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Growing up outside of the US, I feel kinda cringed when he said he was "INSANELY proud of our collective teams achieved". Such an interesting cultural differenc

Growing up outside of the US, I feel kinda cringed when he said he was "INSANELY proud of our collective teams achieved". Such an interesting cultural difference.

rossdavidh 4y ago
I grew up in the US, and I also found that odd. Not unprecedented, but odd. The literal interpretation of that statement might be more justifiable than the one he meant...
bobthepanda 4y ago
it's cringeworthy in the US outside of the job-finding/bragging echo chamber this kind of post normally shows up in
- bogomipz 4y ago
  I also believe there would also be a large segment of the US that finds these "job-finding/bragging echo chamber" Twitter posts cringeworthy regardless of context. They appear oddly performative and obligatory. Stay tuned for the follow up "I'm incredibly excited to announce that today I am joining ___" post.
bobro 4y ago
you should read this more from the perpective of a dude who just lost his job and will need to soon get rehired. not really a US culture thing.
mypalmike 4y ago
What's the issue? Using the adverb "insanely" in a positive light? Or that he's proud?
TameAntelope 4y ago
What's odd about it? Why wouldn't he be proud of his team for successfully building stuff he thought was important to build?
- robonerd 4y ago
  Being so proud you lose your sanity? That's quite odd. It's an insane amount of hyperbole.
  - babypuncher 4y ago
    Seems like a pretty typical use of the word "insane" in the US.
    - robonerd 4y ago
      Yes, I agree. That's probably why hintymad shared the context of not being raised in the US.
      - thieving_magpie 4y ago
        The cultural difference doesn't seem like something to "cringe" over. I also don't think the hyperbolic use is restricted to the US. Pretty much any english speaking country will use "insane" to describe something with emphasis. Certainly normal in the UK and Australia.
        robonerd 4y ago
        > I also don't think the hyperbolic use is restricted to the US. Strictly restricted? Of course not. But for what it's worth I've been told by numerous Europeans that they perceive casually throwing around extreme hyperbole to be characteristically American behavior. I guess it goes with waitresses pretending to love you.
    - isbjorn16 4y ago
      it's kind of insane to me that this is seen as insane, if I'm honest
  - TameAntelope 4y ago
    Insanely is just operating as a term of emphasis in this context. Maybe that's not an easy translation? One definition for "insanely" is [0]: > to an extreme degree. [0] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/insanely https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/insanely
websap 4y ago
Can you say more? Why did you find it cringey?
stagger87 4y ago
It's boring executive marketing speak, and it's prevalent worldwide, not just in the US.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
Ombudsman 4y ago
This comment is insanely cringey
samatman 4y ago
This quirk of dialect should be called the California Superlative. Everything is awesome, amazing, radical, insane, great, gnarly, not to mention sick, ill, righteous, dope. Californians just love superlatives, use them constantly, wear them out, and need new ones. This spreads like a fine coating of mold over the rest of the country before going on to annoy the Commonwealth, and then we repeat. It's pretty cool.
- dehrmann 4y ago
  Considering this is Norcal, you forgot hella.
  - samatman 4y ago
    Good point, and the place of hella in the dialect is hella distinctive, because it's a superlative modifier: hella sick, hella insane, "I just bought hella strawberries at the market", and so on. So you have a politeness continuum from very, to hecka, to hella, to fuckin'. Which is dank.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
_moof 4y ago
It really seems to me that in American English, every word eventually gets watered down to mean either "good," "bad," or "very." Take the word "terrific" for example. It used to have connotations of terror. Now it's just another synonym for "excellent." Or "fantastic," the old meaning of which is still found in the related "fantastical," but now simply means "very good." Or "incredible," which used to mean "not believable." I could go on. And when every superlative has been watered down like this, you need to pick a word that's completely over the top to express anything with any strength of feeling. It's good, it's great, it's awesome! It's fantastic! It's incredible!! It's insanely unbelievably wonderful!!! "Insanely" is just the latest entry in our internal linguistic arms race.
- jrootabega 4y ago
  Yep, and people using "absolutely" all the time is the crown jewel. In the past few years there's been a similar but opposite degradation: the only adverbs anyone uses are "super", "super not", and "not super". I think it came from the infantilized condescending culture on Twitter.
biztos 4y ago
I agree with the other replies about California Superlative in general, but at least in German it would not be weird for some corporate bro to say he was "WAHNSINNIG stolz..." which means exactly the same thing.

