The popular language-learning website,
Duolingo, is great for learning languages.
I use it, and I think it's great. Well, I used to. Now it's just "average". Why?
Because they are submitting to the ridiculous gender ideology of the left... and preventing people from discussing it.
Her wife???
Why does it have no comments? Because of the "locked" status (the padlock next to the number of comments).
Duolingo are forcing their users to have gender ideology normalised, and then preventing any discussion about it.
Duolingo has discussion so that people can understand why a particular sentence or phrase has a particular translation... furthering their language knowledge.
But when it comes to forcing their ideology on you... no, you can't discuss
those sentences.
The very fact that they have to lock a discussion is alarming. Why do they even need those sentences? Just have something that everyone will be happy with.
If people are not happy with a man marrying a woman, then the future of the human race is in jeopardy! There is
no controversy with men and women marrying each other. So why create it?
The negative score shows how unappreciated the sentence is. Surely that means it's time to take it off?
Note:
This comment gets a discussion... because it isn't promoting the new gender ideology.
But
this comment doesn't get a discussion.
This comment says it all: one comment about how comments will be deleted... and then the discussion is locked.
Double standards?!?!
I guess "progressivism" isn't open for discussion.
Progressivism = Authoritarian ??
I had found
this discussion which was still allowed. Thankfully, I saved the discussion because... you guessed it! The discussion is now locked, and the comments that were not deemed 'progressive' enough have been deleted.
Here is the discussion:
eighsse
Odd
situation: I'm not complaining about any of these comments one way or the
other. I don't really care about gay or not gay. But why were there already
green upvote markers on all of the pro-gay-inclusivity comments and already red
downvote markers on all of the anti-gay-inclusivity comments when I came here,
as if I had voted on them before? I've had this app for a long time, but I sure
don't remember doing that. ?
OldMansChild
I only see
seven comments in total. You've got more there? Anyway I think duo often
deliberately constructs some odd sentences to impress the learners, so there is
no need to debate around them.
Thomasco3Plus
To be
honest, this sentence is more about political agenda, and the German team
shouldn't be inserting their own political views into language learning.
JWestDEPlus
It's not a political view. It's a statement about
daily life. In the real world. But if you're so insistent on removing politics
from Duolingo, then should they also remove "She is the Mayor?" in
case that offends you too?
Junge645479
It's
language learning. Are you advocating that because someone might disagree with
homosexuality, one should not learn how to refer to it in that new language? On
the contrary, wouldn't it equip the learner with the vocabulary necesarry to express
their disagreement? I exist and I love my husband, you don't have to agree with
it.
BenNew3
What if it
was "she" instead of "he"? Doesn't that also come with an
agenda (of reinforcing heteronormativity)?
BaggyT
Personally,
I think it is all about the politics. Especially with what's going on in the
US. The truth is, if Duolingo stuck with sentences that supported the status
quo, no one would care (except the very extremist fringe... who likely aren't
on Duolingo anyway) and the conversation would stick to discussing the
language. But these sorts of sentences are a deliberate attempt to normalise
'progressive' lifestyles.
I have no
issue with homosexual people because they are people. But I have my own
views on the homosexual lifestyle choice and I don't see why that
ideology should be forced on people who came here to learn a language.
It's not about "well, if they don't have 'his
husband' then they shouldn't have 'his wife' either"... because it's not
about constructing every possible sentence. It's about giving people the tools
to understand and use the language. If a person understands how "his
wife" and "her husband" work grammatically, then they should
have the tools to satisfy whatever gender ideology they want.
Junge645479
I'm gay. I'm
not just a theoretical topic of your discussion. This question is not being
forced on me, it's acknowledging me. I live my entire life seeing others
acknowledged without problem, but whenever I am, it's a problem to many people.
Imagine what living like that might be like. Sorry that I might want something
specifically useful for my everyday life reflected in the thousands of phrases
I'm looking at.
Regardless,
the point of showing this sentence is to show that there isn't a specific word
for gay husband, or some special colloquialism if you want to express a
same-gendered marriage. You can't know that before seeing what the sentence is
as commonly used, because literal translations aren't always the way to go if
you want to sound native. Languages are so full of special caveats that you
need to be exposed to everything, or you're setting yourself back.
