this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2023
304 points (99.7% liked)
Green - An environmentalist community
5303 readers
3 users here now
This is the place to discuss environmentalism, preservation, direct action and anything related to it!
RULES:
1- Remember the human
2- Link posts should come from a reputable source
3- All opinions are allowed but discussion must be in good faith
Related communities:
- /c/collapse
- /c/antreefa
- /c/gardening
- /c/eco_socialism@lemmygrad.ml
- /c/biology
- /c/criseciv
- /c/eco
- /c/environment@beehaw.org
- SLRPNK
Unofficial Chat rooms:
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Why not "youth activists win climate change fight against montana?"
Asshole replies aside: I took a technical writing course in which we learned that people struggle talking to Americans because we are obsessed with using negatives as a form of emphasis. How are you doing? Not bad! Thank you! No problem. Do you mind doing me a favor? Not at all!
This is especially difficult who already struggle with affirmatives and then need to translate the negative. Combine this with Americans' constant need to appeal to power, you get headlines like "Goliath Loses Battle to David With a Stone," or "No one saw This Heat Coming," or "What You're Probably Doing Wrong With Your Used Toilet Paper."
Except for " Do you mind..." I see you point and never noticed it before. I'm guilty of most of these.
However, the polite response to "Do you mind?" is "no." Otherwise you would mind, and if you do mind, you wouldn't want to do the favor. It's actually a weird question because it basically flips the meaning of "yes" and "no" you usually expect.
That's a good argument untiiiillll you consider that this question is essentially a negated version of "Will you please..."
See also: "Why don't you..."
Not really, you're asking if it would be an inconvenience with would you mind.
Your examples are direct requests.