Misused Terms You're Sick of Seeing

Fiairflair

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Oct 16, 2012
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1.
"That begs the question." To beg the question is to make an argument that assumes its conclusion in its premise. If you think an observation prompts a question, it raises that question.

2.
"Less" + count noun. This one happens all the time. It's simple.

Mass noun + larger than = more
Count noun + larger than = more

Mass noun + smaller than = less
Count noun + smaller than = fewer

3.
Who and whom. It seems absurd to me that people don't understand the difference between the subject and object of a sentence (or even understand that they exist).
The subject of a sentence is the party that is acting.
The object of a sentence is the party that is being acted upon.
There are direct and indirect objects, but for this error they aren't relevant. To use who and whom correctly you only need to know that "who" relates to the subject and "whom" relates to the object.

4.
"Myself" instead of "me". "Yourself" instead of "you".
At least people who make this error are trying to get it right. Never-the-less, myself and yourself are reflexive pronouns and should only really be used when me/you has already been mentioned in the same sentence. Some people like to say things like 'It's not for me, myself.' This is to give emphasis (which you don't need in those places), but I think it sounds silly.

There are so many more, but these are the ones that grate against the sides of my brain.

EDIT: It only just occurred to me that none of these refer to opinions and ideas. Perhaps I've a higher tolerance for nonsense than I thought.
 

Karathos

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May 10, 2009
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Pretty much every single buzzword that originates from the big bucket of Tumblr-clichés. People keep making up new words for things we already have and just overcomplicate things in order to sound more cutesy or fantastic or unique and it needs to stop.
 

DrOswald

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LeathermanKick25 said:
KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime said:
LeathermanKick25 said:
Not so much misused, but anyone who uses the term cis-gendered. You come across as nothing more than a complete wanker. Also people throwing around offended at anything online. As Stephen Fry said, so the fuck what if you are?
For the cis-gendered part. You know what? I'm transgender, want me to call you normal? Fine then you can call me normal too. I'm not a wanker for using the term to describe people who aren't trans, and I'm not going to other my self for your privileged self importance. Cis-gender means you have a standard gender identity, but to call you normal means I'm actively abnormal, if you want me to force that on myself, you can go look someplace else.

For the second part? Sure let other people be offended at things you don't find offensive. But it's being anti-social to not at least try to understand why.
Call me straight, hell of a lot easier to type out too. You're trans? I'll call you trans. Look at that, problem solved!
Dude, trans is not on the same axis as strait. It has nothing to do with being strait. You seem to be working on a incredibly poor understanding of gender identity.
 

DrOswald

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JoJo said:
ForumSafari said:
JoJo said:
"Sealioning" A lot of people wrongly interpret this as just asking questions. No, sealioning is when one asks questions repeatedly to someone who has made clear they don't want to talk to you. The last part is key, nothing wrong with asking questions, what is wrong is repeatedly badgering someone after they've explicitly asked you to stop.
The problem with that is that a lot of these discussions are had in public and are aimed at convincing people of things, so refusing to answer questions and getting mad when someone repeatedly asks you to back your shit up is hugely unreasonable.
No-one is obligated to talk to anyone, excepting under a court of law in certain circumstances, if someone doesn't want to talk to you then it's best just to leave them be rather than bugging them repeatedly. If they refuse to back up a statement, it's for everyone else to judge the accuracy of that statement.
But in a public discussion it is unreasonable to expect detractors to shut up and go away because you don't feel like (or can't) answering their counter claims, which is the context I most often see the claim of sealioning come up. Detractors wont just shut up and go away so. And, of course, this term most often comes up in relation to feminism, because that is how the term originated.

Basically, my observation is that feminist X makes some claim, and people put challenge points/questions to the point. Feminist X never answers, and again makes the same claim soon later, and the claim is again challenged, which again goes unanswered. Repeat the process about 10 times and someone will start saying "sealioning!" But I feel that is a major cop out - it is basically saying that feminist X should be able to spread their views as often as they want, while people challenging that view should be arbitrarily limited.

It is only a fair discussion if detractors are allowed to speak as often as people attempt to make the point, and only a fair discussion can have any value and should have any place in swaying public opinion. If you are trying to sway public opinion then other people should be allowed to expose potential flaws in your reasoning. So every time you repeat your point they should be able to repeat their challenge until the challenge is fully met.

It is fine if they don't want to backup their statement, but they should fully expect that every single place they bring up it up they will and should meet the same challenges again to ensure everyone observing knows the flaw. This is how everyone else is able to judge the accuracy of the statement. They need to know the flaws. My observation is that claims of sealioning are most often used to prevent accurate judgement of a statement, not to facilitate it.

Also, sealioning itself is a really dumb term even divorced from its meaning and questionable use. Probably even dumber than the tendency to stick "gate" on the end of everything.
 

