Making the transition from anthropology to tech, the use of 'cargo cult' in tech really made no sense to me. So at best it's an idiom with wildly different meaning depending on context.
I bristled at this kind of prescriptive language dictum for a long time, but eventually I concluded the rule-of-thumb "don't use derogatory metaphors about other people" is often not hard or that big of a deal. I couldn't give you an alternative for cargo cult, though. It's wild to see the emotions it apparently still triggers on this site, it's not a big deal either way.
> but eventually I concluded the rule-of-thumb "don't use derogatory metaphors about other people" is often not hard or that big of a deal
This is simply untrue.
A couple of decades ago, one could use the hyperbolic euphemism “I would of course be lynched for suggesting such a thing”, completely devoid of any racial animus, because human history is of course rife with instances of lynchings of people of all skin tones and racial origins. But today, a concerted effort has been made to “brand” “lynch” as a term that is “racist against black people—black Americans specifically.” There is no historical reason for this to be the case. The ADL was founded after a Jewish man was lynched because the lynch mob believed him to be guilty instead of a black man, for instance!
Just because a given term or metaphor or euphemism isn't considered offensive-toward-a-certain-class-of-people today, doesn't mean that somebody won't invent a reason for it to be considered to be such tomorrow.
> eventually I concluded the rule-of-thumb "don't use derogatory metaphors about other people" is often not hard or that big of a deal
This is nice. Thanks for putting it so succinctly.
I've been surprised by how strong the push back has been from people about this kind of thing. We're in a weird place culturally when "golden rule" or "default to respectful" approaches are called out as virtue signaling and idiotic. Maybe that's just the impression leftover from the silent middle on both sides not starting a judgmental shouting match so it's just the "only my way can possibly be right" people on both sides of the issue taking up all the air in the room.
I bristled at this kind of prescriptive language dictum for a long time, but eventually I concluded the rule-of-thumb "don't use derogatory metaphors about other people" is often not hard or that big of a deal. I couldn't give you an alternative for cargo cult, though. It's wild to see the emotions it apparently still triggers on this site, it's not a big deal either way.