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I don't agree that jerks are people who don't care about other people's individual circumstances. Jerks are people who think that everyone else is a jerk, which
by wisty 9y ago
I don't agree that jerks are people who don't care about other people's individual circumstances. Jerks are people who think that everyone else is a jerk, which is how they excuse their behaviour.
It's not that they don't care why the waiter messed up their order, it's that they think the waiter messed up because they're a jerk.
- revscat 9y agoThis strikes me as circular.
- late2part 9y agoYour comment strikes me as circular.
- danans 9y ago> the waiter messed up because they're a jerk That's a subordinate clause where "jerk" is referring to the waiter, not the main subject, hence it's not circular.
- ams6110 9y agoAnd people think singular "they" is OK in writing. Try: the waiter messed up because he's a jerk.
- PrunJuice 9y ago"They" is generally accepted as a singular gender neutral pronoun.
- jon_richards 9y agoAnd has been since the Canterbury Tales! It's a modern development that it isn't considered "correct" English.
- Normal_gaussian 9y ago600 years is long enough for me
- yorwba 9y agoThat's not a unique problem of they: "The man shoved the waiter because he was in his way." Pronouns only have a few bits of information, everything else has to be inferred from context. (A big problem in natural language processing.)
- tatterdemalion 9y agoThis doesn't do anything at all to resolve the ambiguity in this sentence.
- tnone 9y agoIf this is such a problem, do you think it's a problem too that English doesn't distinguish between singular and plural you?
- oddlyaromatic 9y agoHere's a short review on the use of the singular "they". It is OK. https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/singular-nonbinary-they https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/singular-nonbi...
- wkrause 9y agoSounds like a narrow application of the fundamental attribution bias. Not sure that explains everything, but I'd bet it plays a big part.
- lliamander 9y agoWhen my wife was teaching preschool, she said the kids who caused the most trouble also felt that many things other people were doing things deliberately to upset them. It was kind of a reverse of Hanlon's Razor.
- Svip 9y agoI think Bender said it best: "Yeah, but everyone's a jerk. You, me, this jerk. That's my philosophy."
- e40 9y agoPerhaps them thinking everyone is a jerk is a side effect of their narcissism.