Eddie the head

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Armadox said:
DoPo said:
Armadox said:
Those that use "I could care less" is openly inviting you to make them care more...
I disagree - most, if not all, times it is used to mean "I couldn't care less". You are putting too much faith in people using this phrase as they should.
No, you see, what I am implying is that those that use that phrase should be mercilessly barraged with why they should care about anything they don't care about. You leave the invite open and all..
It's an idiom. It doesn't need to make sense. Or do you think people will actually give you a penny if you tell them what you're thinking? Or that things literately only happen when there's a blue moon?
 

bojackx

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Techno Squidgy said:
LeathermanKick25 said:
Not so much misused, but anyone who uses the term cis-gendered. You come across as nothing more than a complete wanker.
But it's an accurate technical term. Much like Cis- and Trans- isomers in chemistry. Though I think that's an outdated terminology.
I don't know man, I'm at university studying chemistry and that's the terminology the professors use.

OT:

"I'm offended" - A term that has no value and means nothing. So what if you're offended? Distance yourself from the offense, don't whine and demand change.

"Friend Zone" - Mostly because lots of people think it's this very specific concept where a "nice guy" feels entitled to sex because he's nice and then gets rejected and bitches about it. This is wrong. It just means one-way attraction where the non-interested party is also your friend.

And most gender identity terms because they also mean nothing. Sexuality tells people what people you like, gender identity tells people what meaningless word you associate yourself with.
 

Buckets

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Using the term so.... to start a sentence really annoys me.
People that still pronounce specifically as pacifically even when they know its wrong.
 

Auron225

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Oct 26, 2009
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OCD

Everyone and their mother seems to have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder these days, but all with exceptionally mild cases which just mean that they "like things to be kinda tidy in general".

No. OCD refers to someone who will FREAK OUT if things aren't the way they are "required" to be, not someone will laugh and say "Nooo, stop itttt, I'm Oh-See-Deeeeeeee".
 

Serinanth

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Apr 29, 2009
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Lemme axe you all a question.

Is calling Christmas, x-mas offensive?

As for me, I find most people that go on about how terrible GMO's are for you have no fucking clue what the term actually means. These people often have issues with the many toxins out there as well.
 

Asita

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Well to use a written example: "Could of" and related terms. It's not "I could of done this, I could of done that", it's "I could've done this, I could've done that". What sounds like "of" in the sentence is the contracted version of "have", not an actual "of".
 

Lilani

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Asita said:
Well to use a written example: "Could of" and related terms. It's not "I could of done this, I could of done that", it's "I could've done this, I could've done that". What sounds like "of" in the sentence is the contracted version of "have", not an actual "of".
Oooooooooooooooooooooh yes, this one gets me so bad. As well as mixing up "there," "their," and "they're." Those really aren't difficult to sort out and you learn it like before the age of 10. I really don't get people my age or older constantly getting these mixed up, and it hits me like a ton of bricks every time I see the mistake.
 

infohippie

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Yan007 said:
Rape culture: The idea that we live in a rape culture is ridiculous. In a society where male students will be expelled immediately and found guilty until proven innocent, there is no such thing as a rape culture.
Definitely this. I hate this stupid term so much. No, we do not live in a "rape culture". Some highly tribal parts of central Asia? That's a rape culture. A first world western country? No it's fucking not, stop being so stupid.

bojackx said:
"I'm offended" - A term that has no value and means nothing. So what if you're offended? Distance yourself from the offense, don't whine and demand change.
I have to agree with this one. Stephen Fry has some great things to say on the subject.
 

HannesPascal

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Exponential, it does not mean that something is growing really fast it means that it increases with a constant factor. If I put 1 dollar in a bank with 1 % (constant) interest rate it will steadily increase with 1 % every (let's say) month and it will take 39 years before that 1 dollar has become 100 dollars. On the other hand if I work and get 1 million dollars every month my wealth will increase rapidly but it won't increase exponentially. Eventually (180 years) that one dollar that I had in the bank will have become more than the 1 million dollars I get every month.
 

Serinanth

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HannesPascal said:
Exponential, it does not mean that something is growing really fast it means that it increases with a constant factor. If I put 1 dollar in a bank with 1 % (constant) interest rate it will steadily increase with 1 % every (let's say) month and it will take 39 years before that 1 dollar has become 100 dollars. On the other hand if I work and get 1 million dollars every month my wealth will increase rapidly but it won't increase exponentially. Eventually (180 years) that one dollar that I had in the bank will have become more than the 1 million dollars I get every month.
Exponential growth is not constant, that's the very definition of exponential. I think a better analogy would be put one dollar in the bank, at 1% interest, when it reaches 2 dollars, the interest increases to 2%, when it reaches 3 dollars, the interest increases to 3% it would continue in that manner.

What you are describing would be linear growth, a steady line increasing on a graph. An exponential graph is actually a curve, and its growth can approach infinity.

:edit: Damn started thinking about compound interest, so what you described is not linear. I'm not sure about the finance thing, you gain more interest at 100 dollars than you do at 1 dollar so while your interest rate stays the same the dollar amount increases and the gain is applied to the fixed interest.

Bacterial growth is a simpler example in my mind than finance, because maths. One becomes two, two become four, four becomes eight and so on.

Exponential growth may start out slow but it does eventually start growing very quickly.