Growing up outside of the US, I feel kinda cringed when he said he was "INSANELY proud of our collective teams achieved". Such an interesting cultural difference.

rossdavidh 4y ago

I grew up in the US, and I also found that odd. Not unprecedented, but odd. The literal interpretation of that statement might be more justifiable than the one he meant...

bobthepanda 4y ago

it's cringeworthy in the US outside of the job-finding/bragging echo chamber this kind of post normally shows up in

bogomipz 4y ago
I also believe there would also be a large segment of the US that finds these "job-finding/bragging echo chamber" Twitter posts cringeworthy regardless of context. They appear oddly performative and obligatory. Stay tuned for the follow up "I'm incredibly excited to announce that today I am joining ___" post.

bobro 4y ago

you should read this more from the perpective of a dude who just lost his job and will need to soon get rehired. not really a US culture thing.

mypalmike 4y ago

What's the issue? Using the adverb "insanely" in a positive light? Or that he's proud?

TameAntelope 4y ago

What's odd about it? Why wouldn't he be proud of his team for successfully building stuff he thought was important to build?

robonerd 4y ago
Being so proud you lose your sanity? That's quite odd. It's an insane amount of hyperbole.
- babypuncher 4y ago
  Seems like a pretty typical use of the word "insane" in the US.
  - robonerd 4y ago
    Yes, I agree. That's probably why hintymad shared the context of not being raised in the US.
    - thieving_magpie 4y ago
      The cultural difference doesn't seem like something to "cringe" over. I also don't think the hyperbolic use is restricted to the US. Pretty much any english speaking country will use "insane" to describe something with emphasis. Certainly normal in the UK and Australia.
      - robonerd 4y ago
        > I also don't think the hyperbolic use is restricted to the US. Strictly restricted? Of course not. But for what it's worth I've been told by numerous Europeans that they perceive casually throwing around extreme hyperbole to be characteristically American behavior. I guess it goes with waitresses pretending to love you.
  - isbjorn16 4y ago
    it's kind of insane to me that this is seen as insane, if I'm honest
- TameAntelope 4y ago
  Insanely is just operating as a term of emphasis in this context. Maybe that's not an easy translation? One definition for "insanely" is [0]: > to an extreme degree. [0] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/insanely https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/insanely

websap 4y ago

Can you say more? Why did you find it cringey?

stagger87 4y ago

It's boring executive marketing speak, and it's prevalent worldwide, not just in the US.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

Ombudsman 4y ago

This comment is insanely cringey

samatman 4y ago

This quirk of dialect should be called the California Superlative. Everything is awesome, amazing, radical, insane, great, gnarly, not to mention sick, ill, righteous, dope. Californians just love superlatives, use them constantly, wear them out, and need new ones. This spreads like a fine coating of mold over the rest of the country before going on to annoy the Commonwealth, and then we repeat. It's pretty cool.

dehrmann 4y ago
Considering this is Norcal, you forgot hella.
- samatman 4y ago
  Good point, and the place of hella in the dialect is hella distinctive, because it's a superlative modifier: hella sick, hella insane, "I just bought hella strawberries at the market", and so on. So you have a politeness continuum from very, to hecka, to hella, to fuckin'. Which is dank.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

_moof 4y ago

It really seems to me that in American English, every word eventually gets watered down to mean either "good," "bad," or "very." Take the word "terrific" for example. It used to have connotations of terror. Now it's just another synonym for "excellent." Or "fantastic," the old meaning of which is still found in the related "fantastical," but now simply means "very good." Or "incredible," which used to mean "not believable." I could go on. And when every superlative has been watered down like this, you need to pick a word that's completely over the top to express anything with any strength of feeling. It's good, it's great, it's awesome! It's fantastic! It's incredible!! It's insanely unbelievably wonderful!!! "Insanely" is just the latest entry in our internal linguistic arms race.

jrootabega 4y ago
Yep, and people using "absolutely" all the time is the crown jewel. In the past few years there's been a similar but opposite degradation: the only adverbs anyone uses are "super", "super not", and "not super". I think it came from the infantilized condescending culture on Twitter.

biztos 4y ago

I agree with the other replies about California Superlative in general, but at least in German it would not be weird for some corporate bro to say he was "WAHNSINNIG stolz..." which means exactly the same thing.