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The best thing about written English is how malleable it is. Everybody doesn't have to mean everybody.
by mrkurt 4y ago
The best thing about written English is how malleable it is. Everybody doesn't have to mean everybody.
- CoastalCoder 4y agoMy current view is that ambiguous language only benefits poets and disingenuous scoundrels (politicians, sleazy marketers, etc.) That said, I'm open to being talked out of this viewpoint. Being cynical makes me unhappy.
- mrkurt 4y agoThomas is definitely a disingenuous scoundrel. In all seriousness, I laugh at absurd absolutes. If you show me a sentence with "Most people" and the same sentence with "Everybody", I'm going to smile at the second. But I don't think that means it's ambiguous. "I literally died" makes me laugh but there's no deception.
- xpe 4y agoThis is why we can't have nice things. e.g. remember when "synergy" actually meant something?
- rightbyte 4y agoI literally remember that.