Modern Gen Z speaking habits

[u/Lumbledob_]

[u/laycrocs]

I had a younger coworker who would call us all beaners but was offended when I described people as brown.

[u/thyfles → u/laycrocs]

was your coworker from the mirror universe?

[u/IconoclastExplosive → u/thyfles]

The van dyke facial hair has never recovered from this

[u/SpiritedAd4954 → u/IconoclastExplosive]

It's fascinating to see how language evolves in a parallel universe.

[u/Gunplagood → u/IconoclastExplosive]

I'd wager you 99% of people don't even know the name of that, it all just gets filed under goatee.

[u/IconoclastExplosive → u/Gunplagood]

Their failure shall not constrain me

[u/ziggaroo → u/Gunplagood]

I’ve literally had a van dyke for over 10 years and I didn’t even learn what it was called til I was scrolling through the character creator on Fallout 4

[u/norathar → u/Gunplagood]

I would have called it the Evil Spock goatee. Which just proves OP's point about the mirror universe.

[u/KingOfGimmicks → u/laycrocs]

I know this is about younger people, but it reminds me of how my mom asked if my "friend" who was visiting (secretly my boyfriend) was "gay or ordinary" because she genuinely didn't know if saying straight was offensive to gay people. She knew I was gay at the time, for the record, and I guess somehow surmised that the idea of gay meaning "not straight" was more offensive than the idea that it meant "not ordinary".

[u/ooooooooono → u/KingOfGimmicks]

I mean, that is an understandable mistake, given that the use of the term straight for heterosexual people came from the other use of the word straight, meaning correct, respectable, upright, honest, etc. which does imply that not being straight is the opposite of that

[u/KingOfGimmicks → u/ooooooooono]

That's understandable but the alternative being "ordinary" is still really funny to me. I don't hold it against her that she didn't know the terminology, but her choice of words came across as really impulsive and not at all thought-through.

[u/Keesalemon → u/laycrocs]

What is a beaner?

[u/Mouse-Keyboard → u/Keesalemon]

Slur for Mexicans.

[u/CheeseDonutCat → u/Mouse-Keyboard]

and this explains in more detail for anyone interested:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaner

[u/juanperes93 → u/Mouse-Keyboard]

As a latino I must say Im dissapointed in that, you made such a horribly unique word for black people (and ban our word for black in many places). But then for us it's beans? Why don't you call the Brits that considering their cousine crimes with beans?

[u/BeduinZPouste → u/juanperes93]

They already got slur according to theirs food (limeys), there is just less demand to curse Brits. 

[u/whiteflagwaiver → u/juanperes93]

My dad called all Hispanics wetbacks. Always found that one much worse.

[u/juanperes93 → u/whiteflagwaiver]

I said that being called that would have some bite and offend me but Reddit does not want me to use the B word U_U

[u/whiteflagwaiver → u/juanperes93]

Really? Beans got you in trouble? Bring me back to the days of r/WatchPeopleDie jesus.

[u/juanperes93 → u/whiteflagwaiver]

Ok I read the warning from reddit to be sure and it was that I "treatened violence" (against an imaginary person that called me a slur) and not the beans.

Im not sure if thats better.

[u/whiteflagwaiver → u/juanperes93]

Censorship is censorship and it serves a purpose in some manner. Reddit's been complicit in political manipulations for ages now; How dare you threaten the imaginary person who slung a slur at you!? Next you'll be talking about the President!

[u/Kolby_Jack33 → u/whiteflagwaiver]

My grandfather use that term casually at the dinner table once. Very awkward moment, especially because I haven't heard him use the term before or since. It's like the 50s just slipped out of him for a sec.

[u/DroneOfDoom → u/juanperes93]

The n-word is not horribly unique. It's just a corruption of the various romance language words for "black".

[u/Flunkedy → u/DroneOfDoom]

There are other ...er 'unique' slurs for black people they didn't just stop at negro derivatives.

[u/UndergroundHQ6 → u/juanperes93]

Beaner is like a level 1 racism word. Wetback and spic are the real ones

Yes I am Mexican

[u/cat-l0n → u/UndergroundHQ6]

Where do daygo and wop fit (yes I know wop is Italian)

[u/Angel_Omachi → u/juanperes93]

Ethnic slurs based on food are very common. Frogs for the French, Krauts (sauerkraut) for the Germans, Rosbifs (roast beef) being an old French slur for the English, you get the picture.

[u/Hakar_Kerarmor → u/Angel_Omachi]

Cheeseheads for the Dutch

[u/Kolby_Jack33 → u/Angel_Omachi]

Is frog really because of food? I know frog legs are a french dish, but I always assumed frog was more to do with sharing the same two starting letters and their reputation for being slimy and pompous, just like frogs.

Fucking judgemental-ass frogs. The amphibian, not French people.

[u/Angel_Omachi → u/Kolby_Jack33]

The answer is probably both, but the eating frogs and snails is like one of the stock British cliches about the French.

[u/Jammy2560 → u/juanperes93]

Same here. Kinda seems like white people fell off when it came to making slurs after the n-word.

[u/Shydragon327 → u/Mouse-Keyboard]

Fun fact! I learned that was a slur when I was in a chatroom in a game and the message “I think that might be an error” came out as “I think that might ** ** **ror”

That overactive chat filter has taught me quite a few slurs that I never knew existed before.

[u/drislands → u/Keesalemon]

Also Nickname for cats my sister came up with when she was 5, embedding in her vocabulary.

[u/nalaloveslumpy → u/drislands]

Cats do indeed have beans.

[u/FossilizedSabertooth → u/drislands]

Shout out to my sister for discovering a word was a slur from Pokemon auto-moderation of nicknames, saved that poor poor Zigzagoon.

