Nuh uh. 😝

Both examples are similar to anapodotons. They include an implicit thesis. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot because bullets do way more damage than movies let on, your foot will likely never work right again, and even if it does you’ll have endured months of easily avoidable pain and suffering. Don’t jump off a cliff because you’ll likely die and, even if you survive, you’ll have to endure a lifetime of debilitation, pain, and suffering, that could have been easily avoided.

These are also similar to thought-terminating cliches and tangentially related to mondegreens. Anapodotons can be insidious. Fluent speakers unfamiliar with the phrase can tell there’s more to it and, since the general meaning can be implied through context, folks avoid the awkwardness of admitting their ignorance (something we should all be more comfortable with - but that’s a separate discussion) and miss out on the nuance of some “common wisdom”.

A bit of common wisdom is that “common sense isn’t common”. These cultural and psychological quirks manifest in our languages are part of the reason why. Not shooting yourself is a great example because for most people this is an obviously stupid thing to do and, yet, hundreds of people accidentally kill themselves via negligent discharge every year and thousands more are maimed. How often do we believe “don’t shoot yourself” is sufficient advice when, in reality, proper safety training is required to keep that person alive? How often do those hearing the common wisdom believe they know all they need for that cliche to work its magic?

There’s a lot of value in being aware of these linguistic traps and avoiding them when we think to do so. Like being the child that chooses to stop perpetuating generational trauma and abuse. We can choose better words, better phrases, and stop expecting that other people already know what we take for granted.

It isn’t just one thing. The big money wants to present this unified front to the public like LLMs are a single commodity anyone can use. In reality they’re a collection of complex tools that few can use " correctly" and whose utility is highly specialized for niches those few find valuable.

So you’re correct in a way. I’m sure model decoherence isn’t helping much either and isn’t as visible in those niche applications as it is for the general public.

Your comment makes no sense and helps no one.

The Tea Party was an astroturf’d campaign cooked up by the Koch brothers to realign conservative ideology with oligarchy under the guise of “originalist” patriotism. A very successful farce.

Much like the “right to life”, “Moral Majority” (which is a useful misnomer for Christian Conservative minority), and the rest of American Conservatism. Effective smoke and mirrors. All of it.

I keep seeing this sentiment and I don’t understand it. Are you speaking purely out of anger and ignorance? The recent No Kings protest was either the third or first largest protest in the history of the U.S.A. and some communities have literally been running ICE gestapo out of their towns.

The Christian Conservative minority have gridlocked the American government, silently stacked the judicial system in their favor, and partnered with the American oligarchy to bankroll fascists and create the most pervasive, effective, and enduring propaganda machines ever seen (that’s already worked its way into Australia and had been finding footholds in Europe).

The idea than Americans aren’t doing anything about this or that there could ever possibly be a single unified movement that magically fixes “the issue” is incoherently reductive and impractical. If I see a comrade struggling for air I don’t yell at them to just breathe. I help them remove the pig standing on their neck. What are YOU doing to lend a hand or show lost comrades that there’s still hope?

Illegally! Amendment 13, Section 3:

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

No such vote was held. The disability was not removed. Allowing the tried and convicted impeached and indicted insurrectionist Donald Trump to appear on any ballot for any public position, State or Federal, after he was convicted impeached and indicted of for insurrection against the United States was the beginning of the Constitutional crisis we are now mired in and all of Congress is complicit.

Edited: a word. I don’t give a flying fuck what the corrupted kangaroo circus in DC voted reality was. Anyone able to tie their own shoes who lived through that event knows what the truth is.

The Charlotte Urbanists in North Carolina have a Benches 4 Bus Stops program that’s doing similar work. I can also share info resources for those on the East Coast.

What’s your point and why do you think it matters in this context?

Preface: I’m American. I grew up in a Christian Conservative home. I was homeschooled, went to Christian Conservative schools, and attended a “Bible College”. I escaped after college and have been self-educating and trying to help others escape since then. The post below got a bit long in the tooth but the answer to your question is tough to explain succinctly. Bear with me if you can.

