I decline to join your hyperstitious slur cascade [1].
Your point is well taken: the idea of a cargo cult as described by Feynman never happened quite that way, and likely came from a work of fiction.
But that doesn't take away from the idea of a mechanically correct reproduction of a system that lacks the essential elements.
And I don't see that idea as being colonial or hateful; it's just an idea that relates to two cultures that are not understood by one another.
So thank you for the important point of correction; I learned something from your essay. But I will still understand the term when I hear it, and I will not censor others from using it, or correct them if they choose to do so.
The richness of language is a cultural value, just like tolerance. In this case, I think we can have both.
That was an interesting read, thankyou, and has clarified some of my thoughts in that area.
It amazed me a few years ago now to observe The Guardian in the UK running an article ruminating on whether the term BAME (an acronym for "Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic"), a term which itself had only just about escaped the halls of academia and left-wing journalism, was no longer fit for purpose and should be denied and now considered racist. The dragon was eating its own tail in real-time on that one.
Your point is well taken: the idea of a cargo cult as described by Feynman never happened quite that way, and likely came from a work of fiction.
But that doesn't take away from the idea of a mechanically correct reproduction of a system that lacks the essential elements.
And I don't see that idea as being colonial or hateful; it's just an idea that relates to two cultures that are not understood by one another.
So thank you for the important point of correction; I learned something from your essay. But I will still understand the term when I hear it, and I will not censor others from using it, or correct them if they choose to do so.
The richness of language is a cultural value, just like tolerance. In this case, I think we can have both.
1. https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/give-up-seventy-percent-of-...