Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"Whilst I'd previously thought the CE/BCE terminology was a bit of a daft attempt at political correctness [...]"

You managed to hit on both what I get praised for ("a reasonable explanation", possibly of "a fairly sensible idea" depending on whether the writer thinks its a good idea or is just thanking me for being clear), and what generates the hate-mail (a rant-launching point about political correctness).

That is, nearly every critical email I get regarding that page uses the phrase "PC" in some form, often as though that label on its own would be enough to justify firebombing someone's printing press. Some seem to be merely resistant to any change, no matter how small (they complain about throwing away a system that has worked for a long time, overlooking the fact that all that's being discussed is a change in nomenclature while retaining the system). Some seem to have a knee-jerk reaction to anything that smells however faintly of pee-cee, and go off militantly anti-liberal without addressing any of the relevant points. Some see any change away from gung-ho, in-yo'-face Christian evangelism as being anti-Christian, and attack me on that ground without reading far enough to see that I am a Christian and that I retain "AD" when I am speaking specifically on matters of faith to a Christian audience (or where I want to emphasize that I'm presenting a specifically Christian viewpoint, not a purly academic or comparative-religions one), nor the specifically Christian arguments in favour of "CE".

I suspect many only read as far as finding out that "CE" replaces "AD", and stop there to write a rant which mostly amounts to "How dare you change this?" Of course, most of them go on to act as though the whole thing were my idea, which it's not. (I'm not sure when "CE" and "BCE" came in, but what I've read says "a few decades" ago. Depending on how many "a few" is, I was either a schoolchild or not yet born.) And then there's the centuries-older version of the same idea -- VE (vulgar era, in the strict meaning of vulgar, i.e. common) -- which admittedly I didn't know about either until this week.

I also get accused of "pushing a cause", when all I'm doing is explaining a stylistic decision.

I can undestand some of the points people make opposing "CE" and "BCE", but the vitriol with which the arguments are delivered always seems a bit strange.

So in short, "WTF is wrong" with these people appears (if I may be so very bold as to indulge in long-distance armchair-psychoanalysis) to be some combination of anti-politeness hot-buttons (and yes, I've gotten some letters that translate to "How dare you suggest that we be more polite"), anti-liberal hot-buttons, and persecution(despite-being-a-majority)-complex.

I certainly never predicted such controversy when I wrote the page as a footnote. Then again, I never expected so many other sites to link to my "footnote" pages. (The interesting musical instruments page and the erotic fiction get a lot of hits; definitions of BDSM terms, filk, etc. get the most links. Apparently I have a knack for writing definitions and footnotes. Anybody need a footnote-writer?)

#blink# What was head-hurty about it?