Post #3351385

2026-06-11 14:44 UTC

What do you not get when I say it is NOT on AI's behalf that I'm getting offended? if anything, it's you lot that anthropomorphize it. Because talking about a non-human thing you hate doesn't require a slur. In fact a slur only makes sense for something you treat as a human. I can understand that the use case for "clanker" intended here is just a dismissive term for talking about LLMs. But that is not the way it is used in many of the memes that popularised it. These memes are not about LLMs. They are set in a future where robots act like people and are treated like black people in a segregated state. Memers are roleplaying segregated US or some other racist society, just switching black people for robots, in what is clearly as thinly veiled exercise at racism. You don't have to trust me or watch the video essay, just look at tghe knowyourmemes page that describes it in a neutral tone. That is what this specific word is tied to. I don't mind other equally dissmissive words like "slop-machine" or "slop-generator", because they aren't used in this way. These are words actually made to refer to LLMs by describing what they do. But using the word "Clanker" will always conjure up thoughts of the type of content that popularised it, even if that is not the intention.

Replies (3)

@x00z@lemmy.world 2026-06-11 15:00

I have the feeling you're just offended for the sake of being offended. Fuck the clankers.

Open ##3351386
@ThirdConsul@lemmy.zip 2026-06-11 14:55

> But using the word “Clanker” will always conjure up thoughts Only in you. You are the problem here. To the rest of the world clanker = robot = ai.

Open ##3351387
@CovfefeKills@lemmy.world 2026-06-11 16:54

Imagine if a robot was walking down the street holding a bag of something heavy and a mother and child walked past at the same time as the bag broke so the robot steps into the child trying to regain balance. A robot doesn't have the right to make that kind of mistake, in the same way a drunk person would not have the right to make that mistake. But also in the same way a black person would not be allowed to make the same mistakes as white people. So where is the line are robots allowed to mistaking walk into children because it will happen if they walk the streets with us? Already see videos of them kicking Chinese children... Which is arguably the organisers faults, which is why organisers won't let robots walk our streets. Maybe we should be actually be racist to robots if apartheid is objectively necessary? We are fenced off from robot machines in factories already right... Where is the line exactly?

Open ##3351388