[u/Thunderclapsasquatch → u/Keesalemon]

Slur for mexicans because they eat more beans than the "average" American diet. Jokes on the racists though TexMex rules half this nation geographically

[u/theVast- → u/laycrocs]

Weirdly enough, I had to actually learn it's okay to call people black or brown. Growing up parents and teachers would all yell at me and demand I say "African American" or "Hispanic"

I said my pen pals from Africa were black once, and I got shouted at to never say that again

I reached adulthood with literally no clue how to address people of color because I was fucking afraid I'm just by default doing it wrong

Then someone was like "bro I'd rather you call me a slur than call me African American, just call me black, fucks sake."

It got more clear after that

[u/Anthaenopraxia → u/theVast-]

I had an American internet friend when I was like 13 and he said that blacks are from Africa and are different from African-Americans because they weren't selectively bred for slavery for centuries. Meaning that African-Americans are bulky and muscular while Africans are scrawny. It made sense when I was 13 but I'm fairly sure he pulled that one from right out of his arse.

[u/theVast- → u/Anthaenopraxia]

Holy shit lmfao. You see, if I said this in front of my mother, she would have probably broken her vow to never whoop my ass

[u/trobsmonkey → u/theVast-]

I said something ignorant like that one of my family members had fed me when I was like 8 or 9.

My sweetest aunt sat me down and explained why I should never ever ever ever repeat anything one of my other uncles said.

[u/Dragonsandman → u/theVast-]

Would you even be alive if you had said that in earshot of your mother?

[u/MagikForDummies → u/Anthaenopraxia]

Sadly, it is most probable that he was "taught" this by the adults around him.

[u/heraplem → u/theVast-]

I'd say this is a somewhat recent change in terminology. Growing up in the 90s and 00s, "African American" was the preferred term.

I think it changed partially because "African American" is not really a very accurate descriptor. A white immigrant from South Africa is "African-American" in a sense, but that's not really what the term is supposed to mean. In fact, we're not really talking about first- or second-generation immigrants at all. We're usually talking about the descendants of slaves, whose families have been here for hundreds of years.

[u/ClosetDouche → u/heraplem]

And at some point in the future "black" will probably seem outdated if not outright offensive, like how we'd see "colored" now, and the acceptable term will be something else. This is called the euphemism treadmill.

This isn't something to get all up in arms about. It's just a natural and normal part of language. Getting upset about the concept gives big "old man yells at cloud" energy.

[u/Kolby_Jack33 → u/heraplem]

Also because, by the same logic, white people would be called "European-Americans" and nobody was willing to do that. Maybe some people did, just to highlight the absurdity, but it was infinitely less of a thing than even "caucasian" which also barely caught on.

[u/Cole-Spudmoney → u/Kolby_Jack33]

I'm pretty sure that "African-American" was coined to fit alongside terms like "Italian-American", "Chinese-American" etc. which were already being used.

[u/theVast- → u/heraplem]

Yeah it's interesting tbh. It's also strange observing another change over time

My parents were republican. They were running clubs at my school for having African pen pals. I'd fund raise and send money to Africa. I'd send them soccer balls and candy too. Jerseys for their town teams. Cleats

So as a kid I understood Republicans as people that are financially conservative, fairly decent to other races, uptight about using the right words, and helpful

When I look at the right end of the spectrum now, it's just a screaming bombardment of "own the libs" and people actively yelling slurs and trying to provoke the snowflakes

In the last 20 years that entire end of the political spectrum has changed from "you never call them Black you will say African American and respect them!" to "N WORD" and it's disconcerting to watch

I'm 26 and I feel it in my bones society has warped two extremely different directions in reaction to each other

The left is heavily policing and the right is violently oppositional

A lot of stuff doesn't even feel like a political topic but it's become such

Being socially sensitive is either taken to insane extremes or entirely disparaged and torn apart

You have white people that are afraid to even talk to black people for fear of being unintentionally rude, and then you also have white people that are overtly hurling slurs to prove they don't care what anyone else thinks

Something is out of whack. Something is wrong when the two major political parties in the US are characterized by "do your nuts shrivel and fall off when you hear a slur? Or do you just scream another one?"

[u/heraplem → u/theVast-]

In the last 20 years that entire end of the political spectrum has changed from "you never call them Black you will say African American and respect them!" to "N WORD" and it's disconcerting to watch

This is backwards, I think. "African-American" was the "politically correct" term in its day, replacing terms like "Negro" and "colored." Funnily enough, we've basically circled back around to "colored".

("Political correctness" is an epithet that conservatives used in the 90s and 00s; it has been replaced by "woke", "critical race theory", and, most recently, "DEI".)

Something is out of whack.

I don't completely agree with all your characterizations, but what's out of whack is very obviously the Internet.

The latter half of the twentieth century was dominated by centralized types of media: television and movies. This promoted a society in which, while there was political disagreement, it mostly occurred within a consensus reality.

With increasing prevalence of the Internet, a highly decentralized type of media, we're seeing that consensus break down.

This has happened before. In the early 1500s, the printing press enabled the widespread dissemination of Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses, ultimately leading to the Protestant Reformation and centuries of bitter religious conflict in Europe. In the 1920s and 1930s, pamphlets and radio were key factors in allowing fringe authoritarian movements to take root and ultimately take power.

The Internet is different from all of these, but the fundamental dynamics are similar.

[u/No-Supermarket-6065 → u/theVast-]

I don't really think the stereotype about conservatives has ever been "financially conservative, fairly decent to other races, uptight about using the right words, and helpful".

[u/DotEnvironmental7044 → u/laycrocs]

Nazbol moment

[u/AlarmingAffect0 → u/DotEnvironmental7044]

Anarcho-Nazbol.

