I hope people realize The Atlantic is baiting us to outrage. For the clicks, of course.
No question, these language guides are pretty absurd (at least to someone my age) and have very doubtful moral value... but these are internal guides, for their own communications. It's the Sierra Club's job to figure that out what language their donors/members (potential or current) want to hear. I have no idea if they are getting it right here, but few of us do, because that's highly domain-specific knowledge and tricky to nail down.
It's downright dishonest and sensationalistic to apply one of these guides to a book like Behind the Beautiful Forevers. What does a communications guide have to do with book authorship?
The article is really just an extended straw man argument. BTW, the first sentence of the Sierra Club guide explains it's intended purpose:
> One of the most visible ways the Sierra Club can demonstrate our commitment
to equity, justice, and inclusion is by using respectful, thoughtful language in all of our communications.
But delving into that isn't going to drive a lot of click so they went another way.
A few years ago I quit a job at a large tech company after spending most of a year sanitizing text documents to use politically correct language. This isn't marginal.
No question, these language guides are pretty absurd (at least to someone my age) and have very doubtful moral value... but these are internal guides, for their own communications. It's the Sierra Club's job to figure that out what language their donors/members (potential or current) want to hear. I have no idea if they are getting it right here, but few of us do, because that's highly domain-specific knowledge and tricky to nail down.
It's downright dishonest and sensationalistic to apply one of these guides to a book like Behind the Beautiful Forevers. What does a communications guide have to do with book authorship?
The article is really just an extended straw man argument. BTW, the first sentence of the Sierra Club guide explains it's intended purpose:
> One of the most visible ways the Sierra Club can demonstrate our commitment to equity, justice, and inclusion is by using respectful, thoughtful language in all of our communications.
But delving into that isn't going to drive a lot of click so they went another way.