• SuperPengato@scribe.disroot.org
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    3 days ago

    Please let’s avoid the term “clanker” here, it’s part of an awful meme that applies racist rethoric and trops to robots. I assume you have no such intention and are just using it as a derogatory term for AI, but please use a term that isn’t tied to these communities.

      • SuperPengato@scribe.disroot.org
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        3 days ago

        I don’t care about AIs, I care that in many of these memes they appear to be used as stand-ins for black people, witg Clanker taking the role of the N-word. I am not offended on behalf of AIs, which I hate, else I wouldn’t be here. I am offended on my own behalf as a black person.

        • ZDL@lazysoci.al
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          3 days ago

          I’m going to take a random shot in the dark here, but … American, right?

            • SuperPengato@scribe.disroot.org
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              3 days ago

              Not every opinion you disagree with is a troll. What I say is well documented. Even if you look at the examples of “clanker” memes on knowyourmemes, it’s clear they’re just roleplaying racism.

              And the point I’m making has been made multiple times by multiple people. here in a 34 minutes video essay Here in the magazine Reveille (which I didn’t know about before searching just now, but I agree with what they say on this specific issue)

              You don’t have to agree with me or with them, but you can’t dismiss it as “trolling”. it’s a genuine view held by many and defended by arguments, some of which I’ve mentioned and none of which you’ve answered to.

              • x00z@lemmy.world
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                3 days ago

                It’s not racism because it’s not about race. It’s disrespect against something that isn’t even alive. Even if it were alive it wouldn’t be discrimination because we dislike the whole and not separate entities because of different characteristics. So I do not agree with you, and I’m not going to waste time clicking those links. I’m dismissing it as trolling because if you truly believe that it’s offensive towards anybody else than the CEOs raking in the cash, that’s completely mental. Or you have an “AI girlfriend”, that’s possible too, and also completely mental.

                • CovfefeKills@lemmy.world
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                  3 days ago

                  I was going to disagree with them but roleplaying racism is exactly what it is. The way people say clanker is exactly the way people say nigg3r. You are choosing to be ignorant and launch ad-hominan attacks at someone trying to appeal to your senses. That is the kind of person you are. Regardless of what is true or false you are not qualified to having discussions of right or wrong in the first place.

                  • x00z@lemmy.world
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                    3 days ago

                    Lmao. It’s derogatory. As it should be. The “racism” claim reeks of media influence. Racism is discrimination based on race. Discrimination is treating people different because of a different characteristic and does not apply to objects that are not alive. Derogatory is to belittle something.

                    Calling this discussion stupid is also derogatory by the way. But that’s what it is. Hence, clanker, a derogatory term for stupid things that should have no value. i.e. “AI”

                • SuperPengato@scribe.disroot.org
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                  3 days ago

                  What do you not get when I say it is NOT on AI’s behalf that I’m getting offended? if anything, it’s you lot that anthropomorphize it. Because talking about a non-human thing you hate doesn’t require a slur. In fact a slur only makes sense for something you treat as a human.

                  I can understand that the use case for “clanker” intended here is just a dismissive term for talking about LLMs. But that is not the way it is used in many of the memes that popularised it. These memes are not about LLMs. They are set in a future where robots act like people and are treated like black people in a segregated state. Memers are roleplaying segregated US or some other racist society, just switching black people for robots, in what is clearly as thinly veiled exercise at racism. You don’t have to trust me or watch the video essay, just look at tghe knowyourmemes page that describes it in a neutral tone. That is what this specific word is tied to. I don’t mind other equally dissmissive words like “slop-machine” or “slop-generator”, because they aren’t used in this way. These are words actually made to refer to LLMs by describing what they do.

                  But using the word “Clanker” will always conjure up thoughts of the type of content that popularised it, even if that is not the intention.

                  • x00z@lemmy.world
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                    3 days ago

                    I have the feeling you’re just offended for the sake of being offended.

                    Fuck the clankers.

                  • ThirdConsul@lemmy.zip
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                    3 days ago

                    But using the word “Clanker” will always conjure up thoughts

                    Only in you. You are the problem here. To the rest of the world clanker = robot = ai.

                  • CovfefeKills@lemmy.world
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                    3 days ago

                    Imagine if a robot was walking down the street holding a bag of something heavy and a mother and child walked past at the same time as the bag broke so the robot steps into the child trying to regain balance. A robot doesn’t have the right to make that kind of mistake, in the same way a drunk person would not have the right to make that mistake. But also in the same way a black person would not be allowed to make the same mistakes as white people.

                    So where is the line are robots allowed to mistaking walk into children because it will happen if they walk the streets with us? Already see videos of them kicking Chinese children… Which is arguably the organisers faults, which is why organisers won’t let robots walk our streets.

                    Maybe we should be actually be racist to robots if apartheid is objectively necessary? We are fenced off from robot machines in factories already right… Where is the line exactly?

              • schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works
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                3 days ago

                Is there any indication that increasing the use of“clanker” makes society more racist? One could argue by finally making the target of a racist-style slur a robot is actually uniting humanity together against a common enemy.

                Will racist appropriate it like they do everything else? Probably, but if that use isn’t semantically dominant, there isn’t a real problem.

                Second, there is a tendency to view hatred negatively. Whether you like it or not, there is a permanent population looking to hate something. If you don’t give them something to hate, your enemies will–and it will likely be you.

    • jim_v@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      https://www.dictionary.com/culture/slang/clanker

      What does clanker mean?

      Clanker is a derogatory term for robots and artificial intelligence that perform tasks once done by humans. (A clanker can technically include everything from a chatbot to the handy robot vacuum in your living room.)

      The 2008 animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, for example, helped to popularize it in online fandom circles, as well as onscreen in the series. Clanker is considered an onomatopoeia, thought to be named after the clanking sound of the metal droids in Star Wars.

      • SuperPengato@scribe.disroot.org
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        3 days ago

        On the very page you link to:

        People use the term clanker both online and in person to comment either seriously or lightheartedly on the rise of AI. Some oppose using the term, however, because they say it perpetuates other slurs throughout history.

        There is also this text shown as an example:

        …with the upsurge of AI and AI-related technology (robots, for example), people have been going around calling said technology “clanker” as a slur… I know it’s probably [just] a joke […] but I can’t help but feel like it’s incredibly tasteless. @Informal_Radish_1891, r/blackladies subreddit, August 1, 2025

        Now that’s interesting isn’t it ? Wonder what Informal_Radish finds so tasteless about it ? Here, I found the post in question. Unsurprisingly, she and some of those who replied echo the same concerns I mentioned.

    • Noja@sopuli.xyz
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      2 days ago

      Are we just attempting to connect a completely unrelated word to racism now in order to be offended now? I hope your next call to some companies support hotline is answered by a fucking clanker.

        • katze@lemmy.4d2.org
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          2 days ago

          How is “spell checker” better than “clanker”? It just swaps one word for the other.

          btw my browser spell checker does not recognize the word “clanker”.

          • SuperPengato@scribe.disroot.org
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            2 days ago

            It changes everything, I didn’t have a problem with what was being said, just with the use of this word.

            I have extensively explained why I find the use of this word problematic, including links that explain this word’s origin and the reasons why it’s controversial, feel free to read my other comments.