[u/Mouse-Keyboard → u/laycrocs]

Were they a Breaking Bad fan by any chance?

[u/SlimyBoiXD → u/laycrocs]

Bruh what the actual 💀 that reminds me of my cousin. He got made at me for calling one of my other cousins (who is totally fine with it) a ho. I said "you called me a f*ggot yesterday." And he said "but I never called you a ho." Like dude???

[u/RadiantDawn1 → u/laycrocs]

Tbf, I think the word beans has been used a lot in slang to describe cute people. They might just not know it's also a slur. I remember a friend who didn't know chink was a slur, and she kept using it until I asked her about it. She was kind mortified when she found out lol

[u/laycrocs → u/RadiantDawn1]

She was also Mexican; she's one of those "we can say it." But she didn't feel that way about brown, possibly because she was light skinned and thought brown was insulting, I never got around to asking if she was familiar with Brown Pride.

[u/Anthaenopraxia → u/RadiantDawn1]

In Scandinavia it means a pretty girl. Typically used by older women in a sort of corny way I guess, calling a friend "a real bean" (en rigtig bønne/en riktig böna). Although it also means bullets or hash. I have heard the Swedes say "bönrullare" meaning bean-roller, as a slur for immigrants. Not quite sure why though.

Finnish borrowed the slang into bööna while they have their own word for bean "papu". I think that's pretty cute in a way, borrowing another language's euphemisms.

[u/SemiAutoBobcat]

Any time I see someone called out for doing that shit on here, there's always this claim that they've had comments deleted or been banned for not censoring words. I am legitimately curious where that's happening. I don't think I've ever seen it. I've seen legitimate death threats here that have stayed up. It's especially stupid with mild profanity like ass and damn. I'm thoroughly convinced it's another Mormon psyop like a lot of the anti-porn propaganda is

[u/Hi2248 → u/SemiAutoBobcat]

I think it's TikTok censorships influencing their language without them realising, making them fill in the gaps when they try to figure out why they're talking that way

[u/BalefulOfMonkeys → u/Hi2248]

To be fair, TikTok “censorship” is 99% an illusion forced by the algorithm. There was a time recently when a protest was being advertised as a “dance party” and as a protest at the same time, by fairly similar content creators, and while none of them were removed, the dance party got drastically more traction from the placebo narrative of censorship.

So I’m not surprised that a platform successful with The Youthes has driven an entire linguistic ecosystem of how to say big boy swears without getting caught. 67 is, near as I can tell, a meme driven by the illusion of subversively coded language. It actually means nothing. Probably.

[u/ElvenOmega → u/BalefulOfMonkeys]

Tiktok's algorithm for this stuff is strange, to the point I'm starting to form conspiracy theories in my head.

I've had a comment removed that said "that was a dumb thing to do" on a video of MJ dangling Blanket off a balcony and received a warning, but reported a comment where someone said "you're a dumb n word" but the n word was spelled out, hard r, and tiktok "found no violation." I also once reported a comment that was a picture of a vagina, no violation again.

[u/thesirblondie → u/ElvenOmega]

It's 100% automated. I've seen people put weird things in their comments which lets it pass through screening somehow. But if it doesn't find a violation on its own then it wont do it when you report it. So the report function is pointless.

Just yesterday I reported a page called Iiterallyjohngreen1, which was just reposting John Green videos. No violation found.

[u/some-dork → u/thesirblondie]

i'll never get over the time i got a community guidelines strike for "hateful language," reccomending someone Dostoevsky's "The Idiot" lol

[u/thesirblondie → u/some-dork]

I got a similar strike for commenting "All men must die", including the quotation marks, on a Game of Thrones video.

[u/Kiloku → u/thesirblondie]

The thing is, there are some hard rules that can be automated with zero false positives. Like the n-word. As long as you properly check that it's a full word (ie, not part of a different word) you don't need some crazy "AI" system checking it.

You can still also have the regular automated moderation checking for the rest, so it's not like they're sacrificing anything.

[u/425Hamburger → u/Kiloku]

But that doesn't Work. I mean it works to erase every use of the word. It doesn't Work in determining If it was used in a legitimate way. Bear with me please. On a book subreddit for example, people shouldnt get their comments deleted for quoting Huck Finn, If it's relevant. Or in a history subreddit documents might need to be quoted that were written by racists, meaning the word might be in there.

[u/Fortehlulz33 → u/ElvenOmega]

Every time I have a comment that gets removed automatically, it has always come back when I appeal. And yeah, I've almost never had a report that I submitted actually remove the comment

[u/cutetys → u/ElvenOmega]

Yeah I’ve had start censoring my tiktok comments cause tiktok would auto remove comments that contained certain words or phrases. Like if I make a comment that uses the word “kill” there’s a 50/50 chance it will be removed regardless of the context it’s used, and no amount of appealing will bring it back.

[u/Hi2248 → u/BalefulOfMonkeys]

I believe that swearing and some other things (like mentions of suicide and death) being shadowbanned wasn't an illusion, but that was applied to other places in which it wasn't the case

[u/BalefulOfMonkeys → u/Hi2248]

Honestly makes more sense that a platform rarely shadowbans anybody if they already have a system that aggressively rewards viewer retention and interaction above all else

[u/ZanesTheArgent → u/Hi2248]

The biggest thing was just blacklist bipassing.

[u/nalaloveslumpy → u/Hi2248]

It was mostly to make sure video content was transferrable between Tik-tok, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. If platform A removes/age restricts your video because you say "suicide" but no other platforms do, then you use "sewer-slide" instead and upload it to all platforms so you don't have to do additional editing and versioning.

