this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2023
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.
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Especially US politics. I couldn't care less.
Or as some Americans say, "I could care less"
It'd take effort to care any less than I currently do. And I don't care enough to reduce my interest any further.
For any passing Americans who are thinking "what's the difference?", please take 3 minutes to find out.
The purpose of language is to communicate, if it is understood by the target audience it is correct.
Because language evolves and isn't prescriptivist. Especially in the US where a Founding Father wrote a dictionary to explicitly reject strict prescriptivism(it was still prescriptivist in ways but better than contemporaries).
This is not an example of evolution, this is just a widespread error.
The target understands it, therefore it is correct language
the argument is about america??
Yeah. It is about why Americans say it- so it is relevant to American history?
Webster wouldn't have cared
Why does it matter if the target audience understands it?
Yeah and they're right
Why?