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Comment by 2bitencryption | Hacker News Reader

I'm about to make a really petty and possibly off topic comment, so sorry for this --

"this is the correct take" is like my least-favorite Twitter-ism of them all. it's so ridiculously authoritative and final. Like, "Whoa, okay, everyone stop the discussion. @SandwichGuy87 has identified the correct take. Thanks for bringing us to reality, @SandwichGuy87."

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I think if you read the two parent comments to "this is the correct take", they also take an authoritative mood.

Rather qualifying a statement with "I think", or "I believe", they basically assume some reality to be true and then describe it. And that's ok, as readers we assume that the author is giving their opinion.

So "this is the correct take" should be read as "in the reality that I believe is true, this is the correct take".

Except [I believe] it should be called out to help the author become aware of the rigidity in thought of they are unaware of it. Perhaps they truly believe something is the only truth., and then they can defend their authoritative statement if they wish.

I agree but I am a firm believer that all things between people are highly situational, including when to inform, when to explain, when to suggest, when to ask, and when to listen. Correcting people can be considered impolite. In discussions marked by conflict, it's often more useful to get the other person to arrive at your conclusion themselves, by simply presenting the information and your evaluation of its meaning. It depends a lot upon the audience, the prior conversation, the circumstances etc. People are marked by a great deal of hysteresis (not to be confused with hysteria lol).

It becomes tiresome to always phrase things with "I believe" or "my opinion".

I guess "I believe this is correct." would be more polite. But on a social media site where everything is about prompting the next comment, and no one can unilaterally end any conversation, it's obviously toothless. In that context, the "polite" alternative could come off as tentative.

I hadn't heard "twitterism" before. Is there a list of these? I unplugged from Twitter more than a year ago, and have benefited immensely. But I'm sure I'm missing references because of it.

I think it comes from a desperation for clarity in a messy conversation.

This is the correct take.

Completely agree. It's a boring reddit/twitter soundbite which contributes nothing

haha —- maybe i’ll add imo next time? good feedback though. i hadn’t considered the phrase to be taken that way

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