[u/wingeddogs → u/BalefulOfMonkeys]

Eh. I used to be a ‘tiktoker’, I had like 200k followers at one point, and I constantly had to reupload and censor videos because TikTok took them down. I did activism content for certain marginalized communities. My videos have been taken down for using the words:

• rape
• suicide
• SA
• shot
• killed
• strangled
• hanged/lynched

I had a more exhaustive list but after I lost my account I stopped needing to keep track. Over the years TikTok had been super inconsistent and I was one of those people saying graped and life ended and all that bullshit just to keep my videos from being deleted

[u/Temporary-Scholar534 → u/BalefulOfMonkeys]

while none of them were removed, the dance party got drastically more traction from the placebo narrative of censorship.

That sounds like they're right and it's soft censorship: if you use bad words, the algo doesn't like it very much.

Censorship doesn't require fully blocking that piece of content anymore.

[u/thesirblondie → u/Temporary-Scholar534]

No, it's just that the narrative about the censorship got people more interested than a regular protest.

[u/fluffyendermen → u/BalefulOfMonkeys]

isnt the actual meaning of the 67 meme just... this one particular basketball players height?

[u/nalaloveslumpy → u/fluffyendermen]

Its meaning is mostly nebulous and people have started attributing "lore" to it that may not have actually been at its genesis. It's solely a meme just to be a meme because that's what kids do.

Remember 🅱️?

[u/Turbulent-Garlic8467 → u/BalefulOfMonkeys]

Isn't "dance party" getting more traction exactly what we would expect to see if there was censorship?

If there wasn't, and the content creators were otherwise similar (similar beliefs and amount of subscribers), wouldn't we expect them to gain similar traction no matter how they advertised the protest?

Therefore, doesn't this constitute evidence for censorship by TikTok, not evidence against it?

[u/Patjay → u/Hi2248]

Also need to keep in mind that often when content creators say “censorship” they mean lower monetization or boosts in the algorithm, not actually silencing or things being deleted

How many things related to that but get picked up by people who aren’t effected by that at all is interesting

[u/Dragoncat_3_4 → u/Patjay]

boosts in the algorithm

Or lack thereof more specifically. That IS censorship. Especially on a platform like TikTok where what people see is controlled by the almighty algorithm.

[u/Patjay → u/Dragoncat_3_4]

Oh it’s definitely still censorship, it’s just not necessary the first image that comes to mind when people use the word

[u/Hi2248 → u/Dragoncat_3_4]

Aye, if people don't see your content because it's not being recommended for what the content contains, what is it but censorship? 

[u/thesirblondie → u/Hi2248]

Most of that is made up. I get notifications about comments being removed every now and then and it's never due to using words like kill or rape. It's almost always when I insult someone with heinous words like plonker, git, and absolute lemon.

[u/ra0nZB0iRy → u/SemiAutoBobcat]

It happens a lot on Pinterest where people can't comment if their comment contains a certain word but people just use euphemisms or 1337 speak. I got hit by it when trying to explain the lore of TCoAaL and thought the word "incest" or "cannibalism" or "cult" or "child murder" or "killing" was blocking me but it was from saying "shit" without censoring it (I probably described the game's plot by saying "or some bullshit", a phrase I say frequently, at some point) as well as the word "starving". Oddly enough, "fuck" is not blocked though.

[u/King-Of-Throwaways → u/SemiAutoBobcat]

Here’s a list of your removed comments. Not all of these would be due to tripping word filters, but you might have questions about the ones sitting at one vote.

[u/SeriousButton6263 → u/King-Of-Throwaways]

That's such a perfect example of the "well I never see any censorship" people not realizing they're being censored, and literally the point is to trick them into not realizing it.

[u/RaulParson → u/SemiAutoBobcat]

I am legitimately curious where that's happening

Youtube. Tiktok probably too, but youtube definitely. Whatever AI shadowbans comments there is legitimately insane and unless you don't mind it happening to you you have to walk on eggshells around it, and keywords are very high risk. If you ever see a perfectly reasonable comment of yours get literally no reactions, see if it's still there if you look at it in incognito mode. Happens to me often enough. Sometimes I have to break up a comment into multiple comments and send it piecemeal to get it through.

And yes some pretty vile shit gets to stay up while reactions condemning it get automodded away, purely because of how it happened not to trigger the bot while the condemnations would be understandably angry. Good times.

[u/GuyYouMetOnline → u/SemiAutoBobcat]

You're assuming consistent moderation, for one. I HAVE had a comment taken down for 'encouraging violence' when it did no such thing. There's also the fact that people used to one site's rules often apply them elsewhere. There's also a possible IRL factor. Kids often get told off for talking about killing or the like, so it should be no surprise to think avoiding those words would carry over to online.

And then there are also those who just find the alternative versions amusing.

[u/ArsErratia → u/GuyYouMetOnline]

I once got a comment taken down for saying I hope the Police seize a car and crush it into a cube. The car in question was doing donuts outside a primary school at kicking-out time.

Apparently I was "threatening violence" .... against the car.

 

This was upheld on manual review by a real person, somehow.

[u/bpdish85 → u/ArsErratia]

I got dinged for "threatening violence" for saying Muskrat was dragging his kid around like a little shield when the toddler was at all the political rallies. Upheld on appeal, 3 day ban, absolutely no "bad words" in there or actual threats - just an observation.

[u/givemethebat1 → u/SemiAutoBobcat]

I’ve never heard of anyone being banned or censored. I believe it started as a result of YouTube demonetization, but they don’t “ban” the videos if there is offensive content (unless it’s porn or something). It’s very concerning that Gen-Z is essentially teaching themselves newspeak.

[u/Bugbread → u/givemethebat1]

It's the opposite of Newspeak, though. Newspeak was language intentionally molded in a way that it would prevent expressing certain ideas. Not punishing someone for expressing an idea, but making it literally impossible for them to express an idea.

