And grok used to mean “understand”, not “nazi shithead propaganda machine”.
TIL grok is an actual word.
I recommend Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. It’s a pretty influential work of early science fiction.
Mind you, it’s been like 30 years since I read any Heinlein. Not sure I’d feel the same way about his stuff now as late teen me did, but the many books of his I read definitely shaped a lot of my philosophy.
LOL. That’s great. Yeah, it really doesn’t hold up. I think a lot of my enjoyment of Heinlein came from being a horny teen with a Christian upbringing seeing a different take on sexuality. Stranger in a Strange Land was one of the last of his I read and not my favourite. The Number of The Beast was the first one of his I read.
Edit: Apparently I watched that video 6 years ago and left a comment. I’ve been a subscriber to that channel for a while.
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It’s from Stranger In A Strange Land. Overly Sarcastic Productions has a great summary of that book on their channel
And meme used to refer to a unit of cultural information that spreads by imitation, not a funny picture on social media.
In fairness to memes, that definition is still largely true, its just that the common usage tends to refer to this specific form of meme. Like with squares and rectangles, not all anthropological memes are image macros, but all image macro memes are a subset of anthropological memes
This feels like your boss saying you get a company car and then giving you a scale model of a car with the company logo on it.
Grok was also a support character in the game Paladins.
Yeah no sorry the origin was always gross. Stranger in a strange land is just heinlein’s weird fetish porn where he justifies old men sleeping with young girls (sound familiar?)
And grok was always a term used by weirdos who thought the book was deep for some crazy reason and wanted to sound like they were part of this insider intellectuals club
What? He gets freaky in some other books, but Stranger is pretty clean for a free love manifesto. Every character I can think of was a full grown adult, I don’t think there’s a single scene even euphemistically depicting an old man sleeping with a young girl. All the sex even referred to was between people of relatively close age.
Grok just means to understand/drink fully. You drink water, and it becomes a part of your body. You understand an idea, and it becomes part of your mind. It’s an efficient word to communicate “understanding something fully enough to functionally incorporate it into your worldview”. It’s not that intellectual.
Please don’t interpret this as a defense of Robert Heinlein’s books as it has been decades since I read them and it sounds like you might be more familiar with them. But weren’t all the women in Stranger in a Strange Land older than Michael Valentine Smith?
Are you confusing the character with Lazarus Long from Time Enough for Love, et al? I think he was thousands of years older than some of his (adult) love interests…
That’s a rather puritan and skewed perspective. Afaik Stranger in a Strange Land is a very weird book but very tame and not pornographic at all. And it was an important artwork that explored the themes of the 60s sexual revolution. A time where people knew very little about sex and gender and questioned everything.
I used to be with it. Then they changed what it was.
Now what I’m with isn’t it
Now what I’m with isn’t ‘it’ anymore and what’s ‘it’ seems weird and scary to me.
“Gimme the good old days when a pair of boobs were a couple of dumb guys.” - Sheriff Buford T. Justice
Edited to fix attribution. I was sure it was Dangerfield, but DDG says otherwise.
Boob or booby to mean stupid still lives on in boobytrap.
Sort of. Boobytrap comes from the seabird the blue-footed booby. A famously stupid seabird that sailors caught in such a trap.
I miss when gay means happy.
Okay I’m not that old but i had a boss who said he’s old enough to remember when gay literally means happy.
For me, my little pet peeve is when society changed the meaning of ironic to mean joking or satirical.
I still think of Goon as a hockey enforcer. As a Canadian, i’m obligated to.
Goon literally started out as the big nosed henchmen of the sea hag in the Popeye comic strip in the 1930s. It got applied to refer to anti-union fighters very quickly before it became a general purpose word meaning low-level henchman.
As stupid as it was, “Fap,” made sense.
What’s wrong with jackin’ it?
Or jerkin’ the gherkin 😀
Or crankin’ the hog?
Isn’t it an onomatopoeia? It’s based on the sound “fap fap fap”
😅 Yeah it is.
With their hands & genitals out of frame, those two goons might actually be gooning.
And there was a time that gay meant happy and a removed was a piece of fire wood. Though the Brits, in their usual word butchery, turned that into fag for cigarette.
Languages change and morph. They are living things. And despite the French’s best effort to try and prevent it.
We used it to mean cigarette before yanks turned it into a slur. You’re the butchers here!
You butchered your own word removed to get fag. And who eats veg? And soccer that the US gets blamed for. We got it from you! Mangling words is what Brits do because they are orally lazy!
