Ded Levin
@three53.bsky.social
My best friend is dead. Suddenly there's theocrats, ethno-statists and totalitarians, and stupid insecure billionaires who would rather there was no knowledge in the world than have to digest complex ideas EVERYWHERE. And now this.
Good lord, I had no idea. I'll definitely never call you a USian then.
I think I better not sub to your posts, I might forget and say something else innocuous that turns out to be hugely offensive to americans.
I think I better not sub to your posts, I might forget and say something else innocuous that turns out to be hugely offensive to americans.
November 27, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Good lord, I had no idea. I'll definitely never call you a USian then.
I think I better not sub to your posts, I might forget and say something else innocuous that turns out to be hugely offensive to americans.
I think I better not sub to your posts, I might forget and say something else innocuous that turns out to be hugely offensive to americans.
too sleepy to read it right now, but I'm immediately trapped in a recursive Iona loop now.
November 27, 2025 at 2:04 AM
too sleepy to read it right now, but I'm immediately trapped in a recursive Iona loop now.
I guess I'm trying to say that getting pedantic about something so lacking any temporal stability or even momentary consensus is a fool's errand. And being a fool and oversupplied with education and citizenships, I'm happy to engage anyone who feels there's a definitive position to be staked out.
November 26, 2025 at 11:48 PM
I guess I'm trying to say that getting pedantic about something so lacking any temporal stability or even momentary consensus is a fool's errand. And being a fool and oversupplied with education and citizenships, I'm happy to engage anyone who feels there's a definitive position to be staked out.
Yeah you're right, yet another weirdness - Ireland is part of the British Isles, but Northern Ireland is not in Great Britain. It is in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland though.
For now anyway, I hear there's a referendum coming...
For now anyway, I hear there's a referendum coming...
November 26, 2025 at 11:12 PM
Yeah you're right, yet another weirdness - Ireland is part of the British Isles, but Northern Ireland is not in Great Britain. It is in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland though.
For now anyway, I hear there's a referendum coming...
For now anyway, I hear there's a referendum coming...
Like @rincewind.run said - you-ess-ian, as if you took the letters U and S, and added Ian to the end.
Wiktionary says you pronounce it thus: /juːˈɛs.i.ən/
Wiktionary says you pronounce it thus: /juːˈɛs.i.ən/
November 26, 2025 at 11:10 PM
Like @rincewind.run said - you-ess-ian, as if you took the letters U and S, and added Ian to the end.
Wiktionary says you pronounce it thus: /juːˈɛs.i.ən/
Wiktionary says you pronounce it thus: /juːˈɛs.i.ən/
Give Stewart Lee's "coming over here" bit a listen if you can find it. The UK may have been a thing longer than the US, but it was a lot of different things before it was the UK, and before it was Scotland England Wales etc. And before the US was the US, it was lots of other things similarly.
November 26, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Give Stewart Lee's "coming over here" bit a listen if you can find it. The UK may have been a thing longer than the US, but it was a lot of different things before it was the UK, and before it was Scotland England Wales etc. And before the US was the US, it was lots of other things similarly.
I mean, the US is kind of that too.
November 26, 2025 at 10:49 PM
I mean, the US is kind of that too.
Not that I know of, but it doesn't roll of the tongue so nicely to my ear. I do have a difficult time figuring out what to call a UK citizen, other than "UK citizen" - "British" has a lot of negative connotations in my mind, and also I don't really like being personified by my nationalities.
November 26, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Not that I know of, but it doesn't roll of the tongue so nicely to my ear. I do have a difficult time figuring out what to call a UK citizen, other than "UK citizen" - "British" has a lot of negative connotations in my mind, and also I don't really like being personified by my nationalities.
Old English words for the (Celtic) Britons and survived until c. 1300. In Old French, Bret as an adjective meant "British, Breton; cunning, crafty; simple-minded, stupid."
November 26, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Old English words for the (Celtic) Britons and survived until c. 1300. In Old French, Bret as an adjective meant "British, Breton; cunning, crafty; simple-minded, stupid."
Apparently not!
www.etymonline.com/search?q=Brit
U.S. colloquial shortening of Britisher or Briton, 1901, formerly (with Britisher) felt as offensive by Englishmen traveling in the States, who regarded it as another instance of the "odious vulgarism" of the Americans, but Bret and Bryt were common
www.etymonline.com/search?q=Brit
U.S. colloquial shortening of Britisher or Briton, 1901, formerly (with Britisher) felt as offensive by Englishmen traveling in the States, who regarded it as another instance of the "odious vulgarism" of the Americans, but Bret and Bryt were common
Search 'BritU.S' on etymonline
Search results for 'BritU.S' on etymonline
www.etymonline.com
November 26, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Apparently not!
www.etymonline.com/search?q=Brit
U.S. colloquial shortening of Britisher or Briton, 1901, formerly (with Britisher) felt as offensive by Englishmen traveling in the States, who regarded it as another instance of the "odious vulgarism" of the Americans, but Bret and Bryt were common
www.etymonline.com/search?q=Brit
U.S. colloquial shortening of Britisher or Briton, 1901, formerly (with Britisher) felt as offensive by Englishmen traveling in the States, who regarded it as another instance of the "odious vulgarism" of the Americans, but Bret and Bryt were common
I guess "the British"? And TIL Britons were ancient Celts who lived there from the iron age up to the middle ages.
