Words and phrases to cancel

version

version

Well-known member
glasshand said:
i've seen the "main character" trope a lot in memes and social media recently and it bugs me. fits in with other phrases i've seen used like "arc", "villain origin story" etc.. the idea of narrativising your life, adopting some kind of third person perspective to your "self" is obviously completely aligned with instagram and social media ("add to story") so not really surprising. but i feel like it shows how much popular social media culture is seeded by the alt-right 4chan gamer-bro types - it's basically the "NPC" (non player character) trope for the mainstream. detached individualism and a good excuse to treat other people, particularly the ones who don't seem to be as intent on narrativising their life in the same way, like shit
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I think fandoms and the internalising of 'TV tropes' plays a part too.
 
Benny Bunter

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
I remember reading somewhere, dunno where now, that if you really want to get anywhere it should be 'speak power to power, in service of the truth' but that sounds pretty yuck as well doesn't it?
 
B

blissblogger

Well-known member
here's one my 23 year old kid alerted me to - "lore"

started in games and role-play and fantasy type stuff - the rules and preconditions and back-story involved in world-building

but seems to be drifting out to have other applications, particularly in music
 
Benny Bunter

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
blissblogger said:
here's one my 23 year old kid alerted me to - "lore"

started in games and role-play and fantasy type stuff - the rules and preconditions and back-story involved in world-building

but seems to be drifting out to have other applications, particularly in music
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PLAYGROUND LORE

my little pony skinny and bony made out of plastic looks like a spastic
dissensus.com
 
version

version

Well-known member
It's not the words and phrases themselves, is it? The bulk of the things mentioned are fine in certain contexts. It's the popular usage on Twitter and in certain areas of the media that really rubs people the wrong way.

If you were to read 'problematic' or 'toxic' in some old novel or academic paper then it wouldn't be an issue. It's the hand wringing deployment of them by irritating people that's the issue.
 
B

blissblogger

Well-known member
entertainment said:
are you just noticing these out loud or do you actually want to cancel them?
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more like, keep an eye on this one, could reach the level of annoying / cancellable at some point

like i dunno 10 years ago "iconic" would have been in that category of "watch out, it's on the rise" - then there was a long period of it being eminently cancellable, over-used and omnipresent and emptied of meaning bar the barest after-tinge - and now it's actually gone the other way, where it's a cliche to complain about it, and in fact one is almost tempted to defend the controlled and careful use of the word "iconic", since it does have applications
 
shiels

shiels

_
version said:
It's not the words and phrases themselves, is it? The bulk of the things mentioned are fine in certain contexts. It's the popular usage on Twitter and in certain areas of the media that really rubs people the wrong way.

If you were to read 'problematic' or 'toxic' in some old novel or academic paper then it wouldn't be an issue. It's the hand wringing deployment of them by irritating people that's the issue.
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Notable that many of the phrases we’ve nominated for cancellation are those used a lot by the cancellers
 
shiels

shiels

_
blissblogger said:
more like, keep an eye on this one, could reach the level of annoying / cancellable at some point

like i dunno 10 years ago "iconic" would have been in that category of "watch out, it's on the rise" - then there was a long period of it being eminently cancellable, over-used and omnipresent and emptied of meaning bar the barest after-tinge - and now it's actually gone the other way, where it's a cliche to complain about it, and in fact one is almost tempted to defend the controlled and careful use of the word "iconic", since it does have applications
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This happens to my own vocabulary in a similar way, disgusted by something, use it ironically and then eventually sincerely
 
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