image transcript: caption reads “boys when they’re ricing their arch linux twink pad” over a drawing of the boykisser cat with thigh highs on and a laptop edited in. end transcription.

  • porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    Can we please replace the racist slang? I get that there’s not currently a better single word for superficial janky optimization but I’m sure one of y’all is funny enough to come up with one

    • yokonzo@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      This was already a discussion and it was determined no one cares about the term because barely anyone even knows what it’s roots are or sees it that way, everyone thinks “car modding”. Notably neither did Asian users who have been using the term for decades. this is just tone policing for the sake of it, you’re creating problems where there are none

      • BleatingZombie@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I’m in the comments right now trying to figure out why cheap Japanese cars are in the meme

        What’s the other definition?

        • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          They’re referring to the term “ricing” that is used in the meme. In the car modding world, “ricing” is used as a pejorative to refer to the tricked out anime-wrapped cars, usually driven by Asian dudes or weebs. If a car is wrapped in anime characters and/or egirls, it has been “riced” and is referred to as a “ricer” It’s… Well… It’s not a polite term.

          It comes from the old school rivalry between American muscle cars (which were big and heavy, but had good top speeds so they were popular for drag racing,) and Japanese cars (which tended to favor agility, tight handling, and good acceleration.) At the time, tricked out cars were popular among Japanese car enthusiasts, so the term started getting used by boomers to refer to Japanese people who mod cars. Then younger generations heard it, assumed it was referring to the cars (not the drivers) and it has stuck around as a rude way to refer to heavily modded Asian cars.

          It doesn’t hold the same sort of derogatory connotations in the Unix world, largely because most users aren’t even aware of where it comes from. It just refers to a highly customized Unix setup.