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What's the most petty/pointless/pedantic hill you're willing to die on? (programming.dev)

submitted 2 months ago by notnotmike@programming.dev to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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For me, it may be that the toilet paper roll needs to have the open end away from the wall. I don't want to reach under the roll to take a piece! That's ludicrous!

That or my recent addiction to correcting people when they use "less" when they should use "fewer"

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[-] nicknonya@lemmy.blahaj.zone 46 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

using "he/she" to refer to an ambiguous party. just use they for fucks sake

[-] clickyello@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

agreed for humans, but I do like calling cars/boats/bikes/machines "she". makes me feel like a pirate :)

[-] nicknonya@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

oh im not talking about that.
i'm talking about quasi-legalese phrases like "he/she may […]" "if he/she agrees", you know. the places where "they" would be both more grammatical and easier to understand

[-] tetris11@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 months ago

he/she refers to a single individual, they can refer to multiple

[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 5 points 2 months ago

They can also refer to an individual though.

[-] tetris11@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 months ago

yeah, but its an ambiguity that can be picked at in legal settings. He/she makes it very clear that only singular person is being referred to

[-] austinfloyd@ttrpg.network 3 points 2 months ago

I guess I found my hill:

If you are worried about your sentence leaving ambiguity for your pronouns, then write a better sentence.

[-] JackbyDev@programming.dev 2 points 2 months ago

Alright, that's fair, they did specifically say legalese.

[-] RBWells@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

I have been learning Spanish with Babbel and the

El/Ella Compra

Will never not sound wrong to me. El & Ella are two people, they Compran something they don't Compra it.

But They as a singular in English absolutely just rolls off my tongue, makes absolute sense, it is what I use.

[-] clickyello@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

ohhh yeah I figured my take was only tangentially related but it's even further than I thought. yeah that stuff is silly and also denies the existence of nb folx, lame. I've been (somewhat) successful in using "they" to refer to anyone that I don't directly know the gender of for inclusivity's sake. it really isn't that hard to get used to if you're willing to make an effort.

[-] dufkm@lemmy.world -2 points 2 months ago

Yeah, in those cases I sometimes just put "she" instead. If they are the type of person to get upset by that (presumably because it's a he that doesn't want to be mistaken for a she), it's precisely the person I want to offend. Reasonable people don't care.

[-] svcg@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 months ago

Are you familiar with the comedian James Acaster? He has a relevant bit: https://youtu.be/Zt5qJC1xQ8A

[-] nicknonya@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

i wasn't, thanks for introducing them

this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2024

461 points (98.1% liked)

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