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novakboskov11/08/20243 repliesview on HN

Nah, we can't. We can't redefine words to make us feel better.

According to Cambridge Dictionary, nepotism is "the act of using your power or influence to get good jobs or unfair advantages for members of your own family." As soon as you favored your kid, it's nepotism, and it's bad. It undermines meritocracy and contributes to an unjust society. It's pretty straightforward to understand.


Replies

chongli11/08/2024

Right, but that definition is so incredibly broad as to include any and all ways you might provide for your children. If you're wealthy and you use your money to buy more expensive, healthier food for your kids then that could be argued to be "using your power or influence to get an unfair advantage for members of your own family" since many other families can't afford that better food.

More broadly, the issue of "unfair advantages" and the demonization of those who have them is explored rather poignantly in the short story Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut [1]. The story takes place in a dystopian future where beautiful people are forced to wear masks to make their faces look ugly, those with beautiful voices have to use devices to make their voices sound awful, and anyone with above-average intelligence has to wear a radio headset which constantly plays annoying and distracting noises to prevent them from thinking too deeply. The title character is forced to endure multiple of these "handicaps", including heavy weights to slow him down and tire him out so that he cannot make use of his athletic gifts.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron

cynicalsecurity11/08/2024

Define unfair.

show 2 replies
johnnyanmac11/08/2024

We do it all the time. Let's see what was added to cambridge this past month:

- fridgescaping

- Fanum tax

- Quit-Tok

- runglasses

- boomerocracy

- appification

And that does include adding definitions to existing words. "Literally" can also be defined by its antonym.