manton
manton

I can’t get over how nonsensical Trump sounds sometimes. From yesterday’s trip to the border:

…millions of people from places unknown, from countries unknown, who don’t speak languages. We have languages coming into our country, we have nobody that even speaks those languages. They are truly foreign languages, nobody speaks them.

What?! 🇺🇸

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Brian@shakedown.social
Brian@shakedown.social

@manton But Biden is the senile one….

Unknown languages. Unknown places. 😂

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manton
manton

@Brian I was laughing just as I was typing it up. I'd love to know where this came from... It must've started as some real-ish fact that he twisted until it was meaningless.

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flargh@mastodon.social
flargh@mastodon.social

@manton The people coming into our country speaking in Sumerian and Coptic are a real problem.

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Brian@shakedown.social
Brian@shakedown.social

@manton Seeking asylum from the unexplored ocean depths. Looking to escape the iron fist of Atlantis.

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Infoseepage@mastodon.social
Infoseepage@mastodon.social

@manton 97% of asylum seekers at the southern border speak Spanish, 1.7% Portuguese.

People who speak rare/indigenous languages appear to make up at worst 1.3% of asylum cases.

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patrickrhone
patrickrhone

@manton It's Newspeak (Yes, seriously. It makes complete sense to those for whom the message is meant — which is not you or I).

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manton
manton

@flargh 🤣

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manton
manton

@patrickrhone I hadn't thought of it that way... A little scary.

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patrickrhone
patrickrhone

@manton Yep. Also explains the doublethink.

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In reply to
patrickrhone
patrickrhone

@manton Also, have I ever explained my dog's name is Winston (after Winston Smith, the protagonist).

I'm, um, a big fan of the book.

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starrwulfe
starrwulfe

@manton Projector Orange is just doin' his thang again, that's all. He has 0 clues about these things and can't understand other languages and just assumes/exaggerates nobody can understand them!

If he saw me speaking Japanese to my family, he'd probably have an out-of-body experience I suppose.

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starrwulfe
starrwulfe

@patrickrhone A very compelling opinion indeed. Think about all the stupid little buzzwords that are floating around when discussing political ideology these days. Newspeak all the way.

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jlamoree@mastodon.social
jlamoree@mastodon.social

@manton Not only was it authentic frontier gibberish, it expressed a courage little seen in this day and age.

youtu.be/ke5Mr5eCF2U

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linnefaulk@toot.bike
linnefaulk@toot.bike

@manton It would be comical except that millions of people think he is smart.

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patrickrhone
patrickrhone

@starrwulfe Yep.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think Orwell was some sort of fortune teller or visionary. Quite the contrary. All he needed to do was look at the authoritarian regimes around him, figure out how they worked, and realize that it could just as easily happen anywhere with the right conditions and motivations.

That was the warning.

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Denny
Denny

@flargh 😂

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stevegio@gardenstate.social
stevegio@gardenstate.social

@manton Right, and Biden is the one everyone says has cognitive decline.

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skoobz
skoobz

@manton He constantly sounds like the kid trying to write a book report without actually reading the book.

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sod
sod

@patrickrhone 1984 is one of my favorite books, too. I'm really excited to delve into Julia soon.

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johninfante@mastodon.world
johninfante@mastodon.world

@flargh @manton “You have all these people, coming from Latin America, no one here speaks Latin.”

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patrickrhone
patrickrhone

@sod I've heard good things but I'm a little scared of it.

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StarTracker@layer8.space
StarTracker@layer8.space

@manton not speaking as professional here, but I think the trick with understanding that man is the “feel of it” rather than the “think of it.” I imagine someone listening to that and saying to themselves “yeah, I don’t speak any of those weird languages! They should just learn English!”

😫

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toddgrotenhuis
toddgrotenhuis

@manton what language was that? 🤭

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sod
sod

@patrickrhone Scared… like it might potentially mess up your relationship with the original?

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bloftin2
bloftin2

@manton He is speaking the "Talking out of your ass" language.

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bloftin2
bloftin2

@skoobz Exactly. In fact, he IS that kid.

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patrickrhone
patrickrhone

@sod Yep. That.

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sod
sod

@patrickrhone Yeah, I can see that. I'll let you know if it breaks my brain.

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torb
torb

@patrickrhone @manton It’s just like when bigots say they’re “against pronouns”. They’re not actually against pronouns in language, they just don’t want to respect people’s pronouns (those of trans people specifically).

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patrickrhone
patrickrhone

@torb I've long been impressed by how effortlessly those of my daughter's peers handle this. They use they/them pronouns when speaking of anyone for whom they do not know the preferred pronouns of and then switch effortlessly once they learn.

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agilelisa
agilelisa

@patrickrhone this is so smart. I will build this habit, too.

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pratik
pratik

@manton Someone should talk to him in Aramaic and ask if that should be ok. Nope? Sorry, Jesus.

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pratik
pratik

@patrickrhone We have two colleagues who often work together. One goes by she/her and the other by they/them. So when I have to tell others about the work both did, I have to say, "they did it quite well...well, not they/them but them they. Breaks my brain but I'm sure I'll get used to it. We should just use they/them for everyone and invent another word for a group thing. Also, doesn't help that when I say "telling others", the others are Boomers or much older GenX

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patrickrhone
patrickrhone

@agilelisa We should just let the kids run things. They have it all figured out.

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patrickrhone
patrickrhone

@pratik Probably not a bad thing and solves a whole host of issues.

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MultoGhost
MultoGhost

@pratik Agree that English should have non-gendered third person singular. It would solve so many problems. For the "talking about their work" issue - maybe always say "they both" when you mean both of them, to distinguish from the singular "they"? Like saying "you all" when talking to a group, versus "you" (or "you, Nina") when talking to a single person in a group.

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pratik
pratik

@MultoGhost more like y’all

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eurobubba
eurobubba

@manton Nobody immigrates any more, it’s too crowded.

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eurobubba
eurobubba

@manton He probably saw a piece in the NYT a couple of days ago about how NYC has become a haven for endangered languages.

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AlexKucera
AlexKucera

@manton sounds to me like he is talking about himself there. ;)

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