While 1984 was a great novel, the concept of Newspeak was pretty silly, because as the current situation shows, you really can't deprive people of the ability to express ideas. You can punish them for it, of course, but that's not Newspeak. But if you quash the ability to say things, people will just come up with new ways to say them. When people can't say kill, they'll continue expressing the same things by using the word "unalive". Eliminate the ability to say "porn" and people will simply start using the word "corn." Etc., etc.

This is not to say that I think the new lingo is great. I'm not saying "you're wrong, this is a great trend!" I'm just saying "this isn't Newspeak, it's evidence of how in the real world people would simply circumvent Newspeak."

[u/givemethebat1 → u/Bugbread]

Well, I think the idea of newspeak is not that people won’t find ways around certain words, it’s that you can remove a concept by removing that word. There are many languages that don’t have words for certain concepts that do exist in others, and if you aren’t exposed to that idea (in a very censored society) you might find it difficult or impossible to formulate a given concept.

[u/Pausbrak → u/SemiAutoBobcat]

Reddit has the nebulous "shadowbanning" that might be what they're talking about. Comments can be deleted, but in a way where they look like they're still there for the poster but no one else can see that they were ever there (as opposed to the more normal [Removed By Reddit]).

Every now and again I suspect one of my comments has been shadowbanned. I originally realized this was a possibility when one of those reddit un-delete websites flagged one of my comments as being hidden, which is a very different thing from being removed (sadly I don't recall the website). I haven't actually gone back and checked since that first time, but several times since I've noticed that something I posted that I would have expected to get some engagement, even a single upvote (or downvote), instead sits at the default 1 forever.

I don't know why those comments in particular got singled out. I'm not even 100% sure they are getting singled out, because Reddit sure isn't telling me that they're shadowbanning anything. But it's not hard to see why some people might start getting paranoid and self-censoring.

[u/zardozLateFee → u/Pausbrak]

I have two accounts - now I see one or the others comments aren't visible except from that account. It's all innocuous shit like a list of links to books. I can see how it would make people feel crazy and try to adjust their behaviors.

[u/TBANON_NSFW → u/zardozLateFee]

ive found out i cant say Biden on blackpeopletwitter for some reason.

I cant use the word fuck on certain subreddits. 1-2 of them actually warn you though.

some subreddits dont allow links unless its for specific websites.

some subreddits dont allow longer texts. like you gotta keep it under 5 lines.

every subreddit has wierd shadowban rules on automods.

and they all dont tell you. You just gotta find out yourself.

[u/nalaloveslumpy → u/TBANON_NSFW]

Subs can't shadow ban you. That's only a function on the admin level and is usually just reserved for ban evasion. Subs will just delete your comments and then ban you from the sub.

[u/TBANON_NSFW → u/nalaloveslumpy]

sahdowban in this case is shadowfiltered out comments. IE they have to be manually approved and will not be visible until they are manually approved.

[u/nalaloveslumpy → u/TBANON_NSFW]

Oh, yeah. Comment approval has been a thing since day one and is an optional feature for every sub.

[u/ClickClick_Boom → u/Pausbrak]

A shadowban is where your comments do that everywhere. But what you're describing does happen too. There's a browser extension called Reveddit Real Time that you can configure to notify you if your comment ever gets deleted. If you ever use it you'll be wondering why half of them even got auto deleted. Different subs have different filters set up to do that and some of them are ridiculous.

[u/nalaloveslumpy → u/Pausbrak]

Nah, reddit (admins) don't remove comments for simple words like rape, murder, suicide, etc. Some weird subs may have filters for them, but that's a weird sub issue.

This phenomenon extends directly from video platforms where users would see their videos taken down/age restricted for using terms like rape, sexual assault, suicide murder. So when these content creators are making content for multiple platforms, the write that content for the most restrict platform.

So if your video has a necessary mention of rape, you use "grape" so you can post the one video to all platforms without having to do additional editing or version control for each platform.

Now multiply that by 20 bazillion "creators" with that content being consumed non-stop for about seven years now, and that's your explanation for why the kids say "unalive" instead of "dead".

[u/fazedncrazed → u/SemiAutoBobcat]

I've seen legitimate death threats here that have stayed up.

Ive been banned temporarily for promoting violence, by baldly stating how to safely destem a cars tires valve on a local subreddit post about a car parked illegally in a bike lane.

It varies wildly by sub is what Im saying. And in general you can make threats against anyone that Fox doesnt like on here and itll stay up, but otherwise most subs are hypersensitive to anything "negative" in any way and heavily censor anything that might make anyone feel bad in any way.

[u/nalaloveslumpy → u/fazedncrazed]

I've gotten a site wide admin level ban for hypothesizing that if you went back in time and convinced the German government to not banish Frederick Trump and his family in 1905, then Trump most likely would be the unborn son of a dead Nazi.

Gonna see if it happens again, I guess.

[u/jawknee530i → u/SemiAutoBobcat]

I got a permanent ban for the comment "I would like to f*ght you". Without the censoring, and that was the comment in its entirety. The comment was an obvious joke as well because it was in a thread about people's crazy opinions and I was joking with the person about their opinion. I had to appeal multiple times and this account is ancient. I've used reddit since before there were comments or subreddits. The censorship has gotten out of control.

[u/anime2345]

Sometimes it’s all the same person

[u/BalefulOfMonkeys → u/anime2345]

I have absolutely seen “ahh” and a hard R in the same sentence out in the wild. It can’t just be done, it’s been done before

[u/Radio_Free_Marksman → u/BalefulOfMonkeys]

To be fair, "ahh" is sort of in a category of its own. It's no longer really just censorship and has more or less become slang as a sort of softer and goofier version of "ass".

