The object is humiliation with enforcing stupidity

Vincent J. Curtis

10 Dec 21

RE: Hamilton stops using the name ‘gypsy moth’ Hamilton Spectator news item 9 Dec 21.

The object of placing the name ‘gypsy moth’ in the category of bad isn’t to protect the sensitivity of authentic gypsies.  It is to humiliate the rest of us.

We are going to be subjected to the humiliation of having our English corrected by bogus claims of the morally pious.  The pious, who hold themselves morally superior to the rest of us, cannot point to a single, authentic gypsy who objects to calling a moth a ‘gypsy moth.’

And what are we to do with the old RCAF trainer aircraft of that name – the Gypsy Moth?

The word gypsy is said to be a term of opprobrium because it is associated with low moral character and with a nomadic lifestyle.  It is most often applied to a race of people called Roma, but to be Roma and to be a gypsy are two different things.  Why a Roma would object to calling a moth a ‘gypsy moth’ beggars the imagination.  The moths themselves simply don’t care.  What are we to do in the case of the German measles?  Does the swine flu have to be renamed because people who were once called swine object?

This isn’t about protecting the sensitivities of the overly sensitive.  It’s about humiliating the rest of us with enforced stupidity.  We’re going to be condemned for our insensitivity by the morally superior who care nothing for our sensitivities.

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