> Thanks. Noted and corrected.

Looks like it wasn't a clear political statement, and was instead an honest mistake. Let's not get too carried away with this, there's a very real conflict going on and I don't imagine the people being shelled and shot at are particularly concerned about the word "the" right now.

If you read the chain, the clear political statement was by eadmund. But sticking to old terms or naming conventions (or switching to new ones) is often a political statement. It's a powerful way to do it. I mean, look at the people calling COVID-19 "the China virus". Or the people with strong opinions on "blacklist" vs "denylist"

> If you read the chain, the clear political statement was by eadmund.

Ummm, I made no clear political statement, just a linguistic one. I am instinctively conservative, and deeply suspicious of folks who promote change for change's sake. Our language is a lovely, beautiful one and we have spent the last several decades abusing it.

Eh, we've spent the last few hundreds years abusing our lovely language.

And the only reason it ain't longer, is because if you go far enough back, it's different enough that we can't call it our language anymore.

Language evolves and political correctness is just one force amongst many, and not even a new one:

> "Rooster" was originally shorthand for "roosting bird," preferred by the Puritans to the double entendre of the more typical "cock."

From https://www.bonappetit.com/test-kitchen/ingredients/article/...

These days saying rooster doesn't typical indicate any prude leanings by the speaker, even though that's how this change started.