English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

@Cerberus I admire your optimism but I also remember the time when you really didn't think a lot of awful stuff would happen, but they happened nevertheless.

Or just some awful stuff.

2 hours later…

Gigili

9:15 AM

@Færd If nothing happens and everything is calm and good and whatnot, that pessimism will make the country collapse anyway.

6 hours later…

Robusto

2:57 PM

10 Gateway Drug Pieces for Contemporary Classical Music

►

Some of these (Stravinsky, Messiaen) I knew, but others are a wonderful find.

1 hour later…

It's Over

4:19 PM

@Færd Well, that's a bit pessimistic. You expected a war to erupt after the assassination, or some time earlier, but it didn't

I'm pretty sure you predicted it, but don't remember what it was about.

It hasn't happened yet.

I believe the number of the infected should be more, but 1) not all that's missing from the reports is malice, some is incompetence, and 2) It's unfair to compare Iran to the likes of South Korea

For no reason more important than that people here are a bit more resistant to the whole medical system, and a bit more superstitious.

RegDwigнt

4:52 PM

> I can't believe it! I'm about to hit 50 followers (only need 7 more)!

Well, I'm about to hit one million followers. Only need 999k more.

Mitch

@Robusto What's with the hats?

Well, the first few guys anyway.

@RegDwigнt I don't think that's what 'about' means.

@Færd I think the level way to say it is...

The corona virus isn't going to kill us all.

well, not immediately.

Same for a lot of other things.

Political unrest isn't going to kill everybody. Or even 1/2.

There may be a tic upwards in uncomfortableness.

Færd

We're all going to die sometime. I'm not agitating for public panic.

@It'sOver What comparison with SK?

@Gigili The opposite of optimism is not pessimism.

1 hour later…

Cerberus

6:08 PM

@Færd Such as?

You said war was certain.

I think that is a awfully daring assertion.

Færd

6:39 PM

> There is a slight possibility that *this* may happen, but it is unlikely.
At any rate, it wouldn't be disaster for Iran.
America is not very important for Iranian oil trade.

Three examples up there. "this" refers to the US revoking the nuclear deal.

@Cerberus I should speak in less certain terms, but really when I say "certainly" I mean "most probably".

And it rests on the analysis that we almost came back from the brink of war a few months back and the first thing that prevented it happening was probably Trump's fear that it might cost him his reelection, and then it was his disinclination to engage in prolonged battles.

M.A.R.

6:54 PM

@Færd Well, you can compare fatalities to number of total cases only in the early stages of the epidemic (in Iran and South Korea, rather than China, although China's would still be "early" I guess)

Death/Cases ratio of SK would be 1/10th of Iran.

It is certain that the (unofficial) number of cases would be higher, but how much, we don't know

P.S. do we ever? If you look at the last pandemic, swine flu, the stats seem pretty rough

So . . . What I'm saying is, it's very possible that Rouhani's entourage and a few higher-ups in the ministry of health would deliberately lie, but some of the others are less politicized, and there's always some considerable error in these stats

@Færd Mhm, war is good for trade, but only one with a controllable number of casualties

And controlled damage

Færd

@M.A.R. I don't disagree with that. It complements, rather than contradict, my statements.

@M.A.R. I think if it's good enough for war business then it's pros and cons for business at large is less relevant.

M.A.R.

@Færd shrug I've had enough of disagreeing with my classmates at the university, I could do with some complementing

@Færd I did mean war business

Q: Is Bernie Sanders the first candidate to win the first three states in a primary?

I saw this float around Facebook. It seems it originated from the Twitter account of People For Bernie, Bernard Sanders is the only candidate in history (in a competitive primary) to win the popular vote in the first 3 states. - People For Bernie I went looking to corroborate it and it seem...

Skeptics is still boring. It means Trump hasn't begun his spewage yet

Or maybe worse, that people no longer care

That's how democracy dies

Færd

7:11 PM

@M.A.R. Does war business bear the brunt of casualties and damage it causes?

M.A.R.

@Færd If there are too many, it means it's almost over.

RegDwigнt

7:33 PM

@Mitch exactly. Thank you.

Færd

7:49 PM

I guess I made a mistake to use the base form after rather than up there. It should be "it complements, rather than contradicts, my statement", if I'm not mistaken.

