> and neither change that today the word alien has not the annotation of "foreigner", but one which inherently de-humanizes the described group of people
No, it doesn't. You keep saying that, over and over, and people keep trying to correct you, over and over, and you keep not listening. It's you who has that connotation of dehumanizing associated with the word. You. And yes, I admit that some other people do, too. But it's your group, not society as a whole. And that means that all your outrage is misplaced, because the offense you're railing against is in your imagination.
But I will give you this much: I can imagine a future (maybe in 50 years, maybe in 10, maybe even in 2) where you are right, where that is the connotation of the society as a whole. But we aren't there yet, and I refuse to let one zealot on HN dictate my use of a perfectly reasonable word.
but getting hung up on this specific case in context of all the other things which happen which often are way more clear cut was indeed pretty dump
also to be clear I didn't down vote any of the comments to my comments, I might not agree with them but I found them still reasonable, but that (many having been down voted to a point of graying, at least temporary) means I'm not the only one on HN thinking this way. But at the same time this also doesn't show in any way what amount of people on HN thing this so I guess it's not really meaningful and shouldn't be used to support or disprove any arguments.
No, it doesn't. You keep saying that, over and over, and people keep trying to correct you, over and over, and you keep not listening. It's you who has that connotation of dehumanizing associated with the word. You. And yes, I admit that some other people do, too. But it's your group, not society as a whole. And that means that all your outrage is misplaced, because the offense you're railing against is in your imagination.
But I will give you this much: I can imagine a future (maybe in 50 years, maybe in 10, maybe even in 2) where you are right, where that is the connotation of the society as a whole. But we aren't there yet, and I refuse to let one zealot on HN dictate my use of a perfectly reasonable word.