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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1374 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 22, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I’ve almost entirely abandoned negative parallelisms, and I’ve become much more judicious in my use of the em-dash. If I’m writing for an audience who knows nothing about me (for example, reference letters, external emails, and job application cover letters), I avoid em-dashes entirely.

Yeah, the em dash has been destroyed. It's infuriating, because there are so many sentences that are punchier with a dash thrown in.

I'm glad in many ways that I finished my bachelor's in a writing-heavy field before the advent of generative AI.

I’ve become much more judicious in my use of the em-dash

The Chad solution to this is to accept that there is only one dash and that it is also hyphen and the minus sign. Aka the ascii character 0x2D.

What is this, the 1970s? Even then, typists knew to use two hyphens for an en-dash and three for an em-dash.

Nah, that's not the Chad solution — the Chad solution is to start overusing the em dash even if you've never used them before and have to ask AI how to find it on your phone keyboard. It doesn't just show that you don't care about being mistaken for an LLM — it shows that you revel in it! And the best part? You're not just using em dashes — you're weaponizing them. And honestly? That's the real Chad move.

Begone, foul beast of Chaos!

This calls for Ordo Malleus. We may need a full exterminatus here.

Thanks, I hate it.

You can pry my minus sign dash from my cold, dead hands.

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