170
X accused of giving racists ‘impunity’ after refusing to bar N- and P-word posts
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2026
170 points (93.8% liked)
Technology
85619 readers
3334 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Yeah "fag" is fine in context such as: "I'm just nipping out for a fag" "Can I bum a fag?"
But you can't say it to, or about, a person, well, unless you're a homophobe.
'faggot' is almost always a slur though, you'd better be in that rare circumstance where you're very clearly referring to a bundle of sticks otherwise, no.
I guess 'nip' is also occasionally a racist slur for Japanese, but normally quite innocent; just something quick. or a pinch, or a wee dram.
Vaguely related, you might be interested in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polari. A few British slang terms migrated out of queer-creoles into more mainstream usage , possibly via popular radio and tv.
Fancy a fag?
What? You're a fag!
No mate. Fag means cigerette.
You're a cigerette!
A British comedian friend living in the U.S. used to (15-ish years ago) have a joke about asking a guy outside a bar in middle America if he could bum a fag.
He would impersonate the most southern accent he could muster and say “I don’t care. Ain’t no business of mine.” As part of a joke about cultural differences/how the U.S. could be unexpectedly wholesome.
Never asked if that was a true story. We fell out awhile ago.
oh yes I will be looking at that, thanks!
edit: Another one (please someone correct any parts of this that are wrong). I believe in Korean "you" or some other way of addressing people sounds quite similar to the n-word.
quick edit 2: though I guess different languages don't really count in quite the same way, its similar though.
Clarkson got in trouble for noticing a slant on a bridge. I didn't even realise he was being offensive.
Nothing wrong with a good helping of faggots.