I saw this article from another list I am on. This is from a new york
times article.

Steve


Bowdlerized by Microsoft

By MARK GOLDBLATT

   I was hard at the grindstone, crusading against hypocrisy and chaos,
armed with my laptop and Microsoft Word 2000. I'd just typed: "Only a
fool would believe." But "fool" did not seem right. So I hit Shift-F7 to
call up the thesaurus. The lone synonym that Word provided was a verb:
trick.

   Where were the nouns? Where was idiot? I typed "idiot," hit Shift-F7,
and got the message "not found." Then I tried goon. Again, not found. No
luck with ninny, nincompoop or numbskull. Or with nitwit, halfwit,
dimwit or twit. Or dullard, dunce or dolt.

   "Jerk" called up yank, jolt, tug and twitch. "Dummy" produced
mannequin and copy still not what I was looking for.

   So I phoned a friend who also uses Word and asked him to test the
phenomenon. He typed "fool," hit Shift-F7 and was provided a hearty menu
of synonyms that included not just idiot and ninny, but such exotics as
dunderhead and ignoramus. We realized the difference: He was working
with Word 97, not the Word 2000 I was using.

   Concluding that I had found a glitch in the updated version of
Microsoft Word, I decided to inform Microsoft. I called and asked to
speak to Bill Gates, but was directed to a cheerful person named Tim.

   Tim transferred me to Kate, also cheerful, who promised to look into
the matter. Several days later, Kate sent me an e-mail message with an
explanation: "Microsoft's approach regarding the spell checker
dictionary and thesaurus is to not suggest words that may have offensive
uses or provide offensive definitions for any words. The dictionary and
spell checker is updated with each release of Office to ensure that the
tools reflect current social and cultural environments."

   Was the world's foremost software designer worried about offending
dullards, dunces and dolts? Are there actually people out there who
identify themselves that way? Even if so, you wouldn't think they'd
represent Microsoft's target demographic. More troubling, if an acute
sensitivity to people's feelings had winnowed down Word 2000's thesaurus
options, what changes loomed in the future? Word 2000 already changes
"thier" to "their" as I type. Would the next generation evaporate
"moron" from the screen the moment it appeared?

   But maybe this isn't oversensitivity. Maybe it is what postmodernists
call erasure: since language creates reality, if we erase every noun
connoting below-average intelligence, the world instantly becomes a
smarter place.

   Now, if only Microsoft would erase "hypocrisy" and "chaos" . . . .

   Mark Goldblatt, who teaches writing at the Fashion Institute of
Technology, writes frequently about politics. He is the author of the
forthcoming "Africa Speaks," a novel.


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