My thinking is that the aglet is a well known word these days, but if you were to poll a group, it would be mostly younger people who know what it is. Because of Phineas and Ferb.
I'm glad so many people responded and most people got it right! But, I'll have to do a real poll to figure out if there's any actual correlation here, and also account for the fact that people who know what it is were more likely to answer than those who don't.
Saying what you mean can be impossible when every sub demands “respect” or “civility” instead of honesty, accuracy, and appropriate behavior.
Sometimes telling someone to go fuck themselves is entirely appropriate.
Sometimes explaining to someone why they’re being a moron is entirely appropriate.
Yes, you can navigate those situations with G-rated kum-by-yah language, and you can eat yogurt with a fork. But demanding anyone do that is aggravating fucking nonsense.
Intense moderation can create a forum where there’s never reason to poke someone over what an asshole they’re being - but that’s not what anyone’s doing, here. They’re mostly protecting trolls, by refusing to comprehend what trolling is. It’s not when you say dumb shit you don’t mean and people get mad at you, like some playground argument with one smirking child in a shouting match about the make-believe. It’s people spreading disinformation with textbook fallacy. It’s emotional abuse with “do you still beat your wife?” level manipulation. It’s not deep. It’s neither hard to spot nor hard to call out.
But what’s currently forbidden is calling it out.
Insisting people take it in good faith is failure. That’s exactly what trolls demand. It is the only way trolling accomplishes anything, ever. If they just said dumb shit nobody believed, there’d be no problem. But the appearance of a sane argument, and the trappings of “debate” around their infuriating horseshit lies, create false legitimacy. It helps abusive dishonesty spread. It is actively ensuring that whatever “free marketplace of ideas” is supposed to filter out total garbage, can’t.
And anyone who falls for them going ‘punishing me would only make me stronger!’ is incapable of dealing with a smirking child. They’re just fucking lying. It’s not deep, or hard to spot. Call their bluff and see what happens. The answer will apparently blow your mind.
That crossed my mind too. Like I get it, effective advertising when you’re wandering around the grocery store, but you basically have a giant “I’m right here!!” banner across your car and in your driveway.
Like streamers and content creators dont have enough trouble with parasocials when they try and keep their shit anonymous. Eventually some dude is gonna see this at his grocery store, develop an unhealthy obsession and bad shit is gonna happen.
I’m British. We don’t have the accent American’s think we do. We’re far more scummy and swear far more. Proudly working class, and proudly unpretentious.
Look, America has it’s damn problems— we sure as hell do. But I need to talk about Britain for a sec. I’m not trying to bash you guys; but I have a hot take that’s been boiling in the back of my head for years, and I’ve had very few opportunities to talk about it.
That “proudly unpretentious” bit is absolutely true— to a literal fault. I find that British people have such an obsession with “not being pretentious” that it goes full circle and does become pretentious. The opposite of hopes, dreams, effort, and passion is… cynicism. And man, is British culture obsessed with cynicism.
Like, I know you Brits had a super shitty history that made you all iconically cynical and all… but that cynicism is more bad than good. Your culture has an obsession with misery, death, and the destruction of aforementioned hopes and dreams. It’s all over your media, including your comedy. Everything from asylums, to plagues, to the personification of death, to a strange comedic form of the glorification of “common sense” over education. For that last part and other reasons, cynicism also seems to be a huge source of British anti-intellectualism, too. A lot of your jokes are about how clever you are that you subscribe to “common sense” instead of some idealistic thought— and usually said idealistic thought is harmless or even good.
In Britain’s “anti-pretentious” culture, sometimes they go too far in other ways, too. It’s for example why British cartoons are so happily-sloppy and nonsensical. They just don’t want to take cartoons (or much of anything) seriously, and don’t want to use them to display hope and strength and intelligence and beauty. In much of the rest of the developed world, cartooning is a medium that is sometimes (or often) used for “fine art”— your Avatar: TLA’s, your Batman: TAS’s, and your Steven Universe’s. But British people don’t see cartoons as a medium for inspiration— to them, it’s just all silly, cheap, over-stylized, brainless play stuff.
I’m reminded of Superman vs. The Elite, where— ironically— Superman had to deal with an anti-hero British guy named Manchester Black, who was a very powerful telekinetic. Manchester was a cynic who said the world was full of cancer that needed to be forcefully cut out— damn the rights or safety of anyone else. Manchester told Superman, “You’re living in a dream world!” And Superman said, “Yes. Dreams save us. Dreams lift us up and transform us into something better.” And that sort of philosophy is why I don’t subscribe to cynicism, and never have.
With that said, I’m not trying to bash British people or anything. It’s just that I’m the opposite of cynical, so British cynicism has always kinda rubbed me the wrong way, is all.
I only know they are aglets thanks to “Repossessed!” Fantastic spoof of The Exorcist with Leslie Neilson and Linda Blair (from the original). Blair played Nancy Aglet and fought possession again. They made a joke about her name that got the word weirdly stuck in my brain. “We’ve tried everything the devil hates. Sex, drugs, rock and roll…”
(during a wrestling match between the priest and the possessed woman)
"You know, Mean Gene, professional wrestlers don't use steroids anymore!"
"Or any LESS!"
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