Microsoft Word has “gone woke”

Postman Pat has always been a really rubbish postman.

I was thinking how is Postman Pat offensive to anyone?

Because he takes his cat to work and delivers about two parcels a day, and seems to think hes also a policeman/paramedic honestly he is useless.

It isn’t hard though I have a post man, the houses opposite have a postlady and as a whole we both have posties
If anyone is still surprised at the term ‘half caste’ being a total no no I don’t know what rock you were under I was born a before you Sago and would have known not to use that term since I was a youngster my 90 year old Dad knew not to use it

Postman pat is played as a man so of course he’s a postman and that’s totally ridiculous so is Batman, SpiderMan, Wonder Woman, and loose women all going to be changed or is it just pick on poor old Pat who s already has a gender neutral name, so doing well

Please let’s put on sensible hats on and change what needs changing but leave the rest alone I will still talk about Postman Pat if no one follows the stupid things they ll die out (hopefully)

Galaxy

Because he takes his cat to work and delivers about two parcels a day, and seems to think hes also a policeman/paramedic honestly he is useless.

???

Nobody is saying you have to call Postman Pat anything other than by his name, though.

It is just letting you know that there is a chance that you might be going to upset someone by what you are typing (eg half-caste). You can decide to change it, decide to think about it, or decide to tell Word to do something it would undoubtedly try to correct - the choice is still yours.

Nobody is stopping anybody talking about Postman Pat.

In a week where we have the seat of government breaking its own laws, members of the RF allegedly behaving with dubious morals, anti vaxxers lying to get into a country and members of the party of government slagging each other off, is it proportional to get huffy about being asked to be careful how you address people?

I know I am derailing but I have just found a brilliant Twitter rant about how rubbish Pat is at his job. Locking Jess in the van all day, using a helicopter to deliver one parcel, delivering crockery safely b 'driving slowly' There are people out there who have given a lot of thought to this issue.

There seems to be no one stopping them talking (at great length) about Postman Pat.

Alegrias1

^How are we expected to keep up?^

When someone tells you that a phrase isn't acceptable any more, stop using it. It's not hard and you're not the victim.

I'm older than you and I would never use the term half caste. Becuase I've been paying attention.

Exactly Alegrias1. My granny used to use the term 'coloured'. Not acceptable.

We all have mobile phones. If in doubt, Google it.

Anyone who is less than 60 years old, though, needs to be more attentive to what society is like now and not complain about moving goalposts and how hard it is.

Oh good, there is an age limit to wholeness.

So why are Gransnetters constantly being reprimanded when the majority are probably over 60, some even in their 90s?

Not wholeness!

Obviously autocorrect is alive and well on Gransnet and doesn't like the term wokeness!

Gwyneth

I was thinking how is Postman Pat offensive to anyone?

My youngest met him once when she was 2 at an event in a store and went as white as a sheet. She was completely traumatised by him, too scared even to cry.
He's a very, very scary man.

He's a very, very scary man.
???

That has to be Gransnet quote of the day!

Bob the builder is the same. An hour and a half I once queued to meet him, my eldest wouldnt go anywhere near him when we got to the front. I have a great photo of me standing as near as I could get (about half a mile away ) to Bob with my child terrified in my arms.

I have finally worked out how to prevent Outlook correcting my spelling to American usage and my grammar to what it considers correct. And I got rid of the annoying habit Outlook had of assuming that everyone who uses their e-mail system is writing formal business communications.

I devoutly hope and trust that Microsoft Word's corrections can be disabled. I am not sure they can, as you cannot disable Edge, nor enable Windows 10 to cancel an update very easily.

I agree language evolves, but I intend to choose myself which of the newer expressions I intend to use.

It's insanity

George Orwell’s 1984 was a warning, not a blueprint ??

I don't think that a piece of word processing software suggesting alternatives to what you've written is quite as 1984 as a PM who thinks its OK to gaslight us into believing that he's somehow doing the right thing.

Maybe its just me.

Calistemon

^Anyone who is less than 60 years old, though, needs to be more attentive to what society is like now and not complain about moving goalposts and how hard it is.^

Oh good, there is an age limit to wholeness.

So why are Gransnetters constantly being reprimanded when the majority are probably over 60, some even in their 90s?

You wrote my thoughts exactly! Alegrias1 has set the rules society should live by, and as I'm past the specified age bracket I don't have to abide by them or follow the woke culture. Hooray!

Maybe its just me.

No, it's not ?. I could understand people being disconcerted if Word could change 'fireman' to 'firefighter' without your knowledge or permission, and refuse to change it back. From what I can tell however (my version is too old to have this feature) it simply puts a purple wiggly line under a word on its list (which can be removed by going to Tools/Language/whatever is under 'spelling' and 'grammar' and unticking the box), so you are alerted to a possible faux pas, which you can change or leave as it is at your own discretion. Not the end of freedom as we know it.

It's a slippery slope Doodledog. Today it's a gentle suggestion, tomorrow it will be 'fireman' to 'firefighter and you can't change it back!

My version of Word doesn't offer any suggestions to change any of the words mentioned above, I have just tried it out. I haven't altered any of the settings apart from US to UK English.

Until I read this thread I didn’t know it’s now incorrect to describe someone as being of mixed race. I thought I was being polite, having grown up in the days when ‘half caste’ was the norm.

Being over 60, I confess I can't keep up.

I think we all knew that coloured person is not correct (and I hadn't used that term for years anyway) I was confused to hear Diane Abbott and others refer to 'a person of colour'.

I know it's semantics but could someone please explain the difference?