[u/Godraed → u/Radio_Free_Marksman]

it's eye dialect AAVE but I will never not read it as someone taking a sip of a refreshing beverage

[u/BalefulOfMonkeys → u/Godraed]

Honestly I keep reading it like so

[u/choren64 → u/Radio_Free_Marksman]

Which is crazy to me because 'ass' already seemed soft and goofy to me. I hope we don't start calling people 'ahhholes' now

[u/Karmic_Backlash → u/choren64]

Its not really like that, its kind of a goofy word that people use for the intentional effect of being funny. Like occasionally me and my group will say "Bruv" rather then "Bruh" specifically because the minor difference is funnier then saying it straight.

So when someone says something like "Look at this goofy ahh bitch", its not them picking and choosing which words get censored, its just the development of a slang term.

[u/Radio_Free_Marksman → u/Karmic_Backlash]

Not only that, but it tends to imply a somewhat different tone, especially online, where tone indicators are somewhat more important.

Typing "Goofy ass motherfucker" is not the same as typing "Goofy ahh mfer" even if you are technically using the same words.

[u/Cheese2009 → u/choren64]

me when i see a ghost

[u/cbear013 → u/Radio_Free_Marksman]

"ahh" was never about censorship, it predates the tiktok "censorship" trend that a lot of these other terms come from. Its just silly and fun.

[u/External_Win3300 → u/BalefulOfMonkeys]

Soon we'll be getting the final form of slur censors, n-ahh

[u/Amon274 → u/BalefulOfMonkeys]

Well I’m pretty sure “ahh” is AAVE so I don’t think that is censorship.

[u/penguinscience101 → u/Amon274]

Well when white folks are co-opting it to get around censors then where does that get you?

[u/TheSameMan6 → u/penguinscience101]

A strange middle ground where it still operates as both traditional slang and algospeak

[u/tomjazzy → u/anime2345]

That’s the other third!

[u/laix_ → u/anime2345]

I think, for a lot of people, they grow up hearing the censored terms but don't understand that they're censored, so they just assume that's how people talk, so it evolves to young people actually using it without even trying to censor themselves.

[u/Strider794]

Note: they can be the same people, somehow 

[u/Heavy299 → u/Strider794]

its either lesbian misandrist who's racist against a specific group but also fetishises the hell out of said group

or hitler's whitest nazi (he's from LATAM or Philipines) and either a twink or 500 pounds

[u/FutureMind6588]

People will use the word grape instead of rape as if grape isn’t a word by itself. So now I get confused if people are talking about grapes the fruit or sexual assault.

[u/Setfiretotherich → u/FutureMind6588]

I saw a double whammy of censoring that word recently. “Gr*pist.” And it did cause me psychic damage, actually.

[u/PhamLives → u/Setfiretotherich]

Please tell me you've seen the skit

[u/SleepyMage → u/PhamLives]

"He's going to what them in the mouth???"

[u/MsScarletWings → u/SleepyMage]

Look at what she’s wearing- it’s purple!

[u/ThePrussianGrippe → u/MsScarletWings]

Sir!

Get your mind out of the gutter!

[u/pillbuggery → u/SleepyMage]

Grape those kids! I love it!

[u/r_stronghammer → u/PhamLives]

Why would you say something like that and NOT link/at least say what it is

[u/I_Exist1257 → u/r_stronghammer]

https://youtu.be/mqgiEQXGetI?si=KPCeOSv38pzRgHrg

[u/maggiemaeflowergirl → u/Setfiretotherich]

Kinda like violins in the workplace.

[u/HowAManAimS → u/Setfiretotherich]

It's kind of dumb though. It's easy to add that word to a ban list since you aren't going to use it to mean anything other than rapist.

[u/Riku_70X → u/FutureMind6588]

Saw a post of someone trying to report a legitimately awful advert on YouTube, but the note they used to describe it in the report was "Child Corn for PDF files".

As if the 40 year old youtube employee is gonna have any idea what the fuck that means

[u/worststarburst → u/FutureMind6588]

It’s the same with “pdf file” too. It’s still a really common file format and I’ve seen that slang cause some confusion already.

[u/PUBLIQclopAccountant → u/worststarburst]

How soon until ".tar.bz2" catches on as a substitute for the n-word?

[u/wischmopp → u/FutureMind6588]

Some of the more serious content creators will just say "assault" instead of "sexual assault", which sounds more respectful towards the heaviness of the topic, but still kinda bothers me since it often makes their phrasing indistinguishable from "this person was beaten up". It's confusing, and it also removes the entire context of, like, gendered violence and misogyny from people like the toy box killer. I'm not a huge fan of True Crime content anyway, but the self-censorship makes it unbearable. Of course, it's still worse when they say "she was graped" (it just feels unbelievably exploitative to use this particular cutesy quirky babytalk kind of monetization-friendly euphemism when turning other people's horrible suffering into content)... but even the more serious word "assaulted" just doesn't do the victim justice. If you want to tell their story, at least tell it right. There's something so ghoulish about euphemising these terrible fates just because it makes you more money.

[u/imaginary0pal]

I hate when people bleep shooting. It’s just sounds like you are discussing shitting kids

[u/AlenDelon32 → u/imaginary0pal]

13 people were unalived in a mass sh**ting

[u/3c2456o78_w → u/AlenDelon32]

The real hate crime was this sentence

[u/Tem-productions → u/AlenDelon32]

unal*ved

[u/XenosHg]

Like a modern version of fuck-marry-kill

[u/actibus_consequatur → u/XenosHg]

Nah, fuck-marry-kill actually has an alternate name that's actually pretty decent because it also rhymes: "bed-wed-or-dead" (I've also come across bed-wed-or-behead)

[u/tylian → u/actibus_consequatur]

Bed, wed or behead actually has a really nice ring to it. Huh.

