The Morbid Linguist

News media seems to have made it a standard to identify someone according to profession, or some other social label, even when irrelevant to the respective story. One example of this is seen in reports about Eric Lundgren; headlines seemingly label their stories as coverage of a legal battle between an “e-waste recycler” and tech giant Microsoft. Many headlines resemble these: Electronics-recycling innovator is going to prison for trying to extend computers’ lives [ LA Times ] ‘E-waste’ recycling innovator faces prison after losing fight with Microsoft [ Seattle Times ] E-waste Innovator Will Go to Jail for Making Windows Restore Disks That Only Worked with Valid Licenses [ Gizmodo ] E-waste Recycler gets 15-months in Prison Thanks to Microsoft [ Legit Reviews ] From these headlines, one could infer the subjective opinions of the writers: This humble “e-waste recycler”, however innovative, is jail-bound because of Microsoft, and likely for some unfair reason. Many of the headlin...

Stereotypes form harmful boxes for containing entire peoples, but some can establish a chicken-and-egg relationship when paired with observation bias. The waiters of Paris have a peculiar stereotype that is as flattering as it is problematic: Apparently, Parisian waiters perform seriously and with pride; so much so that this sense of authority translates as disrespect to the uninitiated. This stereotype has proven so pervasively true that it has inspired a corrective campaign by the Parisian board of tourism and chamber of commerce , as well as a psychological condition wherein Japanese tourists suffer culture shock when confronted by rude Parisians . The stereotype of a haughty French waiter collides with another stereotype in the case of Guillaume Rey, a Paris-trained waiter who was fired from a Toronto restaurant for rude behavior: The overly-serious French waiter was fired for clashing with overly-polite Canadian coworkers. Rey claims that his termination in August 2017 was base...