*****For those without a sense of humor, this is meant in fun.
What does it mean now? This is the only definition I know.
Masturbate
Ahh… Its the new 'baitin
go away. baitin’.
I think about this movie way more than I should. I didn’t even get through it when I tried to watch it. I saw enough though to see where we’ve landed :(
Ironically (given the original name of this community), the ancient Chinese had entire discourses on the idea that in order for society to function correctly, people needed to be able to agree what words meant.
A superior man, in regard to what he does not know, shows a cautious reserve. If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success. When affairs cannot be carried on to success, proprieties and music will not flourish. When proprieties and music do not flourish, punishments will not be properly awarded. When punishments are not properly awarded, the people do not know how to move hand or foot. Therefore a superior man considers it necessary that the names he uses may be spoken appropriately, and also that what he speaks may be carried out appropriately. What the superior man requires is just that in his words there may be nothing incorrect.
–Master Kong (AKA Confucius)
https://ctext.org/analects/zi-lu
The established names of the later kings: penal and legal terms followed those of Shang, noble titles followed those of Zhou, literary titles followed those of Li. As for miscellaneous names applied to all things, they conformed to the established customs and conventions of Zhuxia; in distant regions with different local customs, these were adapted accordingly for general understanding.
As for miscellaneous names applied to people: the inherent nature that causes a person to be what he is called “xing.” The harmony of xing gives rise to refined interactions and responsive 感应; when things occur effortlessly and naturally without deliberate action, this is called xing. The inclinations of xing—liking, disliking, joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness—are called qing. When the emotions arise and the mind makes choices in response, this is called lü (deliberation). When the mind deliberates and is thus able to act intentionally, this is called wei. When deliberation accumulates and becomes habitual, and only then achieves formation, it is called wei. Acting in accordance with what is righteous and beneficial is called shi (affairs or actions). Acting in accordance with righteousness is called xing (conduct or behavior). The capacity for knowledge within a person is called zhi. When knowledge aligns with something, it is called zhi (wisdom). The capacity for action within a person is called neng. When ability aligns with something, it is also called neng (capability). When xing is harmed, it is called bing (illness or affliction). A person’s encounter with measured circumstances is called ming (fate or destiny): these are the miscellaneous names applied to people, and they represent the established terms of later kings.
Therefore, when a sovereign establishes names, once names are fixed and realities distinguished, the Way is put into practice and aspirations become clear; thus, he carefully leads the people toward unity. Therefore, to split words and arbitrarily create names in order to confuse established terms, causing the people to be doubtful and leading to frequent disputes among them, is called a great jian (great villain or great wrongdoer). Their crime is still akin to that of falsifying tokens, seals, and measurements. Therefore, the people dare not fabricate strange words to confuse established names; thus, their people are sincere and upright. Sincerity makes them easy to lead, and being easy to lead leads to public harmony. The people dare not fabricate strange terms to confuse established names, so they remain unified in the Way and law, and are careful to follow commands. If this is done, then their legacy will be enduring. An enduring legacy and accomplished achievements represent the highest attainment of governance. This is the achievement of carefully upholding the conventions of names. Now that the sage kings have passed away, the guardianship of names has become lax; strange terms arise, and the correspondence between names and realities becomes confused. When the forms of right and wrong are unclear, even those officials who uphold the law and Confucian scholars who recite canonical texts also fall into disorder. If a sovereign were to arise, he would surely follow established names while also creating new ones as needed. Therefore, the reasons for having names, the basis on which things are deemed the same or different, and the essential principles of establishing names must not be overlooked.
–Master Xun
https://ctext.org/xunzi/zheng-ming
Of course, there are also plenty of modern examples of how unclear communication can cause catastrophe.
Yeah the prescriptivism vs descriptivism debate still rages in linguistics. The prescriptivists have been losing for decades but arguments still abound in the academics.
And just because “goon” has changed meanings doesn’t mean we don’t lean on some prescriptivism. We still agree on singular definitions for lots of words (or at least contextual definitions for words with lots of different meanings).
I mean, it’s not that off target.
Goons where low level mafia enforcers who came into your space unbidden and roughed you up or worse.
You saw those guys loitering around you knew they were up to no good.
People keep on using “glaze” to mean to excessively praise somebody, but I’m pretty sure it means to give a wet sloppy blowjob, so it’s pretty weird hearing it used otherwise.
No glazing is what you do to their face after they’ve given you a wet sloppy blowjob. Thats where it gets its more conversational definition of showing excessive praise to someone.
