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https://www.scribd.com/document/899239966/Henry-the-Green-Engine-1951-Scanned-by-ThatERTLGuy
Page 60. Published in 1950, and retracted in 1972 from my quick research.
p64 of the document, p60 of the book
For the lazy who don’t want to look it up
It feels so out of the blue, so unnecessary. Like the writer had been bored. It’s difficult to imagine that this didn’t jolt readers out of the story, even at the time.
Languages change. Moron, idiot and imbecile used to be medical terms. Gay used to simply mean happy and excited. A fag used to be a term for a cigarette.
I really doubt it would have appeared in a mainstream children’s book if it were seen as at all offensive.
Words like “bugger” and “damn” used to be extremely offensive curses. Now they’re often used as very mild expressions of annoyance to avoid using the serious ones.
Fag still is a term for a cigarette…
I had always heard that it originally meant a stick to be used for kindling and was adapted to smoking once the tobacco trade was a thing. Probably complete horseshit because no internet when I was a kid, but I never bothered to look it up.
A faggot originally meant a bundle of sticks or twigs, and they were used to light fires, but I don’t think this has any relation to “fag” as in cigarette. Etymonline says of the latter:
British slang for “cigarette” (originally, especially, the butt of a smoked cigarette), 1888, probably from fag “loose piece, last remnant of cloth” (late 14c., as in fag-end “extreme end, loose piece,” 1610s)
That meaning of faggot, interestingly, comes from the same root as the Roman symbol “fasces” which is a bundle of sticks from which we get the modern word fascism.
Another fun fact: there’s a traditional British dish called faggots which are a kind of meatball made from offal, somewhat similar to haggis but uncased.
Unironically a great example for explaining the difference between 0 and null
Are we not saying “as black as nigger’s” again? I thought that kind of stuff was back on the menu. I’m getting tired of having to restrict my bigotry. How am I supposed to keep up with who I’m better than if it keeps changing like this.
He’s old and senile so he gets a pass … right?
No.
Sorry… forgot the /s.
I figured since this was lemmy it would be apparent
Edit: just checked the community this post is in. It DEFINITELY should’ve been apparent
Awesome now I have to hate Thomas the Tank Engine
And you didn’t already hate them for the dark and depressing messages they made by saying if your friends or family get old and unable to take care of themselves, the best way to deal with them is to seal them in a concrete tomb still alive, and let them die in there as they cry out in horror?
That part never struck a chord with you?
That part never struck a chord with you?
No because the last time I seriously thought about Thomas The Tank Engine was when I was 3 years old
Really? You’re just going to sit there and claim you never watched Thomas The Train bondage porn with Ringo Starr impersonator narrating?
