Phrases that piss you off

[Lolcow]

What really annoys me the most with slang/phrases is when people start taking up a bunch of language from the internet and movies. Significantly because the new language is like an invasive species, it drives out naturally-occuring 'local language' (be that for a geographic/civic region, community, or even one's own family) and is strengthened by repeated exposure through internet and pop culture.

What is valuable is the unique (though one may certainly hope grammatically legible) language and wordset that develops within a group of people who are close with one another and share common tastes and concerns, not what the 'majority' of people are doing. Why do you insist on talking like people from far away who will you will never meet, to whom you have no connection?

Urgh, there's so much more that could be dug into, but I already made too big a post above this one already, incomplete as it is.

Less intelligent people are always going to gravitate toward simpler, memetic language. There isn't anything you can do about that and I don't see point in getting hung up about it, since it makes it easy to identify them. It's not really contagious to anyone not already prone.

 

[Polonius]

Less intelligent people are always going to gravitate toward simpler, memetic language. There isn't anything you can do about that and I don't see point in getting hung up about it, since it makes it easy to identify them. It's not really contagious to anyone not already prone.

Fair enough, and my post was probably an overstatement lol, however I do think it is an interesting and perhaps negative or at least neutral of an effect of mass communications as a whole to so quickly standardize language even across cultures and nations. It seems like another avenue for the breakdown of local society (obviously in this case only a very specific facet of local society) and the centralization of culture in big-money producers, or whatever dippy thing gets the most views, in either way somewhat democratically, but not really, since the companies behind both have either their own private interests or the private interests of people who can pay them to augment promotion algorithms.

In essence, I guess I'm irked by the de-democratization of local language as an aspect of regional individualism.

 

[stonehead]

What is valuable is the unique (though one may certainly hope grammatically legible) language and wordset that develops within a group of people who are close with one another and share common tastes and concerns, not what the 'majority' of people are doing. Why do you insist on talking like people from far away who will you will never meet, to whom you have no connection?

Global communication seems to have killed a lot of local accents and colloquialisms, sometimes intentionally even. I know the "transatlantic accent" was intentionally adopted by a lot of radio speakers so as to appeal to all localities equally. They didn't want to give away that they were from the South, or the Midwest or anything specifically.

I wonder if different websites have their own "accent". Not in pronunciation obviously, but like, in sentence structure and word choice. I've heard people throw out ">reddit formatting" as an attack whenever someone uses double line spacing like they do over there. Maybe it could go deeper. I wonder if linguists could tell a Twitter user from a Tumblr user using their offline writings alone. Do you think online communities could be "valuable" similarly to geographic communities?

 

[Polonius]

Global communication seems to have killed a lot of local accents and colloquialisms, sometimes intentionally even. I know the "transatlantic accent" was intentionally adopted by a lot of radio speakers so as to appeal to all localities equally. They didn't want to give away that they were from the South, or the Midwest or anything specifically.

I wonder if different websites have their own "accent". Not in pronunciation obviously, but like, in sentence structure and word choice. I've heard people throw out ">reddit formatting" as an attack whenever someone uses double line spacing like they do over there. Maybe it could go deeper. I wonder if linguists could tell a Twitter user from a Tumblr user using their offline writings alone. Do you think online communities could be "valuable" similarly to geographic communities?

Formatting, like you mentioned, is what sticks out the most, but there's also localized language in many websites.

>reddit: 'Pupperino,' 'My dude,' 'friendo,' 'le' as a stand in for 'the,' etc. (Reminds me somewhat of rage-comic era memes. Also, >reddit has some native format types, as you mentioned, and though I am not very familiar with them, things like AITA come to mind.)

4chan and similar: 'Oldfag,' 'Newfag,' 'Jannies,' 'Glowies,' etc. Certainly the greentext format is heavily associated, and plenty of these terms are widespread on different sites, but as far as I can tell from my fairly removed viewpoint, they seem heaviest there. For visual media, 4Chan is a strong source of classic internet characters, Pepe, Pedobear, the now ubiquitous Wojaks, etc.

With the rise of strict word censorship on YouTube (and presumably other similar sites?) you get things like 'Unalive,' 'Self exit game,' and similar stand-ins for terms termed 'triggering,' or generally 'offensive.'