M.A.R.

I dunno

But what do I know?

I think these past few months my English has shaken a bit.

I knew being exposed to the university's special form of Persian English would deteriorate it a bit

RegDwigнt

makes notes to never get exposed to a Persian university

Matt E. Эллен

8:04 PM

@M.A.R. Evan posts a question that isn't trolling? I must be missing something

SmokeDetector

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Blacklisted username (91): "Slice" vs "Piece": when to use which? ✏️ by Donald J. Trump on english.SE

RegDwigнt

@MattE.Эллен you're missing the trolling.

He's been honing his skills.

@tchrist here's a radical new theory. What if those men are actually not rare at all, we just don't notice them because they keep their mouths shut.

Matt E. Эллен

@RegDwigнt ninja troll

RegDwigнt

(Well, it's not that radical or new. Just the good old vocal-minority principle.)

@MattE.Эллен see, those are also very hard to spot. And so we assume they don't exist.

Cerberus

8:37 PM

@Færd Okay, that is a different assertion.

But it may depend on your definition of war.

A large conflict with an American invasion: that seems unlikely for the intermediate future.

America bombing a few military sites in Iran: possible.

@Færd Okay, in 2016, it seemed unlikely to me that America would revoke the treaty, but it did.

At least it took years for America to withdraw.

As to "disaster": the American sanctions are obviously bad for the economy.

M.A.R.

Oof, didn't know it was that bad

Cerberus

But I wouldn't say the effect is catastrophic.

At least not so far.

M.A.R.

Well, nowadays people have more things added to their unrest bucket

The last two years of Ahmedinejad sucked as well, although maybe much worse

Cerberus

9:47 PM

@M.A.R. To us, it seems those years were still worse than now?

M.A.R.

@Cerberus Pardon?

Q: Difference between 'went home by taxi' and 'went home in a taxi'

What is the difference between by and in? For example: I went home by taxi. I went home in a taxi. Is there any difference?

word-usage

ELU is just ELL with funkier shades. And a damp smell.

Cerberus

10:12 PM

@M.A.R. My impression of the last two years of Ahmedinejad was that they were still worse than the situation is now, but I could be wrong?

Færd

@Cerberus The impact is not evenly distributed. It has been disastrous for enough people. There are others who hardly felt any discomfort.

Cerberus

Isn't it always that way?

The rich in Congo are doubtless affected much less.

Færd

I'm saying one shouldn't calculate the average to see if something was disastrous.

Cerberus

No, indeed.

Mitch

@Cerberus considers becoming rich in the Congo

Gigili

10:26 PM

@Færd Then I bought the wrong dictionary.

@Cerberus That's not true. It's getting worse year by year, those two years were not that bad compared to the current situation.

Cerberus

Noted.

Færd

@Gigili Dictionaries aren't committed to realism.

M.A.R.

10:48 PM

@Cerberus Yeah, that's what I said. Thinking about it, maybe because it was the first big blow after almost a generation. The first slap is the most noticeable, and it's what starts nosebleeds

Everything is bleeding now but the start can't be denied.

Rouhani is more deceptive, Ahmadi was taken off guard, and if he and his cabinet were trying to lie, they were too far too late

The past 7 years, though, have been an elaborate spider web of lies, shifting with every wind and self-contradictory, yet weasely enough to get nothing but grunts for the most part

Gigili

@Færd That sentence is the definition of pessimism.

M.A.R.

You can literally make dozens of 30-second videos comparing Rouhani's speeches of 2015 and 2018, each sentence contradicting the last from three years ago

Exactly like that, no deduction skills needed. 2015 he says X, and 2018 says not X.

Heck, even one of the recent farces, about gasoline prices, a week earlier (?) he had thundered with absolute certainty that oil prices will not increase, and some time earlier an entire speech about why it's not the right way.

Cerberus

11:33 PM

One wonders about the Wuhan virus, though.

It is said to kill mostly old people.

Færd

@Gigili Sounds like you don't trust dictionary definitions either :)

@Cerberus Such an ageist virus

Come to that, death is also ageist.

And it's the one brand of discrimination that only gets worse in fairer and more prosperous societies.

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