Green is exponential
Red is linear, which is what you described.
Blue is cubic.
 

Tiger King

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I think the worst thing with some of these statements, is that after awhile you start questioning your own basic understanding of them.
Well I know I have on occasion. I kept seeing people write loose instead of lose and wondered if it was an American variant or something and I had been spelling it wrong all these years.

Has anyone said 'plothole' yet?
I know people that throw this term around after watching a film and don't understand something.
 

kurokotetsu

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Serinanth said:
HannesPascal said:
Exponential, it does not mean that something is growing really fast it means that it increases with a constant factor. If I put 1 dollar in a bank with 1 % (constant) interest rate it will steadily increase with 1 % every (let's say) month and it will take 39 years before that 1 dollar has become 100 dollars. On the other hand if I work and get 1 million dollars every month my wealth will increase rapidly but it won't increase exponentially. Eventually (180 years) that one dollar that I had in the bank will have become more than the 1 million dollars I get every month.
Exponential growth is not constant, that's the very definition of exponential. I think a better analogy would be put one dollar in the bank, at 1% interest, when it reaches 2 dollars, the interest increases to 2%, when it reaches 3 dollars, the interest increases to 3% it would continue in that manner.

What you are describing would be linear growth, a steady line increasing on a graph. An exponential graph is actually a curve, and its growth can approach infinity.

:edit: Damn started thinking about compound interest, so what you described is not linear. I'm not sure about the finance thing, you gain more interest at 100 dollars than you do at 1 dollar so while your interest rate stays the same the dollar amount increases and the gain is applied to the fixed interest.

Bacterial growth is a simpler example in my mind than finance, because maths. One becomes two, two become four, four becomes eight and so on.

Exponential growth may start out slow but it does eventually start growing very quickly.



Green is exponential
Red is linear, which is what you described.
Blue is cubic.
What he described is exponential. The exponential satisfies de differential rquation x'=kx, whi h expressed in percentajes is what he said. Compound interest grows the same way as bacteria just a different k (.01 instead of 2
 

Secondhand Revenant

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CpT_x_Killsteal said:
When certain numbnuts get it into their heads that racism and sexism mean something different to the dictionary definition because gender studies said so and dictionaries are 8 kinds of -ist.

"Herteronormative". You mean straight you pompous ****.

"cisgender", otherwise known as "not transgender". And just the word "cis" is tinged with so much venom whenever I hear people say it.

Edit: I made this when very tired, yes I'm aware that one or two of them is just ranting against words in general.
Psst you should check what a term means before complaining. Heteronormative does not mean straight. It isn't an orientation. So yeaaaaah maybe not call people pompous cunts just because they use a word you apparently don't know. The proper course is to actually ask what it means not scream insults because you don't know something, that's just not proper adult behavior
 

CaitSeith

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Gay. Like when a man sings softly and sweetly to his girl in a song full of feelings, there is always a comment saying "this is gay". Facepalm for the fool who doesn't know what gay even means.

PS: Is it me or this thread has passed from misused terms to "terms we are sick of hearing"?
 

Secondhand Revenant

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Serinanth said:
HannesPascal said:
Exponential, it does not mean that something is growing really fast it means that it increases with a constant factor. If I put 1 dollar in a bank with 1 % (constant) interest rate it will steadily increase with 1 % every (let's say) month and it will take 39 years before that 1 dollar has become 100 dollars. On the other hand if I work and get 1 million dollars every month my wealth will increase rapidly but it won't increase exponentially. Eventually (180 years) that one dollar that I had in the bank will have become more than the 1 million dollars I get every month.
Exponential growth is not constant, that's the very definition of exponential. I think a better analogy would be put one dollar in the bank, at 1% interest, when it reaches 2 dollars, the interest increases to 2%, when it reaches 3 dollars, the interest increases to 3% it would continue in that manner.

What you are describing would be linear growth, a steady line increasing on a graph. An exponential graph is actually a curve, and its growth can approach infinity.

:edit: Damn started thinking about compound interest, so what you described is not linear. I'm not sure about the finance thing, you gain more interest at 100 dollars than you do at 1 dollar so while your interest rate stays the same the dollar amount increases and the gain is applied to the fixed interest.

Bacterial growth is a simpler example in my mind than finance, because maths. One becomes two, two become four, four becomes eight and so on.

Exponential growth may start out slow but it does eventually start growing very quickly.



Green is exponential
Red is linear, which is what you described.
Blue is cubic.
He said a constant *factor*. He means you keep multiplying by the same number, which is indeed exponential. Like 2*2*2*2*...
 

Politrukk

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San Martin said:
People saying 'SJW' and 'feminazi'. There is no situation in which you should say those words. Stop.
I don't think you understand how the term Feminazi originated.

There are self proclaimed feminists who wish for the decemation of the male gender or to put men in camps till they die out.
Another "perfect plan" was to castrate all men and revert to a semi "caste" system of living.


Women who champion that specific cause were called feminazi's because of the extremity they were willing to dip into.

Femifascists would have been more suitable but just doesn't sound that spliffy apparently.