Joined the Mayqueeze.

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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • I think apart from the spelling mistake there is one logical error in it for maximum kindness. It excludes all of those people who were fortunate enough to be surrounded by kindness. If they weren’t denied any kindness they’re allowed to be assholes.

    It’s a variation on the theme of “do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” “Meet all people with kindness who mean you no harm.” could be a rephrasing that balances maximizing outward kindness with a necessary amount of self defense.








  • There are two views on this: language creates grammar after the fact, those are rules, we need to stick to these rules, and this be the hill I die on.

    The other view is more liberal. Native speakers don’t care about these rules and naturally deviate from some. Not all, not all at once, and not always to an extent that is recognized by the majority of speakers. But occasionally, certain uses make it. The use of the past tense in constructions that by the laws of grammar should require the past participle is a feature of Black American English. The popularity of hiphop and rap have spread this all over the world. With the now much derided term “woke” it has even reached other languages.

    By heart I’m a narrow minded stickler for the rules myself. The nonsensical use of “literally” still makes me mad. But that horse is so far out of the barn you can barely see it on the horizon. Fighting the fight for clean past tense/past participle separation may be one against windmills.

    English as a Germanic language comes from a protolanguage that probably only had irregular verbs in the vein of sing-sang-sung. Over time, and probably out of desperation by people who needed to learn it as a second language via migration and mingling, the verbs we now consider regular (team -ed) came about later. Language changes. English is living proof with its spelling making no sense at all and clear influences of Viking and Norman invasions and the spread around the world via the Empire. American English made spelling changes. Indian (Asia) English developed its own unique characteristics that may deviate from the King’s version. There is such a thing as EU English where you can see what happens when mostly non-natives go to town in it.

    Grammar came after the spoken version. It’s like a constitution that can be changed by quiet, gradual consensus.