NEWS: Asshole Fuckface Roundup #23

Weren't you a historian before?

"Gets popcorn out of microwave and pulls up a chair"

I have degrees in both.

In all seriousness, writing uses different brain functions than speaking, and sometimes even otherwise highly intelligent people are terrible with the written word.

And I don't consider socioeconomic and cultural prejudices to be rational. You'll have a hard time convincing me otherwise.

go back to writing your imaginary language already.

Hopefully it'll be more popular than Esperanto

Why don't you make me!

I believe I have said that devolution does not occur.

This thread will prove me wrong.

Well, in the strictly scientific sense, devolution doesn't occur, any more than "deceleration" does, inasmuch as both terms assume an inherenlty subjective . . . aww, fuck it.

I KNEW IT! Etymologically, it can't happen! "De" is not the opposite of "E"!

BOOYAKASHA!!!!


AWWW YEAH BOYEEEEEEEE!!!!

Obviously I have joined this thread late and you have so many enlightening things I don't know where to start. Most of them have been address, so lets go with this:
I have lived overseas for about 7 years now, I have been all over the place. About 99% of the Americans who visit and live in different countries EXPECT the locals to speak English. They make no effort to learn the language and get mad when the locals do not speak English.
I have known people who lived in Germany for 9 years and barely speak a lick of German.
So many of us Americans think we are oh so special in the world and that everyone should bow down to us and speak our language because we are the best.
Also English is not the official language of America. It has not passed as a bill or law and has been in front of Congress many times but never passed.

And really, Riverside? That is such a bastion of culture and progress.
Really though, you should just take your white sheets and cut some eye holes in them and you will be all set.

Yeah, funny how none of us European descendants bothered to learn Cherokee, Sioux, Chippewa, Algonquin or any other native language before we "integrated" with them. Manifest Destiny and all that.

I think the modern term now is "imminent domain"

And see, if we had followed through with our manifest destiny and annexed all of Mexico, poor people like windermere wouldn't have all the problems they are having now.
We could force our culture on more people and rob them of theirs. Thats what makes us special.

Did someone say Devolution ?

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

It happens alright !

If the culture involves executing a teacher over a teddy bear, then maybe a cultural cull wouldn't be such a bad thing.

+1

What a bunch of fuckfaces...mostly that Janet Folger lady.grrr

It's much, much more complicated than your comment implies. Everyone involved is Muslim, for a start. There are racial/tribal questions (post-colonial, as usual), there are questions about what's meant by particular words, there are issues about who's prepared to talk to who, there are issues about internal politics between the various rebel movements... It's a horrible situation.

Oh, I didn't write that people who use poor grammar are necessarily unintelligent. I wrote that they're uneducated. Difference.

I'm also not necessarily speaking of uneducated in the sense of having not been to college and the rest. I know plenty of people who attended college who use poor grammar, and who I consider uneducated.

Finally, this is, of course, all separate from any learning disabilities that may prevent learning and use of correct grammar.

We can't just call America on this one. Traditionally, the English only spoke English*. We just inherited the practice from them, as did many of their other colonies.

*Apart from the nobility and academics.

Yep. Some people can do differential calculus without a calculator, but spell like a 4th grader. Just depends on how their brains are wired.

Best comment in thread.



Hey, why can't we FLAG comments in these threads. y'know, comments like

Shit like this cluttering up the newswire hinders a decent discussion.

Don't know if I quite believe that. From what I've seen, the British school system puts a bit more emphasis on multiple language instruction than the U.S. does.

Differential calculus, nor most higher mathematics, might not be the best example to use, as most calculators can't do it in any meaningful way. Almost everyone who does it does so without a calculator.

I'd use arithmetic as an example instead, since that's more or less what calculators are good for.

I wouldn't extend that into an argument about how many people who are good at mathematics are poor writers, however. First, because arithmetic is hardly mathematics. Second, because the mathematical journals are full of exceptional writing.