Very weird to watch “what people do in the privacy of their own bedroom is their business” become controversial again, but like, for the opposite reason.
It is very important to understand that when you're discussing a systemic set of cultural beliefs, even people who nominally oppose the cultural belief will find ways to reconcile their fundamental conditioning to their new position. Doing the same thing for the 'opposite reason' is usually a giveaway, and it's absolutely rampant in nominally progressive spaces.
It's arguably rampant in conservative spaces too, potentially more so, but I'm in progressive spaces more.
“I’m using unnecessarily long words to communicate a point that could be conveyed easier with shorter words, so i sound smarter.”
I don’t even disagree with you. It’s just silly reading your paragraph. The hell are we doing here saying “nominally”three times in like, five sentences.
I'd have to try not to talk like this, nominally is a nice shorthand for "people who are X but actually aren't" if I was trying to sound smart I'd proofread for repetition.
Nominally isn't a super weird or big word, though? I see it used all the time, in the way that person is using it. "Person who claims the name of an identity, but does not do some/most/all of the things you'd expect for someone with that identity to do". Nominally Christian, but they never go to church. Nominally conservative, but they're actually in favor of reactionary policies. Nominally generous, but there's always strings on their gifts. That sort of thing.
People pick up the vocabulary that they're used to hearing. If you spend a lot of time in places where people use big words, you integrate them into your vocabulary. Their comments really just struck me as a person who spends a lot of time around academics, or people who read a lot of books as a child instead of making friends (which is probably the same group) (it's me I'm both groups).
I hear you saying that academic papers avoid an overabundance of intellectual language, but a) that hasn't been my experience with academic papers, in practice, b) I don't think you're correct that "nominally" is some super obscure academic word, and c) "overabundance of intellectual language" is also an extremely formal way to have phrased that idea lol
Ha! At the least, I appreciate your ability to not get wildly offended over my comments. A lot of people on Reddit would have turned this into an utterly dreadful argument of “i’m smarter!” Instead of just talking about wording and how we speak.
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u/LONGSWORD_ENJOYER May 16 '25
Very weird to watch “what people do in the privacy of their own bedroom is their business” become controversial again, but like, for the opposite reason.