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Comment by TrackerFF | Hacker News Reader

It's incel-speak for dominating someone.

"IQ-mogged" would mean that person A was dominated/overshadowed/etc. by person B because person B is very smart.

"Height-mogged" would mean the same, but due to height.

That I, an old person, know what it means suggests that it has already gone from (1) the incel or whatever community usage, to (2) ironic usage by others, and then finally to (3) widespread usage entirely divorced from the original meaning.

Not to pry, but how old is “old”?

I’m 42, and definitely don’t feel old yet - at least, my mind doesn’t feel old. My body is beginning to show me what’s it going to be like.

I don’t think my generation is nearly as out of touch with youth and niche culture as our parents were. While there are definitely examples of slang that surprise me and for which I’ve not quite nailed down the colloquial usage, it’s extremely rare that I can’t infer the meaning from context.

For that matter, I’ve adopted some of it where it makes sense. “-maxxing” is handy, and conveys more than “optimize for”; I might say I’m “tokenmaxxing” when I’m talking about intentionally using more costly inference than necessary because I’m not the one paying for it and the time necessary to optimize utilization isn’t worth it to me as a result. Basically implicitly recognizing that what I’m doing is ridiculous when viewed from the outside.

The only slang I can think of that I’ve not fully understood is “type shit”. I get that it usually used as an affirmation of someone else’s statement - but not always. I think its exact semantics are likely still in flux, because I’ve heard it used to mean all kinds of unrelated things depending on tone.

—-

Thinking about this, I wonder if it’s not a continuation of the same processes that lead to the disappearance of many regional accents. That’s generally accepted to be happening, and caused by the rise of mass media (radio, TV, Internet).

Maybe the Internet (social media in particular) has lumped everyone together in one giant community, and as a result slang no longer has time to solidly meaning in a niche group before reaching the general public.

I'm guessing most people think that "old" is 10-20 years ahead of them, regardless of their age. So someone in their 20s thinks 40 is old, while someone in their 40s thinks 50 is old. Or something like that.

> The only slang I can think of that I’ve not fully understood is “type shit”

It is mostly equivalent to "That's what's up."

Right - usually. But I’ve heard people use it in a questioning or disapproving way. Tone conveys a lot.

Yeah it’s a full generalization of “$NOUN-type shit” being a declaration that something that gives an impression of being characteristic of $NOUN in some way.

The gen z ascendant version is “what does it mean to omit the $NOUN entirely?” and makes it a bit more of an existential exclamation, like “that’s some real shit” or just “real shit”.

thought that was a synonym for typescript :)

Nah it kept it's meaning, just spread more. If anything, the level of abstraction grew. "Mogged' used to be a standalone phrase, but now it's always "___mogged".

Before “mogged” was a standalone phrase, it was apparently “AMOG” - “Alpha Male of the Group”.

I don’t remember knowing that before this conversation. I asked Claude for the history of the term, then for primary sources, and manually put the below together to show a history of the term over time:

————

Stage 1: “AMOG” == “Alpha male of the group”.

> she is not yet into you and a AMOG upsurps you

September 2003

https://web.archive.org/web/20231203102826/http://www.fastse...

————

Stage 2: “amogged” ~= “dominated”

> He will never AMOG you agian.

August 2005

https://web.archive.org/web/20240719094244/http://www.fastse...

————

Stage 3: “mogged” (transition to a word without the context of the original initialism)

> Once thought invincible the mightly 6'8" 330 pound Martyn Ford is easily mogged upon

May 2016

https://desuarchive.org/fit/thread/37236240/

————

Stage 4: “-mog” (noun), “-mogging” (verb)

> he heightmogs hard

December 2020

https://looksmax.org/threads/why-are-height-mogs-not-as-brut...

Maybe I phrased it poorly, but I just mean the context for it changed as it became mainstream. I wouldn't say it's still "incel-speak."

Nah you just know a young person or have found your way into an incel information stream. It doesn't mean you represent a large population.

Then we're in (2) and I'm hip and ahead of the curve!

not just "incel" culture, at least not any more

Yep thanks to the man-o-sphere incel culture has become mainstream for young men and boys

This is true, but there's an extra nuance: mogging isn't just dominance, but effortless dominance (or at least seemingly effortless). Incels use this to justify their aversion to putting effort of any sort into anything: if other people don't have to try, why should they?

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