He can be found on Gab, https://gab.com/thereallouistbruno, Minds https://www.minds.com/lbruno8063/. Instagram @lbrruno8063 and @louisbrunoofficialbook. Our Freedom Book https://www.ourfreedombook.com/thereallouistbruno17. He has written for the Intellectual Conservative and Ephemere. His next series, City of Sand is out now:https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/louis-bruno/city-of-sand/hardcover/product-rke9jz.html?page=1&pageSize=4. Also, if you can’t subscribe so that you can get members only content, please be sure to share the articles, as well. If you do Subscribe, as well so you can get my articles in your inbox every time. Every little bit helps in the war against Big Tech. Thanks for reading.
And now a word from our sponsor: I’m proud to announce that I’m an ambassador to Wolf-Stuff.com. It’s where wolf lovers come to rejoice and find what they need: pillows, rings, accessories, plushies for the kids, but also my favorite are the dream catchers. They have great affordable deals, and they don’t skimp on quality. If you’re a wolf lover, you got to go to www.Wolf-Stuff.com for all your wolf paraphernalia. And they have a blog too. Since I’m an ambassador they are letting my readers get a ten percent discount off their order. Go to wolf-stuff.com, and type in the promo code: Louis Bruno.