• PoPoP@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    3 days ago

    Also, did you know aluminum is the original word for the metal? The aluminium spelling was invented by British people after the fact simply because they thought it sounded better. Now they act like we’re illiterate for leaving out the second “i”

    • JeremyHuntQW12@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      2 days ago

      it was called aluminum by the original discoverer, but a later physicist called it aluminium so that it would be the same as germanium etc.

    • Lord Wiggle@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      3 days ago

      Well, many Americans indeed are illiterate, and this is going to become even worse with Trump and DOGE destroying the education system. But the current system is shit as well, the level of education lacks behind compared to other western countries by far. And then there’s the unregulated homeschooling in many states, which religious nut jobs, flat earthers and other conspiracy idiots love to do. Most Americans only speak one language and only learn about the US and it’s history while skipping the rest of the world. Many don’t even know where the UK is on a world map. Even your vice president didn’t know where Greenland was, that it’s close to the north pole and fucking cold. There are loads of videos of interviews with random people on the street where the average person can’t even tell how many sides a triangle has.

      In the movie Idiocracy they predict the world to be extremily dumb in the year 2505 but Americans probably thought this was a goal to work towards, and had trouble reading “2505” and thought it was 2025.

      • PoPoP@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        8
        ·
        2 days ago

        Holy shit dude touch grass

        I love a rant as much as the next guy but this is a meme

        • Lord Wiggle@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          2 days ago

          It may be a meme, but the US is both a joke and a train wreck run by incompetent clowns and scam artists. The easiest way to describe a dystopia is the US because even though the country was already extremely fucked up, Americans continue to find ways to make it even worse beyond anyone’s imagination. I wonder when Joe Exotic becomes president and by law everyone needs to have a pet tiger. It wasn’t possible because he’s in jail, but since recently convicted criminals are allowed to become president. Or maybe it will continue to head towards The Handmaid’s Tale. Let’s place bets!

          • PoPoP@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            2 days ago

            It’s just kind of… Completely irrelevant to the post? And absolutely nothing I’m not already painfully aware of, not even a single sentence I haven’t already read 100 times in slightly different wording?

            I understand that nearly everyone is in a panicked state and that this stuff is at the top of their mind at all times here, but that mental state is representative of someone who is, more or less, already fully defeated. It is needless and actually harmful to bring politics into every context unprompted and the reason is actually plainly obvious if you take a step back.

            Someone who spends all their time broiling in anxiety has no energy to put up an actual fight. Spreading ideas and calls to action is a valid form of resistance but this is the social media equivalent of hugging your knees and rocking back and forth while sobbing in a corner. People who care need to use their limited energy wisely in ways that will have appreciable impact. What this kind of posting does is reduce other people’s capacity to engage.

            My parents, for example, have chosen to completely disengage from politics because they see that their peers who are tapped in have become frantic and ineffectual.

            Effective communication requires you to acknowledge that it isn’t universally relevant in all contexts. It requires you to recognize that both you and your peers need to recharge sometimes.

              • PoPoP@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                2
                ·
                edit-2
                2 days ago

                I feel like you’re intentionally misunderstanding me at this point, or you only skimmed what I wrote. Nobody said do nothing. I said post memes when it’s time to post memes and post politics when it’s time to post politics. Either way I’m not interested in continuing this conversation if it’s going to involve Reddit-level obstinance.

    • Grass@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      3 days ago

      Everyone involved in that was british iirc. The guy that named it spelled it like 4 or 5 different ways and eventually aluminum mostly stuck, but the other science guys wanted everything to end in ‘ium’

      • PoPoP@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        2 days ago

        It’s fine by me, I just can’t stand the british elitism