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Joined 5 months ago
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Cake day: June 4th, 2025

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  • Trying to ‘hide’ the use of a racist term because you’re a racist would be one thing, but using the term in a way that is not at all meant as pejorative is another.

    In the automotive context, the term meant something like “Putting loads of pointless mods on your ‘shitty’ Japanese car that makes it look even uglier and doesn’t make it go any faster.” - and in that context it was unambiguously a slur, disparaging the Asian import scene in favour of the ‘superior’ western aesthetic and way of doing things.

    But even in the automotive context, people can reclaim the term and say effectively “Yes - my car is ‘riced out’ - that’s the aesthetic I want, and I’m proud of it.”

    In some ways it’s quite appropriate that this term would extend from Japanese cars into tricking out your operating system. Given the number of waifu wallpapers you see in screenshots, ‘ricing’ has quite a lot of overlap with anime aesthetic, geek cuture and ‘weebs’ (which is another term that was used as an insult, and now reclaimed by people who proudly describe themselves as such). People who have historically been looked down upon by most of society but internally wear their ‘weebdom’ as a badge of pride.

    It’s hardly an insult when you are the one saying it about yourself, and doing so proudly.


  • The origins of the term undeniably are racist, yes, and I was also surprised that those using it weren’t largely aware of the fact.

    But it’s also true that meanings unavoidably change over time, and the intent of what you say is also important.

    The person you responded to isn’t wrong - there’s now a popular acronym people are using which is Race Inspired Cosmetic Enhancement

    And yes it’s a backronym. The pejorative term came first, and the acronym later, but it’s certainly part of redefining and reclaiming the term to free it from its origins.

    Like it or not, I think the term is very much here to stay.



  • Sure, if it wasn’t Linux then another project may have got the love and attention.

    I’m not glad it was Linux specifically, just glad there is a credible FOSS alternative of some kind, and in our universe that’s Linux.

    You might think there’s no such world where we wouldn’t have had some credible alternative, and as reasonable as that is - because freedom and independence are things people intrinsically want - I’m sure if you flap the butterfly wings enough times there’d be a universe where we all just collectively decided that commercial operating systems were the answer.

    Glad I don’t live there.