Thanks for the reasonable response.

In essence I’m contesting that strict language standards are necessary to be understood. I mean, of course some standards are still required, just not strict enough to be all uptight about it when people start to bend them.

We agree on this, I think. I’m mostly a linguistic descriptivist - that is, language is what people speak more than what’s written in a rulebook somewhere. I’m not a linguist but I have an undergraduate degree that required some courses on English language.

It can be annoying when there’s a word for something (eg: enshittification, gaslighting, woke) and people then over extend it to mean “things i don’t like”. There’s not much to stop that, other than as an individual trying to be more precise in language. I think it’s not good for one’s brain to only have a few catch-all words for stuff.

I think “slop” specifically is a very old word (1400ce, if etymology online is to be trusted). But like if there was a word for “low quality LLM content” (let’s say… slopplement), applying that to any low quality writing would kind of suck. it would almost certainly happen, though, because all of us humans are kind of lazy.

Anyway. We mostly agree. I would just recommend being mindful of one’s word choices, because a narrow vocabulary can be a drag on thinking and communication.

I like to think if I shot a right wing extremist troll, my dad would help me lay low instead of turning me in. But my dad is an aging hippy, not a maga hat worm brain.

You say it’s foolish to enforce strict language standards, but the most important thing about language is that it is understood. You buried that point in the middle of your second paragraph.

Did you read 1984? It has a major thread though it about how collapsing language reduces the ability of people to think. One of the first and most prominent examples in the book is replacing the many words for “good” and “bad” (eg: great, amazing, excellent, terrible, atrocious, etc) with simply “good” and “ungood”. Similarly, the dispossed has some writing in it about how language shapes thought. For example, the prevalence or absence of possessive forms (eg: my house vs the house I stay in)

The reason I used “good” and “ungood” is because those are the preeminent examples in 1984. They’re not a judgement of your post.

I’m not sure why you’re dismissive of “high school reading lists”, but you are coming off as someone who might actually be a high schooler. Your last emoji didn’t render, so maybe that would’ve changed the meaning.

So long as you’re understood, it’s fine.

Burying the lede here.

But also like language shapes the way we think. If you just let all your words boil down into “good” and “ungood”, you’re reducing your tools for thinking. 1984 and The Dispossessed are great books, by the way.

This is a terrible idea and the people involved should be banished to the void beyond the stars. They can listen to their “podcasts” there.

This is like a fractal of stupid. Any portion of it is just as stupid as any other portion. I suspect it’s a joke.

I feel like everyone knows the ownership class is ruining everything, but no one wants to do anything.

But that’s not true. I just hang out with people with more class consciousness, I guess. The average idiot probably blames the queers and the non-whites. “They had to raise the price of CoD because of all the money spent on sensitivity and diversity!” is probably something a dud sincerely believes.

Sometimes I wish real life was more like some video games, and I could just crouch behind those people, snap their neck, and dump the body in a bush with no consequences.

“Cars are freedom!” … so long as you register it with the government, insure it with a private insurance company, carry a photo ID from the government. Where a train you just pay and get on, or a bike you just ride.

I remember ICQ being better in every way I cared about, except I couldn’t get people to use it. (offline messaging, you could change your display name without making a new account, other stuff I forget). Kind of like trying to get people to use fediverse stuff now, I guess.

Has this been covered anywhere?

It just seems like there are so many people in the US that are like “we can’t have more mandated vacation days! Chad doesn’t work as hard as I do and if he has something nice, I’ll die! Also my boss said the company is really depending on me- if I put in the extra hours he can buy another sports car this quarter!”

There’s shockingly low class solidarity among labor.

5 weeks is an insult and harmful to the child. Also not something to brag about.

gives you the right to 12 whole fucking unpaid

unpaid

That’s not really something to brag about. But poe’s law is real, and maybe you’re doing a bit?

Many people are just scared all the time. No one’s smart when they’re scared. The body doesn’t let you. They think the police will protect them.

Right wing media is largely to blame. And segregation and under funded education, public spaces. And suburbs + car culture isolating everyone.

Pretty much every right wing idea is bad.

“there must be in-groups for the law to protect but not bind, and out groups for the law to bind but not protect”

Apparently about 40% of adults get insufficient sleep, if the CDC is to be trusted. That’s pretty bad.

I started setting an alarm for myself to go to bed. Now I have better sleep habits. I used to stay up too late, but then I’d be in a brain fog the next day and it sucked. An extra hour of video game isn’t worth the following day and its video games sucking.

When people talk about their income they usually talk about gross, which is pre-tax. When someone says “I make $100k a year” they don’t typically mean they take home net $100k.

Investments are typically also only taxed when you realize the gains, so if you have $3mm and “earn” $300k, you only pay taxes if you sell some of that. Other interest, like from a high yield savings, is taxed as income.

Health insurance is a nightmare, but there are options in this hellscape for buying it. Many poor people are also just uninsured, so you’re not much worse off than them in this scenario.

Did you have any details you wanted to talk about, or did you just want to try to be pithy?

It is kind of fucked up that if you’re even mildly rich, you essentially get basic income.

If you have $1 million, a fairly conservative investment strategy will get you $100k per year. That’s about the median income for NYC. You’ll probably get closer to $150k, since vanguard usually gets about 15% returns. That’s just sticking the money in Vanguard and doing nothing else. Sit at home playing final fantasy and “earn” more than a teacher.

If you’re richer, but not even mega-rich, say $3 million, you can put it in an *insured high yield savings and take home $135,000 a year. Or diversify, put some in vanguard, some in bonds, and some in high yield savings. You’ll “earn” more than many people do at their jobs.

You could then just do what you want with your days. Write a book. Finish your backlog of games. Start a band. Whatever you want. You’d be free.

I want everyone to have basic income, not just the rich.

I imagine early intervention helps, but right-wing (ie: authoritarian) people don’t want to invest in quality education. Not the kind with a good teacher-student ratio and time spent on social skills.

I take public transit or walk almost everywhere. It’s not very stressful. I’d like to bike more, but there are too many cars and not enough separated bike lanes.

CitiBike, a bike rental service in NYC, is pretty good. You don’t have to worry about locking your bike up or storing it. You just pick one up, ride it, and return it. Unfortunately it’s kind of pricey and run for profit, and sometimes there aren’t enough bikes (or too many bikes, and no docks to return yours to). And the bikes aren’t the highest quality. Also, as always, the cars really sour the whole experience. But I think a public run bike rental service would be good.