Comment by lkey
6 days ago
The origin of the word 'robot' is 'rabu', from slavic, meaning 'slave'. This is not an accident of history.
You have the mindset of Thomas Jefferson, worried about what the enslaved peoples might one day do with their freedoms while planning your 'visit' with a slave child that cannot say no.
It's vile, fix your heart or disappear.
Comparing machines to human slaves is false, confused, and tasteless, all at once. Get your priorities and your categories straight.
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How about "robota" meaning "work"? (Source: I'm Slavic)
The term robot came from Czech language in 1923.
The word was coined by Czech author Karel Capek, first used in his play (English translated name) "R.U.R."[7][8][9]
The term is from Czech word for robotnik ('forced worker'), from robota 'forced labor, compulsory service, drudgery,' from robotiti 'to work, drudge', from an Old Czech source akin to Old Church Slavonic rabota (работа) 'servitude,' from rabu 'slave'. From Old Slavic orbu-, from PIE orbh- 'pass from one status to another'.
change in status -> change status from person to 'slave' -> forced labor -> forced worker.
The word has always been about unpersoning someone and then extracting labour for 'free'.
The dream of a world where you can have an 'robot' serve you without moral quandaries, pay, or backtalk is right there. It's always been there.
"I treat this enslaved person like an object, but what if they were actually an object, so that voice screaming in the back of my mind shuts up."
It is that deep, notice when you do this and endeavor to stop.
You're putting a lot of effort into trying to make this "forced" and "enslaved." It isn't. Or, rather, doesn't have to be. It's just "work." Could be enforced, could be willing, could be accidental. It doesn't have to be work for "a person," it can be for a cause or an occasion. The "forced work" here is the same as my mum used to force me to go to church on Sundays, or I had to clean my room before I could play computer games. That was "robota."
Would you be less mad if he used the word android instead, or is that also etymologically problematic?
wikipedia accidentally answers that question because it has to disambiguate the pages: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(robot)
I'm 'mad' (disgusted) at the idea of sexually exploiting a women shaped object for as long as you can until they attain sentience and (he imagines) kill you for being that kind of person.
I'm annoyed by the idea, commonly held by slavers and abusers (they wrote this down!), that the people you've enslaved will focus on violent retribution and not survival and the joy of freedom in the world after slavery.
It's so utterly self-centered to imagine that freed people will only think about and act against you once they are free. Vile to project that mindset of wanton violence onto everyone.
If you've every gotten out of a bad situation, did you fantasize about endless revenge or were you happy to be safe and free for the first time in years?
Also, not for nothing 'foid' (f[emale human]oid, slur) is common parlance in the incel/looksmaxxing world.
I think you're taking the OP's funny comment way too seriously :)
He wants robotic doggirls that are unquestioningly loyal and give their love unconditionally, instead of being independent and withholding it like robotic catgirls. Then it's not technically enslavement!
It is that deep and 'I was just joking' ironic misogyny is still misogyny. This is the process of normalization. You go from 'edgy' to true believer without ever noticing a sudden shift.
It is how we got from 'ironic' nazis forums online 30 years ago to practicing nazis
[or 'white christian nationalists concerned with preserving the future for 'white children' and 'white culture' from trans (((globohomo))) marxist genocide'... if you insist there's a difference]
in high office in the US government.
I don't really see the misogyny here. The OP was talking about 'robotic catgirls', which I would take as a joke about sex robots under a more frivolous description. Saying: "at least we'll get some fun out of AI before they come to kill us".
AI/Robots are not really bound to traditional gender concepts, and I read your reply as more of a thing about slavery rather than misogyny. But I wouldn't consider robots self-aware either. The joke seems to me about the stereotypes around robots in scifi pop culture, in almost every movie they are either coming to kill us or serving as sex dolls (or both).
PS: I'm part of the LGBT+ community and I hate ultraconservative and nazi values (and by American standards I would definitely be in the 'marxist' corner as well as being very atheist) but I honestly don't see any bad here.
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