A hobby of mine is asking people what they mean by “good morning/afternoon/evening”… Are they wishing me a good whatever? Are they stating that it is a good whatever? Are they saying they’re having a good whatever? Or are they saying I should be having a good whatever?
I usually phrase it as “are you asking, or telling?”
I’ve found this is a terse way to get to the intent of the words they’re saying, and it usually throws people off because they didn’t think about what they’re saying, they’re only saying it because that’s what you are conditioned to do.
IDK about politics tho. Just that I really hope that the USA doesn’t elect a felon.
You can say good morning with an infection that makes it asking. Like if I looked over at you on the bus and go “good morning?”. You’d know to reply that you were indeed having a good one. Same as if I said “rough morning?”
I would reply “Just saying”
It’s totally conditioned to say it. I come from where the response to “How you doing?” Is “Good, you?”, “Good”
If someone just said “Morning” to you, you’ve been conditioned to think something is wrong or they are having a bad day more than likely.
First impressions matter, and the first word out of your mouth better be good
I try not to lie, ever, even in my colloquialisms.
If someone says, “how’s it going?” I usually deflect because I don’t want to lie, but I also know they don’t give any shits about how I’m doing, especially if they’re just being “nice”. My typical response is that “it’s going”, which IMO, just implies that things have happened and doesn’t really give any indication if they’re going well or not. Same for things like “how is your day?” They don’t care. My go to is usually along the lines of “it’s a day”…
Whatever ends the pleasantries part of the conversation faster. That way I can get to why I’m talking to them in the first place.
I use “are you asking, or telling?” with people that I’m familiar with and in no hurry to conclude the interaction. I usually try to reply in ways that are thought provoking; trying to challenge their use of colloquialisms and actually think about what they’re asking/telling me. I only openly answer questions like “good morning?” When a friend or family member is asking and I’m pretty sure that they actually want to know the answer and aren’t just placating the pleasantries of interactions with others. If I’m specifically asked “good morning?” From a relative stranger, my reply would be along the lines of: “it’s a morning, that’s for sure”, mainly because I don’t really give any shits about making complete strangers think about what they’re saying. If they want to stick to meaningless colloquialisms, I have no desire to prevent them from mindlessly navigating through life without using their higher brain functions.
I deal with enough idiocy from work that I can’t be arsed to care about whether someone I don’t even know and I’m all probability, won’t remember, nor think of again, and will likely never see again, thinks about what they’re actually saying to others by habit instead of being genuinely concerned.
If I ask someone how their day is, it’s because I want to know, either as an extension of my job (which is IT support, aka, fixing shit), or because I want to know if I’m able to make their day less shitty by doing something that helps them.
I’m also a certified first-aider, so when someone complains, I want to know if it’s medical, and if I need to go get something that can help, whether that’s a bandaid or an AED, isn’t the critical point, either is important depending on context, and both are equally important and unimportant depending on the circumstances. A bandaid can be extremely important to protect against infection (and a relatively small cut becoming a very big problem), whereas the AED is extremely important when someone has chest pains, and other symptoms of AFib, while it’s basically worthless for everything else.
I dunno, I’m just some guy. I’m trying my best out here.
I don’t know… I think my response to such a thing would be something along the lines of looking at you confusedly and then explaining to you that saying that to someone in greeting is a societal norm and it doesn’t have a lot of meaning beyond that.
When the person in the supermarket checkout line says “have a nice day” after bagging my groceries and giving me a receipt, I don’t think that they actually care whether or not I have a nice day. It’s just a way of ending a social interaction.
It’s hard for sociopaths to believe that there are people who aren’t sociopaths
OT, but as a non-native English speaker, what would you say in a greeting like that if it was, say, 1:00 AM?
What would you say, “Good _____”?
Doesn’t “Good night” come with a strong connotation of leaving and going to sleep? (Or expecting the other side to do so?)
(I’m from Czech Republic and we just don’t have such term.)
In USMC boot camp, this specific topic was addressed very early on. It’s “Good Morning” up until noon, after which it is “Good Afternoon” up until you eat evening chow, then it is “Good Evening” until midnight (at which point it becomes “Good Morning” again).
Of course, it’s all up to personal preference in the real world. If you’re out with your friends at a club and it’s after midnight but still very much dark out, you’re not going to be greeting people of the gender that you prefer to look at with “Good Morning”, because it is still ‘evening’ to you and them.
Honestly I prefer saying “Good Day” in Czech as well (that’s the most abundant one used here).
At some point I realized that the whole thing has silent “I wish you”, which also means that if I say “Dobrý den” (==“Good day”) I’m actually being more generous. So correcting me to “Dobrý večer” (== “Good evening”) because it’s 7 PM or whatever is actually not just petty but also kind of a dick move.
(Edit: I also realize that my explanation is probably the pinnacle of pettiness, with just a little pinch of dickmoveines on top…)
I’ve found that the answer depends on what region of the US you’re from. The UK probably does it differently, but I’m with @FlyingSquid@lemmy.world. If it’s dark out, you’re definitely greeting with “good evening.”
what would you say in a greeting like that if it was, say, 1:00 AM?
I’d probably say: “Why are you still up? Your bedtime was hours ago. GO TO BED!” because it would most likely be one of my children at that time of night.
For people asking what this is about, I didn’t look at the NYT because of the paywall, but here’s an article that’s very similar in tone from NPR.
Although they do state
The dozen Harris statements lacking in context are far less in comparison to 162 misstatements, exaggerations and outright lies that NPR found from Trump’s hour-long news conference Aug. 8.
the following items are really nit-picky. It’s laid out as a list of misleading statements, but reading the details of each makes me think “ok, so basically true, then”.
Some of the “misleading” statements were Harris neglecting to enumerate the reasons why a stated policy goal might not succeed, which would be incredibly unusual to include in a speech of this nature.
I guess the point the author was trying to make was that saying you “will” do something in office is a promise, and if you don’t have the ability to guarantee that promise can be kept you shouldn’t say that thing at all? I love me some NPR but they’re really bending over backwards with some of these…
I feel like some loud conservatives made NPR freak out and now they’re trying to sprinkle in stories like this.
Because the moment conservatives run things again, they’ll absolutely continue gutting public radio.
It’s because back in April some right-wing nutjob editor quit NPR claiming an atmosphere of bias. So he fled to right-wing outlets (where he conveniently ignores their right-wing bias) and now NPR decides they need to go back to balancing the scales of the BoTh SiDeS bullshit.
https://www.npr.org/2024/04/17/1245283076/npr-editor-uri-berliner-resigns-ceo-katherine-maher
“He came to me and said, ‘Good Morning!’”
“The nerve!”
“‘I hope you have a great day!’”
“The nerve!!”
“And I was like, ‘WHO ARE YOU TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO??’”
“Fuck Walz! He’s got eyeballs for testicles!”