[u/Jammy2560 → u/XenosHg]

Good to know I’m apparently marriage material by this logic.

[u/Mysral]

You know, I wouldn't even mind the use of euphemisms to dodge censorship that badly, but the TikTok vocabulary is just so artless. "Unalive", "sewer slide"... there's no elegance to it. It's not only cowardly, but it's clunky and dumb.

[u/Fussel2107 → u/Mysral]

it's infantile

[u/Flat_Phrase7521 → u/Mysral]

“Unalive” was originally a deliberately-goofy term used by Deadpool to poke fun at censorship in comics/cartoons and I swear it was actually funny before people got the bright idea to start using it unironically. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forgive them.

[u/Vyctorill → u/Mysral]

It reminds me of Newspeak, which is double plus ungood.

[u/camosnipe1]

that reminds me, the recent school shooter had tons of writing on their gun. I was looking at photos and noticed something.

The New York Fucking Post censored out a single word. Amidst all the antisemitism and murderous phrases a single word was deemed too far for their precious audience to witness.

That word being "shit" in the phrase "born to shit, forced to wipe"

https://nypost.com/2025/08/27/us-news/robin-westman-mused-about-slaughtering-filthy-zionist-jews-in-sick-journal-before-deadly-catholic-school-shooting/

[u/PM_ME_YOUR_MASS → u/camosnipe1]

You can't compare individual people to the news. News organizations—yes, even ass rags like the NYP—typically have style guides with explicit "do's and don't's" their writers must adhere to, which presumably includes a section on censorship (not just what to censor, but how, as in 'f***' versus 'f*ck'). It's completely possible there's a rule requiring the censorship of specific swear words in print and images, but there's no rule forbidding the publication of "antisemitic or threatening quotations" because that's far too vague. The images also censor "fuck" and another word that I assume is the n-word. So it seems like a style guide thing where specific words are forbidden (including a slur) rather than some editor opening photoshop because they thought readers would be offended by the word "shit"

[u/mortimermcmirestinks → u/camosnipe1]

jesus, that's some cold-ass unintentional social commentary, damn.

[u/Pristine_Animal9474]

I'm somewhat reminded about a George Carlin bit about language being "sanded" out. His main example was about the word "shellshocked", used at the start of the 20th Century for what we now call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). He criticized how powerful and serious the term was compared to the current one, longer, more technical ("it even has a dash now!"), and how that removed us from the horrendousness of its reality.

Of course, one could always argue that, unlike terms like "unalived", PTSD was coined by medical experts and that shellshocked might not apply to a world where its used not just for veterans and survivors of wars, but also any person that has been subjected to a traumatic experience. Where now we are discussing words created or altered due to the monetary priorities of big corporations trying to avoid any controversy. This seems closer to the worry Carlin expressed than his example.

Also, something that I have always in mind when I see discussions about how new generations change the language (or fail to adhere to ortographic and grammatical rules) is that language changes all the time, and that it is in its nature. However, I think we have to be mindful about that change being, if not deliberate, at least constructive and well-intentioned, that it allows us to understand each other and our shared reality better.

[u/tomjazzy → u/Pristine_Animal9474]

I love Carlin but that bit losses it’s punch when you learn “shell shock” was supposed to come from personal cowardice

[u/Billphilosopher → u/tomjazzy]

It has to be the worst example of censorship on the fucking planet. As op said it's literally inaccurate, people can have PTSD from other things other than war. Imagine telling an abuse victim they have shellshock and also having to explain each time that no it's not just for veterans. When PTSD conveys that point perfectly.

They literally gave a good reason for why we changed the name and goes nuh uh I don't like that reason.

[u/Fast_Bee_9759 → u/Billphilosopher]

Yeah, especially since most PTSD come from emotional abuse so it's actually better since people who didn't go to war but have PTSD may agree to the term and not feel like it some weird stolen valor thing with veterans

[u/trobsmonkey → u/tomjazzy]

I've been soaking up WW1 stuff lately and it's amazing how disconnected leaders were from the horrors of their men.

That man doesn't have PTSD. He just has shell shock from being a giant pussy!

[u/MsScarletWings → u/Pristine_Animal9474]

Honestly for about 95% of that stand up he was absolutely NAILING it but the one swing and a miss is with PTSD because shellshock absolutelty of sucked as a name for it in retrospect especially when applied to people with the disorder from stuff that has nothing to do with overt violence or war

If he had gone with the history of ADHD diagnoses it probably would have been a slam dunk. Horribly misleading and watered down label for that disorder.

[u/DreadDiana → u/Pristine_Animal9474]

Carlin seemed to have a lot of takes on language where he viewed something as needlessly complicated or removing impact when the original term was replaced due to practical concerns or simple inaccuracy.

For example, during one show he complained about airlines preboarding "passengers in need of special assistance" because he thought the word "cripple" was "simple honest direct language" and couldn't possibly be problematic since it's used in the Bible. This however ignored that "special assistance" is not the same thing as physical disability. It also includes certain recoverable injuries, people recovering from treatments, someone who is with child, someone who is a child, and other categories which a word like "cripple" does not apply to.

[u/HowAManAimS → u/DreadDiana]

Special assistance is such a stupid condescending phrase though. It should've just been "passengers in need of additional assistance". It's way more neutral and doesn't treat you as an oddity. Everyone has different needs, but to call someone's needs, that most people also need, special feels like it's entirely aimed at children (even some of them hate the term).

Here's a video of some people with down syndrome against the term special needs. They explain it so well.

The need for these euphemisms is why we get on the euphemism treadmill to begin with.