Agora seems to share some dialect with chans, but with a generally softer, more relaxed atmosphere (part of what makes the Road such a grand place in general) which also reaches to your question, and I would whole-heartedly say YES. Just as with cultural-geographic regions in the real world, smaller websites and communities produce unique identities and cultures that can provide an incredibly unique experience tailored exceptionally well to certain tastes. Agora Road is a prime example of that, with specialized hobby or fan sites being another. And just like modern American cities, mega-sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube become melting pots fueled by various cultural inputs, the unique natures of which are melted away, leaving only the most common denominators to characterize the whole site. The YouTube homepage is a broadside cannonade of clickbait thumbnails and titles designed to attract quick, emotional responses to draw people in as quickly as possible, as frequently as possible. Twitter is famed for rapid-fire presidential debate-style one-up-manship. Not to say that smaller sites never feature these methods, or that there is no quality on bigger sites, but as far as I can tell, the larger a culture gets, whether it is digital or not, the common features that characterize it will shrink in number until, as said above, only the lowest common denominator is left, because in a large enough net, it is the only thing held in common. Not everyone likes Vaporwave, gardening, RPGs, LGBT, Christianity, Islam, whatever it is, but everyone gets horny, everyone gets angry, everyone wants to feel validated in their emotional reactions, whether they are reasonable or not, and everyone wants to make money.

Sorry for the big post, I think about stuff like this a lot and most people I know don't really care, understandably, they have plenty on their minds already, and I'm a shut-in, so I have time. But it's people like me, who cannot really engage in certain conversations 'in the meatspace' that can find some solace in online communities that DO share that interest, thus relieving some pressure from isolation in real life, although it can cause some problems for those who fall too far in, or into strange places. Really this discussion could be its own topic.

 

[isolation suite]

We saw your profile on Indeed and thought you would be a great match for this bullshit opportunity.
Please submit a quick application if you have any interest.

 

[InsufferableCynic]

We saw your profile on Indeed and thought you would be a great match for this bullshit opportunity.
Please submit a quick application if you have any interest.

Could be worse. Upwork has the gall to try and take 20% of everything you earn.

Fuck them.

 

[Some_porcupine]

"[x] is literally socialism" (can be same swear like with hitler/nazi names(^**)) (*)
"fuck neoliberalism" - just me i guess
"capitalism is when [fascism thing]" (*)(**)
"you are worse than reagan/thatcher/may/merkel/bush..." - idk, someone
*things twitteers say* | *postmodernism and new shit, like quiet-quitting, no tipping, analysis channels on youtube that are "capitalism bad" etc...*
/ *linkedin->reddit-twiiter-... cringe* + "griftonomics" (being shit to others, because paid shifters everyone subtly say so...)
"west has fallen" - it isnt funny anymore, it... went from ironic use, to normal phrase
"libertarianism is when *gimme*" (*)
"socialism is when [wrong example; also, not understanding that soc-dem got SOC in it...]" (*)
not phrase, but attitude - sassiness, hate, hyperindividualism, snark...

(*) twitter
(**) many such cases, on twitter too, mutually interchangable

 

[Polonius]

not phrase, but attitude - sassiness, hate, hyperindividualism, snark...

I once saw something describing the public education system as acting as a system "making people smart enough to follow orders, and dumb enough to think that makes them intelligent."

Your quote above just reminded me of that, hordes of people chasing after the opinions of other people, usually pundits, celebrities, academics, philosophers on occasion, without much question, and without civility to those who disagree with them. I sympathize with how they feel, we all act like that at least sometimes, but it's always unpleasant to see. Probably a solid reason to stay away from social media.

 

[InsufferableCynic]

I once saw something describing the public education system as acting as a system "making people smart enough to follow orders, and dumb enough to think that makes them intelligent."

Pseudointellectuals in general are dumb.

But what I hate the most are people who are clearly not very intelligent who assert with confidence how good "their system is", usually be associating everyone else with a conspiracy.

"I'm not stupid enough to use banks! Banks are a scam for sheep to lose money, I invested in Gold instead!"

If you're going to be stupid, at least don't pretend you're smarter than everyone else.

 

[ZinRicky]

Not everyone likes Vaporwave, gardening, RPGs, LGBT, Christianity, Islam, whatever it is, but everyone gets horny, everyone gets angry, everyone wants to feel validated in their emotional reactions, whether they are reasonable or not, and everyone wants to make money.

I will frame this and put it on my desk

 

[tcp]

We saw your profile on Indeed and thought you would be a great match for this bullshit opportunity.
Please submit a quick application if you have any interest.

