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The words aren’t the problem, it’s the authenticity of the speaker. Which is why marketing sucks. The person is literally being paid to say the words. As fake

The words aren’t the problem, it’s the authenticity of the speaker. Which is why marketing sucks. The person is literally being paid to say the words. As fake as it gets.

A4ET8a8uTh0 2y ago
I realized something similar the other day. In US, we seem to be starved for anyone with any kind of real belief ( even if we disagree ), which, if it is sustained for long enough time, we tend to perceive as conviction. Naturally, there are attempts to replicate that, but it is not easy to replicate years of actual effort.
- BiteCode_dev 2y ago
  It's worse than that. The whole American language is normalizing toward exaggeration and the use of superlatives for even the most mundane things. As a consequence, nuances as lost, debates are instantly polarizing, and words lose substance and meaning, so you get little information out of many discussions. It's not just the bots that make the noise/signal ratio go down. It's also the people. I hear words like fascists/communists, friends/hilarious, amazing/shit used in such a large spectrum of situations they eventually convey nothing more than what tribe the speaker wants to be identified with and what gains said person hopes to get from talking. On top of that now, when you need to talk about the extremes, you are lacking the tools to do so, and all things seem to be more or less at the same level. Minor inconvenience and deadly risks, all in the same plater. And don't get me started on the constant virtue signaling and sale speeches. From my European point of view, the US communication looks like a circus.
  - sandspar 2y ago
    It's always nice when Europeans play free with their comments on America as if they understand it.
    - cue_the_strings 2y ago
      How else is he going to feel superior? Establishment politicians in Europe, on the other hand, pretend to be nuanced, tolerant, resolute... But it's all a charade for midwits. It's as disgusting and dishonest as as American politicians' partizanship. Dark times when "authoritarian" Chinese sound reasonable in comparison.
      - BiteCode_dev 2y ago
        Oh no, I fully understand the extent of our own obsolescence.
    - BiteCode_dev 2y ago
      At this point, I'm still waiting for any clue showing America understands itself.
    - ManuelKiessling 2y ago
      Well, we might not understand the US (how could we — and what would that even mean?), but your parent commentor sure does understand how they perceive certain phenomena and how they feel about them. I will never be able to create music like, idk, Boy George for example, and I therefore don’t “understand” it, but that doesn’t mean I cannot dislike it.
  - saghm 2y ago
    > The whole American language is normalizing toward exaggeration and the use of superlatives for even the most mundane things. > From my European point of view, the US communication looks like a circus. "instantly polarizing", "constant virtue signaling"...it sounds like it's not just Americans who are tending towards superlatives and exaggeration.
    - BiteCode_dev 2y ago
      When in Rome.
  - drewcoo 2y ago
    > The whole American language is normalizing toward exaggeration That is lovely.
    - BiteCode_dev 2y ago
      One must fit the medium to the target audience.
curtisblaine 2y ago
Gaming the system is the ultimate problem of the Internet: writing catchy titles to less than average articles to compete for attention, using tricks to rank higher in search results, creating mock videos to trick users into installing otherwise shitty games. Sometimes I think that the punishment for gaming the rules should be much harder, but I wouldn't know how to implement that.
btilly 2y ago
The immediate problem isn't the authenticity of the speaker, it is the perceived authenticity of the speaker. Thanks to overuse, speakers who use those particular phrases won't get perceived as authentic. Which means that they won't get to prove whether they are one way or the other. Of course the right marketing statement can at best get your foot in the door. You have to actually deliver to succeed. (Except in enterprise sales. Which are broken exactly because the decision makers aren't the ones who have to use the software, so marketing matters more than quality.)

The words aren’t the problem, it’s the authenticity of the speaker. Which is why marketing sucks. The person is literally being paid to say the words. As fake as it gets.

A4ET8a8uTh0 2y ago

I realized something similar the other day. In US, we seem to be starved for anyone with any kind of real belief ( even if we disagree ), which, if it is sustained for long enough time, we tend to perceive as conviction. Naturally, there are attempts to replicate that, but it is not easy to replicate years of actual effort.

BiteCode_dev 2y ago
It's worse than that. The whole American language is normalizing toward exaggeration and the use of superlatives for even the most mundane things. As a consequence, nuances as lost, debates are instantly polarizing, and words lose substance and meaning, so you get little information out of many discussions. It's not just the bots that make the noise/signal ratio go down. It's also the people. I hear words like fascists/communists, friends/hilarious, amazing/shit used in such a large spectrum of situations they eventually convey nothing more than what tribe the speaker wants to be identified with and what gains said person hopes to get from talking. On top of that now, when you need to talk about the extremes, you are lacking the tools to do so, and all things seem to be more or less at the same level. Minor inconvenience and deadly risks, all in the same plater. And don't get me started on the constant virtue signaling and sale speeches. From my European point of view, the US communication looks like a circus.
- sandspar 2y ago
  It's always nice when Europeans play free with their comments on America as if they understand it.
  - cue_the_strings 2y ago
    How else is he going to feel superior? Establishment politicians in Europe, on the other hand, pretend to be nuanced, tolerant, resolute... But it's all a charade for midwits. It's as disgusting and dishonest as as American politicians' partizanship. Dark times when "authoritarian" Chinese sound reasonable in comparison.
    - BiteCode_dev 2y ago
      Oh no, I fully understand the extent of our own obsolescence.
  - BiteCode_dev 2y ago
    At this point, I'm still waiting for any clue showing America understands itself.
  - ManuelKiessling 2y ago
    Well, we might not understand the US (how could we — and what would that even mean?), but your parent commentor sure does understand how they perceive certain phenomena and how they feel about them. I will never be able to create music like, idk, Boy George for example, and I therefore don’t “understand” it, but that doesn’t mean I cannot dislike it.
- saghm 2y ago
  > The whole American language is normalizing toward exaggeration and the use of superlatives for even the most mundane things. > From my European point of view, the US communication looks like a circus. "instantly polarizing", "constant virtue signaling"...it sounds like it's not just Americans who are tending towards superlatives and exaggeration.
  - BiteCode_dev 2y ago
    When in Rome.
- drewcoo 2y ago
  > The whole American language is normalizing toward exaggeration That is lovely.
  - BiteCode_dev 2y ago
    One must fit the medium to the target audience.

curtisblaine 2y ago

Gaming the system is the ultimate problem of the Internet: writing catchy titles to less than average articles to compete for attention, using tricks to rank higher in search results, creating mock videos to trick users into installing otherwise shitty games. Sometimes I think that the punishment for gaming the rules should be much harder, but I wouldn't know how to implement that.

btilly 2y ago

The immediate problem isn't the authenticity of the speaker, it is the perceived authenticity of the speaker. Thanks to overuse, speakers who use those particular phrases won't get perceived as authentic. Which means that they won't get to prove whether they are one way or the other. Of course the right marketing statement can at best get your foot in the door. You have to actually deliver to succeed. (Except in enterprise sales. Which are broken exactly because the decision makers aren't the ones who have to use the software, so marketing matters more than quality.)