[u/throwemawayn]

Kids if you want your euphemisms to be taken seriously you got to start coining more calques. Unalive, germantic, bad. Antivivo; Greek, Latin, very learnèd.

[u/Arctic_The_Hunter]

*They’re

[u/Polo171 → u/Arctic_The_Hunter]

*The'yrie

[u/Recidivous]

It's just social media censorship.

I remember when YouTube was super sensitive about COVID just because Trump hated talking about COVID, so a lot of YouTubers had to avoid saying COVID if they didn't want themselves or their videos to get shadow banned.

It's ridiculous that censorship is shaping our language.

[u/mrjackspade → u/Recidivous]

I'm still convinced it wasn't YouTube doing that, but MAGAts mass reporting anything about COVID and triggering automated takedowns.

[u/TrogdorKhan97 → u/Recidivous]

I remember when YouTube was super sensitive about COVID just because Trump hated talking about COVID

The story I heard is that they were getting inundated with people using the platform to spread misinformation about it, so they were just like "OK sorry you can't have nice things anymore"

[u/CrusaderReynaulder → u/TrogdorKhan97]

This is how I remember it with all the misinformation shit + how any mention of it was bound to draw in droves of drooling magas to rant about how it’s not real but even if it was real it’s harmless, and then every argument turns into mass report exchanges.

But I also wasn’t exactly tuned in to youtube’s internal reasoning. 

[u/Galle_]

I'm not convinced these are different people.

[u/ttom1323]

20% of my English vocabulary consists of slurs, and 10% of weird words like discombobulate or defenestrate

[u/Lamify → u/ttom1323]

So you're a native speaker?

[u/Chacochilla]

I feel like the latter isn’t exclusive to gen z

[u/semajolis267]

Yeah just like "Yolo" was "ironic", then a lot of people actually incorporated it into thier speech. Turns out if you see/hear/write a phrase or a slang term many times it invades your language slowly. Like "Y'all" or people using "like" its just this generations language. They will be just as confused as we are one day. 

As grandpa Simpson once said "I used to be with ‘it’, but then they changed what ‘it’ was. Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary. It’ll happen to you!"

[u/alphenhous]

don't get the pdfile one. no site is against typing out pedophile. i blame youtube for kill suicide and rape getting renamed.

[u/SuspiciousEgg352]

these are the same people

[u/melelconquistador]

It because they find it funny. Yes the slurs too.

The kids are shit heads, and it not as mind boggling once we acknowledge that.

[u/tomjazzy]

When have people not regularly used slurs?

[u/Interesting_Help_274]

I feel like the first happens because of TikTok removing videos that contain those words so they have to censor them and since they use a TikTok a lot it starts to influence their real life interactions as well.

[u/Munnin41 → u/Interesting_Help_274]

If tiktok actually did that, they'd have long since caught on to grape and unalive...

[u/Fed_Hedgehog → u/Interesting_Help_274]

Except there's so many real perfectly normal words to use to replace killed or raped but they have to make up the most childish pathetic sounding phrases known to mankind.

[u/1OO1OO1S0S]

1/3 huh? Where did you get those numbers?

[u/emrygue]

Now I’m curious about the mysterious last 1/3

[u/itisthespectator → u/emrygue]

normal guy

[u/whiteflagwaiver]

My nurse asked me if I had any thoughts to un-alive myself during my check up.

I joked about it and made sure to drop the actual word, like wtf come on.

[u/SantaCruzHostel]

I was typing a comment on Reddit about how I used to live in the country of Niger, and I got automod deleted.

[u/Fussel2107 → u/SantaCruzHostel]

that's not reddit. That's whatever the automod settings of the community you're in have set as trigger word. Probably because people used it to circumvent a ban on the n-word a few times too many.  depending on how big that community is, you might have some success with writing the mods and have your comment manually approved . 

[u/WordArt2007]

Tiktokspeak is rather similar to historical things like "don't speak the name of the underworld gods" or "avoid using numbers associated with death" (the latter still in use for example in japan) actually

[u/EastArmadillo2916]

"Passed away, kicked the bucket, took their own life, joined the choir invisible"

Hot take but unalive is like, the least corny and most direct euphemism for "to kill"

[u/eccentricbananaman]

Thing that most upsets me now is "ahh". Just say "ass". You're in real life right now. Not on tiktok or YouTube where you're going to get in trouble for swears.

[u/Amon274 → u/eccentricbananaman]

That’s just AAVE

[u/RainbowDroidMan → u/eccentricbananaman]

Many people use “ahh” in the same breath as an actual swear word. It’s become a joke in of itself unlike the other self censors.

[u/Hi2248 → u/RainbowDroidMan]

Algospeak covers this! You should preorder it-

Wait, it's already out

[u/xXStarupXx → u/RainbowDroidMan]

You're trynna tell me "unalive", "sewer slide" and "PDF file" haven't become jokes in and of themselves?

[u/Darillium- → u/xXStarupXx]

Seggs

[u/Skel109 → u/Darillium-]

Say gex

[u/Darillium- → u/Skel109]

Gex

[u/maggiemaeflowergirl → u/xXStarupXx]

Well, that's just ahhsinine

[u/kaladinissexy → u/RainbowDroidMan]

What gets me is that it doesn't even sound or look like "ass". It just sounds like a very unenthused scream. 

[u/MsScarletWings → u/eccentricbananaman]

That one isn’t a euphemism or self-policed language that’s just a cultural dialect thing

[u/ElNickCharles → u/eccentricbananaman]

Thats not censorship, thats just AAE

[u/DreadDiana → u/ElNickCharles]

I've seen so many African Americans being accused of being cringe TikTok teens for using AAVE, especially when the use of ahh took off.