it's 2021 but apparently some people are still out of the loop so
do not use the term "fren"
here's a good place to start on why
https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/c2znoq/what_is_rfrenworld_and_why_did_it_get_banned/
it's a nazi/alt-right dogwhistle and i don't wanna see it. do not use it in any context. don't just stop using it around me but continue using it around others. just don't use it at all. if you hear someone else say it tell them to stop too. if they refuse to stop even after you have informed them then that should be raising some serious red flags
i am going to be implementing a block on sight no questions asked policy going forward
@haskal Why do the Nazis have to keep ruining perfectly good words. Who let them have access to a dictionary.
@haskal some additional reading on this reddit thread https://www.reddit.com/r/TopMindsOfReddit/comments/bjwbln/rfrenworld_is_a_look_into_just_how_acceptable_and/
@haskal thanks for letting me know! I picked it up from local antifa nerds, had no idea there was a Bad Internet Place associated.
@haskal thanks for providing info, I wasn't able to get a source on why this was suddenly considered a dogwhistle and initially thought it was some kind of fakeout or prank gone out of control
Fuck nazis either way
@haskal nazis ruined pepe, and now this too? 
feels bad man
@haskal oh shit, I didn't know about this. Thanks for posting! (Not that it's part of my vocabulary anyway but... ffs Nazis ruin absolutely everything. I'm not online enough to keep up with whatever new fad they're co-opting/creating for their own crappy means.)
Thanks again! Sorry for being a random.
@haskal did they originate the shortening, or are they one of many unrelated groups who picked it up?
nazis trying to make inoffensive words offensive so people look ridiculous calling them out and/or so blanket bans catch random innocent people is /exactly their tactic/ and I refuse to play their game by their rules
@lioness @haskal i agree there. it's probably a bad idea to abandon words or symbols claimed by fascists if they haven't been involved in massive harm done to minorities. i'd never try to argue for the reclaiming of the svastika or other nazi symbolism because that has been historically involved in much material harm (although "degenerate" is being reclaimed i guess)
but not saying "fren" because of one subreddit? not a good tactic. would indeed be playing by their rules.
your reasoning makes sense to me at least :)
@categorille @lioness @haskal I'm with you on that, and other people have written about this before https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/03/ok-sign-gesture-emoji-rightwing-alt-right
@haskal we should stop letting them co-opt words, don’t give them the power they want. censorship is not good.
"The nature of modern communication systems is that anything can be said, any context is equivalent to any other context, so that things can be placed in many different contexts at the same time, like photography. But there's something profoundly compromising about that situation. Of course, it allows for a liberty of action and consciousness that people have never had before. But it means that you can't keep original or profound meanings intact because inevitably they're disappointed, adulterated, transformed, and transmuted. So, when you launch an idea for a fantasy or a theme or an image to the world, it has this tremendous career that you can't possibly control or limit. You want to share things with other people, but on the other hand you don't want to just feed the machine that needs millions of fantasies and objects and products and opinions to be fed into it every day in order to keep on going. And that's perhaps a reason one is tempted to be silent sometimes."
Susan Sontag, interview in Rolling Stone, 1979.
@rats just fyi i'm not reading this essay which is presumably to justify why you will continue using the term "fren" despite my warning
feel free. note last sentence of my original post
i've never said it and don't plan to
this quote was about things exist in many contexts, uncontrollably, especially in cybernetic communication - i thought it would be informative
your stance that everything should be assumed to always be in the worst context it's ever existed in feels equivalent to why you didn't read what i said (totally fine) but assumed the worst about it (why?)
my hope was trying to convey that analysis of context is important for all communication and cant be assumed (eg, assuming that when a normal cutesy word that existed before is said now, it is always going to be in the /pol/ context - it should instead come out of a larger holistic view)
heres something to read if you like reading https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/exiting-vampire-castle/
@haskal Why tf do n@zis keep ruining perfectly good words ffs... Idk i'm not sure if avoiding words is the right strategy, it's like when they tried to make "milk" racist, i really don't think that blindly avoiding words is useful... What we need is resemantization of problematic words (don't get me wrong, some words are unreclaimable), but words like "based" used to be used in alt-right context and now have taken another meaning. "queer" is also a very good example of reclaiming.
Sounds like you need frens :(
@haskal@cybre.space it must be a sad lonely existence living a life devoid of frens, but do you need to be a huge whiny faggot online?
"mean angry non-fren SJWs telling me i can't use the word fren anymore because they hate fun but my best friend himmlerfan1488 says it's okay and i should say it more"
... basically don't be like that
hope this helps