Most Americans have been coerced since birth into wage slavery that intentionally denies them any legal means of fulfilling their basic needs. This is true for “upper class” and “impoverished” Americans alike but by different methods. American corporate culture and common political propaganda brainwashes people into believing the fault for this lies with their neighbors and extended family. This has trapped many in generational self-oppression and conditioned them to believe that this is both normal and necessary either for their own survival or the survival of some principal(s) without which society crumbles.

They are discouraged from participating in deep introspection, engaging in political dialogue, keeping up with current events, etc. This is perpetuated not only by their peers and leaders (if their leaders speak to them at all) but by the same systems on which they are dependent.

Access to information leads to education and freedom. That’s bad for business. It’s also why almost all of the American Progressive movements (such as they are) are led by those born after Gen X (which is a topic I’ll set aside for another thread).

So… What’s going on?

A plan set in motion during the sixties as a response to the Civil Rights movement and integration; crystalized in the seventies by Paul Weyrich, the Heritage Foundation (yes, that one), and Jerry Falwell et al; normalized in the eighties using abortion as a wedge issue and fabricating the “right to life” movement; and has been co-opted by the survivors of the fall of aristocracy (now known as oligarchs) to seize power over the means of governance, justice, and national self-determination.

Politico has a great article from over a decade ago that covers the rise of the American Religious Right in more detail: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/05/religious-right-real-origins-107133/

Many Americans are completely unaware of the origins and motivations for the beliefs they’ve adopted and now identify with. They vote along party lines without even knowing who the people they vote for actually are or what they intend to do with the power afforded them. This isn’t an accident. It’s a coordinated attack on the common people whose perpetrators wield the people’s ignorance as an orbitoclast and treat misinformation like an opiate. Citizens can’t be appalled by the behavior in that video if they never see it, can’t be convinced it’s real, or are deluded enough to think it’s always been that way.

There’s still hope but we’re short on time and don’t yet have effective strategies against the tacticians at the top of the pyramid. I don’t know what the path out of this looks like yet but I know we’re at a disadvantage, that we’ll need help, and that free information and education are key parts of it. My ancestors were forced to flee from the Nazis. They wouldn’t have survived without the compassion of strangers working for the common good across language barriers and disparate ideologies. I still have family in Europe who lived through that reality. I’ve met them and heard their stories. I know what’s at stake and how bad it can get.

I’ve heard that small men only cast long shadows when the sun is low in the sky. I think that’s true and that night is upon us. If the shadow of America hangs over the world after the sun has set then it is cast by powerful few using the husk of Liberty as a shadow puppet. Her torch a bonfire and its fuel the working class. All made fat and docile: ready to burn while blaming their friends for the inconvenience. The point is not the spectacle though. This Hydra is cold-blooded and it needs the warmth of the flame to survive. We’ve got to figure out how to deny it that foothold.

That’s what the ever-loving fuck is going on.

Call 1-877-447-4487

https://girightshotline.org/

They can help.

All people are born ignorant to their material circumstances and the conditions necessary for them. Disadvantaged folk often have a more difficult path out of that ignorance. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs provides some insight into why: one rarely has capacity for deep introspection when they’ve been deprived of basic needs.

The US Military (among others) purposefully recruit more heavily in economically depressed areas. This has been true for decades. These two facts are correlated. Couple this with American Exceptionalist propaganda which created the myth and social elevation of the American Soldier as the ultimate freedom fighter / patriot and maybe you can sympathize with those who enlist.

My point is not that individuals should be excused from being taken to task for their actions. Nor is it that all those who enlist are duped into it. It’s this: people are rarely lost causes, are often unguided, and live unexamined lives. So when confronting anyone: their personal context matters. When I’m struggling to find empathy I look to Daryl Davis. When we encounter ignorance, hate, and bigotry, we are right to oppose it. Always. How we do so should be conditioned, and possibly tempered, by the fact that we ourselves are ignorant to the context of the neighbors assigned to oppress us.

Do not dismiss out of hand the power of speaking to reason and empathy in the face of violence and hate. Take them to task with the intention of educating a lost comrade. We must defend ourselves when the need arises but, prior to that Rubicon, we ought to acknowledge that were it not for circumstances outside our control so too could we have remained ignorant and been persuaded toward hate.

There is no more stalwart an ally than one who has been given the tools to free themselves from chains they were sold as armor.