![]() I’d be disappointed to find out that the reason Ukraine is the only war of interest for so many Americans is because Ukrainians “look like us.”ĭon’t misunderstand, my heart breaks for the innocents losing loved ones and having their lives upended in Ukraine – and in every other global conflict. African wars get no TV coverage, and maybe a brief mention in the back pages of the newspaper. So why are people so conspicuously compassionate about Ukraine while being completely indifferent to the awful suffering elsewhere?įor the most assertive virtue signalers, Ukraine is obviously “the current thing.” For other people, the only war reporting they receive is the media’s wall-to-wall coverage of Ukraine. There’s a lot of war and bloodshed going on across the globe right now. Why Are The Conspicuously Virtuous Not Displaying The Flags of African Countries Under Attack? -Buck Throckmorton (buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com) Just for fun, feel free to correct me on any bad grammar or word usage you find in this post. How did it become so widely used here in the States? Was there some British show that everyone watched except for me? I never read or watched Harry Potter, is that where it came from? One more thing…this isn’t a grammar peeve, or actually a peeve at all, I’m just curious why so many people started using the word “whilst.” Several friends I grew up with in the Texas suburbs several decades ago now use the word “whilst” instead of “while.” I know that they didn’t use that word while growing up. But if you’re using a plural noun to measure a chunk or amount of money or time, then you should use less (less than five years, less than 2,500 dollars). Use less with singular nouns fewer, with plural nouns. Thus, in a word, use less when you cannot count the noun modified. I’ll blame journalists who are afraid of being mocked for getting fewer/less wrong. ![]() It should be “ less than 10 dollars.“ I’m not sure how the “fewer than” trend started. Pretty much everyone who uses the term “steep learning curve” means “flat learning curve,” and I want to correct each and every one of them.įEWER THAN - We all know the grammatical rule “less money / fewer dollars.” We know not to say “less dollars.” But if “fewer than ten dollars” sounds awkward, that’s because it is awkward. A flat learning curve means that one learns slowly. A steep learning curve means that learning the task is easy, therefore the learning rapidly moves up the y-axis. LEARNING CURVE – This is another statistical term misused by people who don’t know what it means. A line that is increasing will continue to increase after an inflection point, albeit with a different curve and a change in the dominant axis. INFLECTION POINT – An inflection point is neither a ceiling nor a fork in the road. No, if he chose not to speak, he was simply being reticent. The most awkward use of the word is when a journalist writes that someone “was reticent to speak.” That hurts my eyeballs. It means someone chooses not to speak or share his thoughts. It does not mean “reluctant” or “hesitant” or some mash-up of those two words. ![]() And almost none of them knows what it means. That’s why I cringe when it’s the result of journalists or business leaders incorrectly using fancy words. I just can’t stand pretentiously incorrect word usage. I don’t mind bad grammar or incorrect word usage – there’s probably plenty of it in my writing. Pet Peeves: Pretentiously Incorrect Words (And Open Thread) -Buck Throckmorton
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