Mike Pope

@mikepope.com

394 Followers 316 Following

Tech writing & editing (update: now retired), language & words, occasional cats. Friday words when the mood strikes me (and when it's Friday): https://mikepopewords.com/

A Threads post that says "The July 4 convergence is, technically, a dilemma demonstration—an action constructed so every regime response loses. The mechanism is what Gene Sharp called political jiu-jitsu and Brian Martin formalized as backfire theory: Repression of manifestly legitimate actors transfers legitimacy to the repressed. The craft is in maximizing the gap between the action's symbolic legitimacy and the regime's available responses-hence patriots, flags, and Constitutions on the nation's 250th birthday. The canonical ancestor is the Salt March: Gandhi selected an act (making salt) so elementary and so legitimate that prosecuting it was absurd and permitting it was defeat. Selma is the American proof-Bloody Sunday converted repression into the Voting Rights Act in five months."
Billboard advertising a business called Chef'Store, with an oddly placed apostrophe between "Chef" and "Store".
Sign from Costco that advertises "Sunvilla Sling Chaise Lounge, Commercial Quality" for $179.99.
Informational sign from a grocery store aisle that says "Can Tuna (next line) Dry Beans (next line) Can Beans (next line) Can Vegetables".
Sticker that says "Just A Friendly Reminder That Your Boss Is Not Your Friend, Human Resources Is Not On Your Side, Your Company Doesn't Give A Fuck About You".0
Back in November, the Department of Homeland Security put out an insane propaganda tweet asserting that immigrants are responsible for all the problems in American life, only to be met by a Pramila Jayapal retort that, actually, it’s all the fault of evil billionaires. This is followed a screenshot of a tweet from representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) where she took the original Homeland Security tweet with all references to immigrants crossed out and replaced with "It's the billionaires"; Japapal's tweet says "Fixed it for you".
A social media post from Katrine Koenig that says "Someone corrected my German, confidently citing ChatGPT. I'm a native German speaker, with a master in German literature from a German university". A response from user Jen says "Botsplaining?"
Screenshot of the Semafor story; the relevant line is "The situation is complicated, though: Paramount Skydance is looking to gazump the sale, offering cash to shareholders in a hostile takeover". The word "gazump" is highlighter.