We saw you have 6 years of experience as a C# and ASP.net developer. Would you be interested in working as a retail sales associate for Walmart?

- actual linkedin email

 

[Vitnira]

Maybe it's been covered already, but I've come here to rant about my new hated phrase.
"Let's goooooo" / "LFFFFGGGGG"
- It contributes nothing to the situation
- A bunch of retards at my BJJ gym would spam the group chat with this bullshit everytime anything happened, even boring shit like "class as regularly scheduled tonight"
- Zoomers at my work are starting to use it
- Nobody has the balls to say "Let's fucking go". It's always LFG or Let's Goooooooo, the fuck is omitted when clearly implied. By people who also say fuck all the time.
- IT MEANS NOTHING. IT IS USELESS DATA. JUST SAY "OKAY" OR SOMETHING.

I was kinda mad about yeet, but this LFG shit is clogging all normie chats these days and I'm getting fucking sick of it
Damn kids get off my lawn.

 

[nsequeira119]

I don't know why, exactly- I don't know if anyone else feels like this- but I hate the word "unfortunately" with a fiery passion.

The only time anyone uses this word is when something can't be done- "unfortunately I can't make it," "unfortunately this is canceled," etc. And 9 times out of 10, whoever's talking about the "unfortunate" thing could reasonably fix it, and I'm like, "If this is so unfortunate, and you ackowledge that it IS unfortunate, why aren't you doing something to make it more fortunate?" I dunno, there's something so pretentious and condescending about it. I'd rather someone just say "sorry" or "too bad" or like that.

Aside from that, the only terms I really hate are the ones that are overused to death here on the Internet- "Cognitive Dissonance," "Uncanny Valley," "Dunning Kruger Effect," "Gaslight," "Parasocial Relationship," etc. I feel like these are used by people who want to sound really smart, so they'll say someone is "a victim of the Dunning Kruger Effect" instead of just saying that they're incompetent. Cringe!

 

[LostintheCycle]

Aside from that, the only terms I really hate are the ones that are overused to death here on the Internet- "Cognitive Dissonance," "Uncanny Valley," "Dunning Kruger Effect," "Gaslight," "Parasocial Relationship," etc. I feel like these are used by people who want to sound really smart, so they'll say someone is "a victim of the Dunning Kruger Effect" instead of just saying that they're incompetent. Cringe!

Trying to stick 'Dunning Kruger' onto another person is also a way of trying to make yourself appear elevated, sort of like trying to make themselves look smart but in a subtly different way. As if you have strong awareness of the other person which they don't have, therefore you are the superior.
I feel like I see people use phrases like 'strawman' too often and incorrectly as well.
In a similar vein I hate when people say that they 'just want to have a debate' or 'have a rational discussion' etc. but clearly have ulterior motives... they want to 'beat' their opponent, and like with DK they say these sorts of things to make themselves seem above the situation.
Another thing, this one is a bit more tricky, but trying to force the end of an argument to purposefully leave it on a sour note, and make the opponent appear antagonistic. Like, they'll say "I'm sick of debating!" or whatever and proclaim that they won't listen to an idiot anymore.

 

[stonehead]

Trying to stick 'Dunning Kruger' onto another person is also a way of trying to make yourself appear elevated, sort of like trying to make themselves look smart but in a subtly different way. As if you have strong awareness of the other person which they don't have, therefore you are the superior.
I feel like I see people use phrases like 'strawman' too often and incorrectly as well.
In a similar vein I hate when people say that they 'just want to have a debate' or 'have a rational discussion' etc. but clearly have ulterior motives... they want to 'beat' their opponent, and like with DK they say these sorts of things to make themselves seem above the situation.
Another thing, this one is a bit more tricky, but trying to force the end of an argument to purposefully leave it on a sour note, and make the opponent appear antagonistic. Like, they'll say "I'm sick of debating!" or whatever and proclaim that they won't listen to an idiot anymore.

The internet is really weird about who messages are directed at. Like, when you make a post somewhere, it feels like you're saying something publicly to your friends and followers. When you see a post on your feed though, it feels like they're talking right in front of you.

So you often get the scenario where a group of people are talking, and a bunch of strangers pop in and start asking to "debate" them. Imagine that happening in any other situation and you'll see how absurd it is. Imagine a group of friends at a restaurant chatting about politics or religion or whatever, and some stranger asks to debate them on their beliefs.

My reaction IRL would be "Who are you? Why do you think you deserve so much of my time?" But for some reason, online everyone's reaction is different.