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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 11, 2024

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My personal social circle is unhappy and distressed and posting lots of doomer posts, but mostly sane. They think the world is going to suck with Trump in charge, but they aren't threatening to leave the country or start underground railroads or join the 4B movement.

Online, it's hard to tell to what degree all the cataclysmic tweets and videos from leftists melting down hysterically and screaming that we're going to enter an era of plantation slavery and the Handmaid's Tale are nutpicking (the reason LibsOfTikTok is so popular is that Millenials and Zoomers so freely provide so much content) and to what degree they reflect a genuine widespread sentiment.

Online, it's hard to tell to what degree all the cataclysmic tweets and videos from leftists melting down hysterically and screaming that we're going to enter an era of plantation slavery and the Handmaid's Tale are nutpicking (the reason LibsOfTikTok is so popular is that Millenials and Zoomers so freely provide so much content) and to what degree they reflect a genuine widespread sentiment.

I know that Tumblr is very far from a representative sample, but the histrionic posts coming across my dash thanks to the #politics tag have been plentiful enough to exceed mere "nutpicking."

Well, "very far from a representative sample" indeed. If there is anywhere that I would expect 90% of the posts to be hysterical meltdowns, it's Tumblr.

Incidentally I'm kind of amazed that the word 'hysterical' hasn't gotten y'alled yet.

I'm not sure what "y'alled" means. Is this a reference to some feminists saying it's a "gendered" insult?

I'm not sure what "y'alled" means.

It's a reference to such sentiments as "Instead of saying 'you guys', which is etc., try something like 'y'all!'" A typical example of a larger pattern.

"Instead of saying 'you guys', which is etc., try something like 'y'all!'"

Oy. I do that at work all the time. I'm actually afraid to say "you guys" anymore.

My Dad said y'all. My Grandpa said y'all. His father probably said y'all.

I hope one day you may be find the courage and fortitude to return to "you guys", but in the mean time I'm giving you your y'all pass. No longer should you feel like a y'all carpet bagger. Y'all away. Y'all freely. Y'all without any shame, consideration, or fear.

Progressives want to claim it for themselves. Edgelords want to re-re-code it into oblivion. They can come and take it.

How should one say it though? I'm another from 'you guys' country, and if I try y'all it doesn't even make it so far as cultural appropriation, it's more like 'terrible parody of Southern hillbilly'.

I've done 'you all' occasionally, but I get the feeling this comes across as some sort of 'hello fellow hillbillies' deal -- so my policy is to aggressively use 'you guys' at all times, particularly when I'm talking about the female subset of a group in which they are all present.

If anyone calls me out over it I plan to play extremely dumb -- but nobody ever does.

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