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AIBU?

To think 'Holo-course' is offensive?

62 replies

Mehfruittea · 29/01/2017 22:02

Disney channel kids to show - Miles from Tomorrow.

My DS 5 loves it and today there was an episode that included a rollercoaster called the Holo-course. I'm assuming it's a mash-up from hologram and racecourse but still...it's a bit...er...not right? AIBU?

OP posts:

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HappyFlappy · 30/01/2017 10:29

I consider it offensive. I don't believe that no-one has noticed the similarity of the words. On the contrary -I think it is a deliberate ploy to cash in - children and parents will hear Holocaust a lot more than Holo-course - and no publicity is bad publicity as far as they are concerned.

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JustAnotherPoster00 · 30/01/2017 10:33

I think it is a deliberate ploy to cash in

Um, what?

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HappyFlappy · 30/01/2017 10:41

Poster

Subliminally, people will hear what they want to hear.

Some will, as OP did - hear Holo-course and think "Holocaust" - some will be shocked, others will think "That's a pretty clever play on words. I'll go along to that"

Others will hear talk of the Holocaust and not necessarily take it in, but when looking at the Disney site and seeing Holo-course, will think - "Oh - I've heard a lot of people talking about that." and consider going.

At worst, some people (like myself) find it offensive and complain about it. Word still gets round.

Their whole desire is to be noticed and for people to spend money there. If this is what it takes to do it, then this is what they'll do,

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CaraAspen · 30/01/2017 10:43

No it's just a name.

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JustAnotherPoster00 · 30/01/2017 11:02

So words that sound like other words also cause outrage, so not to use words like digger, pew, bike, stink

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JustAnotherPoster00 · 30/01/2017 11:13

OP - I was watching bob the builder with my DC's and bob used the word digger, should I be offended because it sounded like a word with racial connotations

Ridiculous!!

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CrotchetQuaverMinim · 30/01/2017 11:17

It's not the Americans are less sensitive to the holocaust - it's that in that accent, it doesn't sound anywhere near the same. Really it doesn't. There are lots of plays on words that made no sense to me when I first moved to the UK, because what seems like subtle changes in an accent make some words totally different. Even now that I've got a British accent, I still find that I'm surprised when someone says that something is a homophone and asks about which spelling, because to me (despite saying them the same), they are still stored mentally as utterly different things.

So maybe they quite genuinely didn't realise that some people say the words in quite a similar way. I doubt people here always test out their brands names etc in other accents, or check to see whether there are local differences in meanings.

It could be deliberate of course, and insensitive, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was just totally different ways of saying things.

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MuseumOfCurry · 30/01/2017 11:51

Bear in mind in the USA people use words like 'spastic' and 'retard' as insults without a second thought.

Or idiot, even.

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CrotchetQuaverMinim · 30/01/2017 12:06

sorry typo in mine, meant "surprised if it wasn't just a different way of saying things".

There is a backlash now against words like retard and spastic there as well, so I wouldn't say that they are used without a second thought. But language around disabilities also has various cultural and linguistic differences, and it is hard to compare exactly, even within what is supposedly the same language.

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GunnyHighway · 30/01/2017 12:09

Are we really suggesting that we temper or language based on how it may sound to others? Seems OTT and very "snowflake"

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JustAnotherPoster00 · 30/01/2017 12:13

Gunny as an aside I love that movie one of clints best

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SenecaFalls · 30/01/2017 15:15

There is a backlash now against words like retard and spastic there as well, so I wouldn't say that they are used without a second thought. But language around disabilities also has various cultural and linguistic differences, and it is hard to compare exactly, even within what is supposedly the same language.

True. "Retard" is considered offensive by most people in the US and that number is growing. As for "spastic," it does not resonate the same way in the US as it does in the UK; it is more like using the word "idiot." There are a lot of reasons for this, one of which is that "spastic" was never generally used in the US for cerebral palsy as it was in the UK. With more globalized discussion, however, it is becoming less acceptable in the US as well.