You seem like you're offended from the outset and are
rationalizing, and trying to come up with justifications for your preformed
opinion, and in the end it just points out your logical blind-spots.
BaggyT
So, when you
sign up to things online, are you actively looking for those things to
acknowledge your lifestyle?
For me, I
signed up to Duolingo to learn a language, not to be subjected to an ideology.
And sure,
this sort of language might be useful for some people, but does it really need
to be pushed so early in the course? I'm only a short way in. I don't have much
of an issue with alternative lifestyle being talked about later on as a step
towards fluency, but at this stage, there's no need for it at all.
In the
current age of the speedy growth of technology (and population), everyone is
getting lost in the wave, businesses included. It's increasingly harder to
stand out. Companies seem to be trying it by "going woke" because
they think that being at the forefront of this new ideological push is the best
thing for their business. There are many facets of my life that are rarely
acknowledged by websites and businesses. I get over it.
I just want to be able to learn a language without the
rest of the ideological trash. Duolingo said that that's what it was there for.
It seems they are not.
Junge645479
No, I don't expect that when I sign up. Why would I?
I'm sceptical of when companies try to appeal to me purely for their own
gain. The first time I saw a gay Duolingo question (which was months
after I first started, by the way, so it's not early for everyone) I
showed it to my husband, whose reaction was, "geez, Duolingo going for
the PC points."
But the alternative is that companies try to pretend I don't exist. I'm
fine with Sprite never trying to appeal to me, but Duolingo is a
language learning app, and it's supposed to give me ways to communicate.
I'm gay, and the ways I communicate involve referring to my life.
You're upset that you're not gay but there's a gay question, are you
equally upset that (I'm going to assume) you're not a business owner,
but there are questions from the perspective of a business owner? As
someone with a dog, it would be strange for me to say I have no need for
questions about someone with a cat, because the point is not that it
all relates to me or my values, but that it filters the entire world,
and all it might contain, through a new language--because being able to
label things and express the variety of the world is literally the
entire point of a language.
I find it cynical, also, that you frame this all as "trash ideology."
That's a way you get to see it because everything is already geared to
suit you and acknowledge you. My life is my life, and it always feels so
strange to see myself being categorized just so people can either
condemn me or use me for brownie points. In the end, despite whatever
Duolingo's motivation is, your proferred alternative (as I see it) is
that everyone pretends I don't exist, which to me seems just as
ideological, and lacking in those human capacities that should rather be
used as antidotes to cynical, dogmatic thought.
When did Duolingo promise you it would never bring up that gay peple
exist and use language, including German? You know, like I do? I don't
recall, and if you don't like it, you're free to use another service.
And just to pile on, I don't see how you can separate a gay person from
their "lifestyle choice," so I don't know what it is you want if it's
not the complete omission of gay people from all media. I also take
issue with what I see the phrase "lifestyle choice" as commonly
conveying, because it attempts to paint every gay person as a monolithic
entity. I have very little in common with a lot of gay people. When
some don't marry, nor even have relationships, when some are bankers,
some are painters, some are extroverted, some are introverted, some
don't like pride parades, tell me, what is the lifestyle?
If your overall issue is just that it's a company referring to gay
people, why is that worse than them referring to straight people? Can
you give me a logical argument that doesn't stem from some kind of
dogmatism, which, in a supposedly free society, should have no bearing
on me (or on Duolingo) just because you really want it to?
And that's when Duolingo put their authoritarian foot down. As is almost always the case, it seems this person, with their alternative sexual lifestyle, has a chip on their shoulder.
It is unreasonable to demand that all people are supportive of all aspects of your life (especially decisions concerning sexuality), otherwise you'll play the 'victim' card. Sorry. The truth is that all people get an element of respect just for being people. Your actions determine whether you are a nice person or not.
Personally, I know homosexual people who are very nice and good friends. I also know heterosexual people who are devious, liars, and generally not nice people. Sexuality is not the determining factor in any case.
