Thread by @BillyBostickson

Poll Time! #DRASTIC

A few people have recently proposed changing the R in DRASTIC from "Radical" to "Rational".

Reminder, since May 2020, DRASTIC is:

Decentralised Radical Autonomous Search Team Investigating Covid-19

Please read some comments below which address this issue.

1. Changing that word in our acronym at this stage after nearly 2 years will be perceived as a sign of weakness
2. This vote is a waste of time. The acronym for drastic is in print in several books”
3. We will become a laughing stock

4. The meaning of radical is ambiguous, but as an adjective the meaning here is the Number 1 meaning

thorough, complete; change etc. nothing to do with a political point of view.

dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/eng…

and

vocabulary.com/dictionary/rad…

5. Some people, particularly in the US may not like the term "Radical", although that view is not shared internationally, nor in the UK.
Even the US founding fathers were described as "radical" (Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson)

6. Reasons 1 and 2 combined with the extremely tiresome task of revising all our published acronyms, are overwhelming arguments against the proposal.

As are the 100s of references in books, articles, documentaries which attest to the original meaning of the acronym.

7. The devil is in the details as usual

HOW (to change it), WHERE (to change it) WHO (will inform everyone, who will do the tiresome editing work)

8. Update

as the "A" for autonomous conjures up shades of German and Italian "autonomists" from the 70s, we may have to change more, one suggestion:

Centralised Respectable Authoritarian Popular Search Teams Investigation Crap

C.R.A.P.S.T.I.C

9. As pointed out by @jamesjsbeatty
"Obviously (from the Latin), radical means 'going to the root' of something , which is, also highly appropriate for DRASTIC.
Unfortunately, the word is often mistakenly thought to mean intense, wild, excessive, etc which is simply incorrect"

A crisis of confidence in the letter "R"?