MisterFrog

I was taught in English class in high school that irony is an ambulance running people over, not just sarcasm

This is a relief, there is hope yet haha

I don't think I've ever heard sarcasm used when irony is appropriate. Because "ironically" seems to be taking over (for Americans, not in Australia)

"That's so sarcastic" referring to irony isn't a thing. Or at least, I've neve heard it.

"the use of words that are the opposite of what you mean" bad Cambridge, bad! That's sarcasm.

Could be my cultural context, and my bias because I constantly hear Americans misusing 'ironic'.

Don't use it differently without providing a replacement please and thank you!

Wikipedia gets it right: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony "Irony is a juxtaposition of what, on the surface, appears to be the case with what is actually or expected to be the case"

My understanding, from how people use it here is that irony is a situation which is a contrast between the expected/intended and actual outcome.

It's ironic when a fire station burns down

This definition is truly upsetting: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irony

Americans, no. Bad Americans.

This definition is correct (until we come up with a good substitute, FFS America): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony

Glad Wikipedia agrees with me on this one haha We'll at least the introductory definition.

Edit: to answer your question. I dunno. I just think this form of "ironic" just didn't take off in Australia.

Mostly because we already have words for what Americans use it for. And don't have words to replace irony.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh interesting, I hadn't noticed that!

Ahhhh, socialising the risk and privatising the profits, a tale as old as neoliberalism

The American use "ironically" is probably the only difference between our dialects that I'll stand firm on.

My friends, we already have a use for the word, and it's not this!

I'm all about linguistic innovation, but using "unironically" in place of "seriously" and "ironically" in place of "sarcastically"/”not seriously" is not happy times for me.

Unless you give me a new word for irony.

I quite like y'all, I use that all the time, not against Americanisms in general, just this one.

I feel upset, only because they're even more car-centric than we are.

Agree with you on all of it, but the office ribbon I think is actually not bad design. Especially if you use alt shortcuts, you can get pretty quick at accessing a bunch of options via the keyboard.

The little stupid arrow to show more options notwithstanding.

Here's a very entertaining video on how bad ribbons can be: https://youtube.com/watch?v=dKx1wnXClcI

we have much safer cars [for occupants] than when our standard speed limits are set

FTFY

This is a rant, which is not specifically directed at you:

I don't really have an opinion on rural speed limits, but it's just good urban design for us to take back our streets from car-centric planning.

Cars have a place: renting a van, emergency services, disabled people, delivery for businesses, but we accept WAY more deaths, noise and pollution that much better designed cities overseas. Not every trip should be by car, but we've planned our cities that for many it has to be.

Speed limits are in general too high in our urban areas (not talking about freeways, I'm talking 60 km/hr through shopping strips and 50 km/hr on side streets), that's too high.

But people get up in arms at that thought of driving slower, because apparently we just have to accept a certain number of deaths (which have stopped dropping since these US-style emotional support vehicles have come on the scene).

For your viewing pleasure: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jN7mSXMruEo

Anyway, Speed Kills. That ad campaign wasn't making it up.

You're not wrong that people should drive to the conditions, but speed limits still must be followed, because they're set based on design guidelines, and most often, people aren't as good at driving as they think they are.

Don't speed, I don't care how good at driving anyone thinks they are.

Cheers for letting me accost you ;)

Ahhh I see.

I mean, who's reading the chat history anyway?

If you add someone to a chat you should say hello! Problem solved.

Further, people are already used to this with WhatsApp which functions on the same protocol (with Meta harvesting the metadata and connections of course)