Pineapple Express: Someone Is Wrong on the Internet?

[Thomas Shey]

Yup. Words don’t just mean what I’m intending to say. They mean a random mix of all the things all of you have read and heard them mean, and all the things you want them to mean when you use them, and how and I actually do use them, which never 100% exactly what we were aiming for every time. This is why I try to be amenable to alternative phrasing and to mixing up my word choices from time to time, so that I don’t become more attached to a signifier than the thing signified.

Or as I put it, "people who shrug things off as semantics clearly don't understand why semantics exists as a field of study". Communication is every bit as much connotation as denotation.

 

[Hussar]

Alternatively people can use the words they actually mean and not make me have to guess what they're trying to say.

Ah yes. It’s ever so much more productive to nit pick than actually address points. Bring technically correct is always better and more conducive to an exchange of ideas.

 

[Hussar]

One could, but it allows the discussion to be framed in a way that I do not think is at all useful. I also don't think its a habit to be encouraged, and do not find it inappropriate to discourage it.

And thus we spend endless pages in over pedantic wankery.

But I’m currently far too grumpy for this thread so I’ll be stepping away now.

 

[Velderan]

Ah yes. It’s ever so much more productive to nit pick than actually address points. Bring technically correct is always better and more conducive to an exchange of ideas.

The problem is in a lot of cases, saying "no one" isn't addressing a point. It often comes off as being incredibly dismissive of the other person's point, so using something more accurate can help a discussion better.

 

[payn]

The problem is in a lot of cases, saying "no one" isn't addressing a point. It often comes off as being incredibly dismissive of the other person's point, so using something more accurate can help a discussion better.

Alternatively, do folks really need to be told they cant physically eat a horse in a single sitting no matter how hungry they are?

 

[Velderan]

Alternatively, do folks really need to be told they cant physically eat a horse in a single sitting no matter how hungry they are?

Probably.

 

[trappedslider]

According to the downloader, I have 4 minutes 17 minutes 4 hours 132 days left on this download...


That seems a bit excessive.




(And you thought your internet was slow... )

picks up the phone and calls you causing it to disconnect

 

[Gradine]

Semantics is a fascinating field study, and also an absolutely dreadful topic of argument.

If you feel you need clarification on a point made with some form of rhetorical irony (hyperbole, for instance), ask for it, then continue to move on with the actual substance of the topic at hand.

I say this as someone on the spectrum, someone who has been on all sides of this exchange in the past; if you focus less on what someone is saying and more on how they're saying it, people will hate* you, and they'll be right to.



*This here is rhetorical hyperbole; most people won't literally hate you, but you'll certainly tick them the hell off, and for no good reason

 

[Gradine]

This is all academic, for the most part; while not every time (maybe 7 out of 10) semantic nitpicking is mostly a purposeful tactic by bad actors to detail a discussion they don't agree with the premise of.

 

[Thomas Shey]

And thus we spend endless pages in over pedantic wankery.

There's a simple solution; don't drop into hyperbole or overgeneralization. Otherwise you're effectively saying "Its okay for someone to come out and yell at the world but not for people to knock it off because it might create an ongoing argument."

No. Just no.

(By the by, unless my browser is just being weird, something very strange happened with your quoting in the last two posts).