Please add this word to the banned words list

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27 points

Is it still a slur? I think the only time I’ve ever heard it used to refer to a black person was in that dumbass Clint Eastwood movie about the racist guy who loves his car and uses his immigrant neighbors for free labor. I use it to refer to feds, but I’ll stop if it offends people.

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This is silly. Can anyone point me to anyone who could be hurt by “spook”?

Like what is this supposed to address? In case some invader pulls out old timey slurs no user has ever heard that are about as impactful as using slurs from olde english?

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20 points

Yup, completely agree. I’ve already said this in a previous debate about this issue, but if the word “spook” is banned, we pretty much shouldn’t be allowed to use any of the words on this list.

What was that red fruit called again? What kind of animal is a human? Who knows, banned :1984:

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16 points
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reviews list

turns into John Cleese from the self-defense sketch

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7 points

It is not that antiquated of a slur. I know as a fact that it was used up until the 70s at least in pop culture in blaxploitation films. There are people alive today who have had that word used against them

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3 points

It doesn’t even have to be directly hurtful to everyone, it also just makes enough people uncomfortable that it makes sense to advise against using

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Don’t know tbh, so I’ve stopped as well; I’ve only ever seen it used to refer to CIA goons and the like, never heard it used for anything else (though I think some dated literature I read used it as a slur) but it’s not really a biggie to just use something else

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4 points
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You think are beloved intelligence community members who put their lives on the line are g**ns? Do you really mean that? See below:

  1. A generally low ranking member of a gang or syndicate. Typically the recipients of street-level work. These are generally the most disposable members of a organization, built to take the fall in order to protect the higher ups in the case of illegal activities gone awry that have attracted police attention.

You think the CIA is a gang? #cancelled

  1. One who participates in vandalism, loitering, public displays of ignorance, outward obnoxiousness, and other non-socially acceptable practices justified by a directionless but nonetheless strong pack mentality and conformity with other similarly outlandish behaving individuals.

You think the CIA acts professionally and leaves a mess in their wake? #cancelled

  1. An Individual of sub-standard wit or mental competency. commonly identified by a less than reputable character, bad personality, and/or poor taste in personal style.

Don’t be ableist towards the CIA because you are a Russian bot that thinks they have less than reputable character. #cancelled

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5 points
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I tried to do some research because I’m fairly clueless too and what I found is that it comes from a Dutch translation of the word ‘spectre,’ hence the use of the word spooky around halloween, and was later used as a slur against black people circa WWII. Not sure about when it started to be used for spies, but my assumption is that would’ve happened either around WWII or later because intelligence agencies didn’t exist until about that time. Still not sure about the history of how it would’ve jumped from racial slur to term used for spies though so if someone could fill that piece in that would be cool.

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8 points

According to the link below, the first known written use to refer to spies is from 1942. The CIA had not been formed at the time, but its predecessor (the OSS) was around.

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12 points
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12 points

It’s funny because my first guess was that it was a reference to the original ‘ghost’ meaning of the word because of the nature of the work a spy would be doing

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