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Comment by enko | Hacker News Reader

This is an informal comment forum, so I prefer to structure my sentences as I would informal speech. That means comma splicing and lots of it. What would you have written?

I wasn't shitting on people who work at Subway, I was shitting on their awful, condescending job titles.

And I really just have to ask you to think about what you said.

> Languages change, bud. No amount of bitter internet comments will stop that.

Yes they do. Society changes, too. Companies change. People change. Countries change, laws change. (Oops, another comma splice).

I could re-use your comment to put down any criticism of any change of any kind. Just play around with some issues you care about, replacing the word "Languages" to suit. Feel any different?

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> This is an informal comment forum, so I prefer to structure my sentences as I would informal speech. That means comma splicing and lots of it.

How do you distinguish a comma-splice from the grammatically-correct independent-clauses-connected-by-semicolons in speech?

> What would you have written?

Well, assuming I wanted to say what you said, I would replace the commas with semicolons, making it grammatically correct without changing the wording or the implied spoken phrasing.

You were using their job title to evoke the image of a certain type of person in a negative way. That is very much shitting on them, whether or not you care to admit it. It's quite literally how stereotypes are created and perpetuated.

> I could re-use your comment to put down any criticism of any change of any kind.

Sure, if my criticism was about something that naturally changes. If I were criticizing trees for losing their leaves, or tides from moving in and out, or potato chips for going stale, you would be completely correct to tell me, "All of those things happen whether you like it or not." Just like I'm correct to tell you, "It's pointless to complain about words finding new meanings."

>You were using their job title to evoke the image of a certain type of person in a negative way.

Yes. The person that came up with the "awful, condescending" job title. You mistake the target of the shitting.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Sandwich%20Ar...

    2. A person who, in real terms, is unskilled, and cant 
       see it, despite thinking they have a 'talent'. The 
       person often makes inappropriate, obtuse, or 
       simplistic comments, to everyone elses amusement.

So you're saying he's really insulting the people who came up with the phrase "Sandwich Artist", not the people who hold it as a job title? Because that's ridiculous. He used the phrase "Sandwich Artist" to evoke the image of an unskilled person who thinks they're much more important than they think they are. It comes from the fact that Subway employees are called "Sandwich Artists", despite their job being much the same as any other fast food server.

It does not take a degree in linguistics to understand that using someone else's job title in a derogatory manner is shitting on the person with the job title. This is something you should have learned in grade school.

I've never encountered that definition. I've only seen it in terms of "god, the management at Subway sure is full of itself". I think it was the Subway definition that enko was using. Management using a ridiculous fancy term to pretend they care about employees.

Ironic that I couldn't quite get my point across, after complaining about misuse of language!

This point has been belaboured far more than it deserves, but for the record I had in mind both the cynical management with their ludicrous, condescending job titles, and any employee naive enough to believe it.

The blogger in question didn't make up the phrase, it's been handed down to him, but he's taken it up with gusto. He's sort of an enthusiastic consumer of the management BS. I hadn't thought of the angle of criticising the poor hard-working minimum wage Subway employees; wasn't my intention. Think Gareth/Dwight from The Office though, wearing his Sandwich Artist badge with obnoxious pride, and that's sort of close.

Anyway, more words have been wasted on this matter than ever it deserved...

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