Yeah I feel like this sub is making it out to be a little more malicious than it really is.

I used Native American (America)/First Nations (Canada) because there’s definitely a connotation of “Indians and Cowboys” to “American Indian” especially if I know nothing about their experience or preference, and it’s also helpful as I grew up around Asian Indians. I will still use it until I know what they’d like me to use because sadly there are few in Wisconsin so I have no chance of becoming friends with someone with that experience. However, it seems like Indian is preferred.

Similarly with Latinx. It’s basic taboo culture, where you have an “unused” neutral term that you use if you aren’t an “insider” or “observer”. I definitely know that Latin may have negative connotations of gangs eg Latin Kings or sweet talking frat dudes (or something like that) so just to be safe Latinx is the alternative in English given that word gendering is a little stronger than it is in Romance languages.

It’s difficult to remain taboo pure and not sound like a robot, because it’s necessarily artificial language. For sheltered people with good intentions venturing into diversity because of their own “diverse” traits, it’s better to be safe than sorry. However, it’s clear that “Latino” is preferred for most people so I’m not gonna argue about it.