Thanks Sohair, I think it's a great question.

For one, Tim's explained in the past he does not read or respond to comments on Medium, partly because he gets too many notifications from the system -- understandable.

Nevertheless, given his influence and his ubiquity amongst multiple platforms - not only here, but on Substack and LinkedIn - and the vast influence he wields, he is, effectively, a public figure. And I think public figures should be accountable for the public statements they make, especially when they become hurtful or offensive to one or more groups.

I thought long and hard about posting in this format (longer than the three days I mentioned in the article, in fact, because it took time to draft, edit, and re-draft). But I felt strongly about doing it because a similar standard would have applied if he (or anyone) said something offensive about other groups.

Seeing as Tim is Australian, I expect there would be some awareness of what is acceptable or unacceptable terminology applied to, for example, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. If it's not acceptable to paint one marginalised culture with an overly broad brush, I feel the same standard should apply to other cultures too.