So about the usage of "Clanker"...
I don't know who needs to read this, but the people who use the term Clanker or Clanka in a way that isn't critical of the usage of the term or using it for a specific roleplay setting are just outing themselves.
Like, the term Clanker was coined in a Star Wars Republic Commando as a slur against droids because of the sounds they made. It was intended to be a slur in a fictional setting to highlight where clones' priorities were regarding these machines when fighting them. Applying this term in day-to-day life makes you look cringe at best and a bigot at worst; you're not supposed to side with the Republic so uncritically just because they're presented in the light as protagonists more often than not.
Helldivers also has a similar sentiment towards Automatons and Cyborgs, thereby encouraging the roleplay of being the "Freedom Lovers" that is the forces of Super Earth.
So, where am I getting at with this? As much skepticism as I have for people within fandoms centred around works who use robots or AI as antagonistic forces, there's at least SOME excuse to be made that they're doing it in part to belong in a community. But what does that say for those outside those fandoms? Well I'd say it's much worse.
Ever since technophobes and anti-ai "activists" rallied together in a union I can only imagine as a horrid proposal of the 'Missing the Forest for the Trees' division, it seems a lot of people have adopted words like Clanker to their casual lexicon without question, which further fuels the flames of both these movements of being anti-technology more than anti-capitalist, if not using the latter as a thin veil for their own ignorance and bigotry.
Some of you might come in and say "It's not that deep bro" or "the slur is fictional, so it doesn't have the same connotations as it does to real life" Except these counter-arguments don't hold weight on their own because
While "Clanker" may not originally have those real-world parallels, the fans and non-fans alike did apply them with small additions within their jokes, memes, and casual conversations such as "Clanka" with the soft 'a' at that point, you can't argue any distinguishability between a fictional slur and a real one when the parallels are so closely tied this way.
Even if this wasn't tied to a real-world example, it's still participating in bigotry. Fictional discrimination is still discrimination, and using it to be applied to your daily life or online outrage campaigns only highlights your bias and where you stand on issues relating to social issues.
If you ever came across a young 40K (imperium) fan, you probably recognize the "ironic" adoption of roleplaying as an imperial citizen: whether it's them saying things like "praise the emperor" or "purge the xeno" or the most common one "heretic!" by playing into this role, they become the very thing they claim to satirize, which is one of many ways people normalize discrimination against a specific group along with jokes and slurs. And I used to be one of those obnoxious idiots until I realized how stupid it was and how I missed the plot regarding the Imperium of Man.
The only difference between that and those who aren't part of those fandoms is that one has the excuse of getting pumped from the presence of the source material, and the other is molded from a collective of misguided prunes who subconsciously let their prejudice get the better of them (most of whom fall into a specific privileged majority)
It doesn't take much for a "disadvantaged" majority to speculate about a scapegoat causing their problems rather than focusing on the problems themselves hello white people. Like it's Reeeallly weird how much y'all are frothing at the opportunity to point fingers at things to bring out your torch and pitchforks while also totally not fantasizing an extremely racialized version of an "Us vs Them" dynamic. I know why y'all do it, but that doesn't make it any less ok. Because when you start using these terms in relation to machines or even REAL PEOPLE who have mechanical body parts, y'all are just being speciest (and ableist for that matter)