I mean, this kind of highlights how pointless it is to use national identity as a collective noun for human.
I mean, this kind of highlights how pointless it is to use national identity as a collective noun for human.
November 26, 2025 at 10:23 PM
I guess "the British"? And TIL Britons were ancient Celts who lived there from the iron age up to the middle ages.
I mean, this kind of highlights how pointless it is to use national identity as a collective noun for human.
I mean, this kind of highlights how pointless it is to use national identity as a collective noun for human.
Is there a better term? I've been gone a long time but I didn't think I was that out of touch. What would you call them?
November 26, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Is there a better term? I've been gone a long time but I didn't think I was that out of touch. What would you call them?
will there be a video/film release of the show at some point for those of us who can't travel to the US? Or maybe I missed a stream - I know at least one theatre that did that during the pandemic to keep some cash coming in, so it's definitely a thing :)
I'd love to see it!
I'd love to see it!
November 26, 2025 at 10:13 PM
will there be a video/film release of the show at some point for those of us who can't travel to the US? Or maybe I missed a stream - I know at least one theatre that did that during the pandemic to keep some cash coming in, so it's definitely a thing :)
I'd love to see it!
I'd love to see it!
and on yet another hand, I would assume someone was not talking about me if they referenced Europeans. Maybe its better to use city or state, rather than country/continent - is any statement about "Americans" or even "Britons" useful? Or just ignorant? I guess it also serves to define the out group.
November 26, 2025 at 9:58 PM
and on yet another hand, I would assume someone was not talking about me if they referenced Europeans. Maybe its better to use city or state, rather than country/continent - is any statement about "Americans" or even "Britons" useful? Or just ignorant? I guess it also serves to define the out group.
general, and to Columbus and the whole project in particular) but also because it just seemed more specific to me. OTOH, I can definitely relate by way of hating being called a "brit" (and I am a UK citizen only because I am lazy and poor - I am also a citizen of Canada and live here in Toronto)
November 26, 2025 at 9:58 PM
general, and to Columbus and the whole project in particular) but also because it just seemed more specific to me. OTOH, I can definitely relate by way of hating being called a "brit" (and I am a UK citizen only because I am lazy and poor - I am also a citizen of Canada and live here in Toronto)
This is genuinely surprising to me. I grew up in the UK, and got into the habit of using USian as an alternative to American, partly because my primary school teacher drilled us in not saying "America" when we meant this one part of it (a strange hill to die on, given our approach to history in
November 26, 2025 at 9:58 PM
This is genuinely surprising to me. I grew up in the UK, and got into the habit of using USian as an alternative to American, partly because my primary school teacher drilled us in not saying "America" when we meant this one part of it (a strange hill to die on, given our approach to history in
ah but you're just helping me recollect more nonsense! Better nonsense than how bizarre and disappointing things actually turn out to be, but still.
November 26, 2025 at 9:37 PM
ah but you're just helping me recollect more nonsense! Better nonsense than how bizarre and disappointing things actually turn out to be, but still.
Yikes, I saw the pic and thought why is Mr Parloff reposting about mar a lago face 🙃
November 23, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Yikes, I saw the pic and thought why is Mr Parloff reposting about mar a lago face 🙃
It's a huge cycle of stupid - verisimilitude is the point, not verity; hiding and obfuscating provenance is a feature. Only the most trivial of prose will yield to automated testing against any definition of truth or even correctness. And yet for this we burn.
November 23, 2025 at 11:46 AM
It's a huge cycle of stupid - verisimilitude is the point, not verity; hiding and obfuscating provenance is a feature. Only the most trivial of prose will yield to automated testing against any definition of truth or even correctness. And yet for this we burn.
and this is measured using only the least controversial of evaluations - search for the current art on LLM evals, and you will find nothing related to epistemic warrant. You will however find very serious people proposing to use other LLMs to automate testing.
November 23, 2025 at 11:46 AM
and this is measured using only the least controversial of evaluations - search for the current art on LLM evals, and you will find nothing related to epistemic warrant. You will however find very serious people proposing to use other LLMs to automate testing.
but it speaks in the first person, proving incontrovertibly that humans are innately credulous fools... and holy shit can I no longer take any dystopian fiction seriously now that reality is simpleton clowns from the valley and not killer clowns from outer space - and fuck the turing test forever
November 23, 2025 at 2:23 AM
but it speaks in the first person, proving incontrovertibly that humans are innately credulous fools... and holy shit can I no longer take any dystopian fiction seriously now that reality is simpleton clowns from the valley and not killer clowns from outer space - and fuck the turing test forever
They don't even have a decent working definition of "quality" or "fault" or "correctness" in this context.
November 22, 2025 at 6:01 PM
They don't even have a decent working definition of "quality" or "fault" or "correctness" in this context.
Oh dear, I expect we'll be seeing some oligarchs falling out of windows soon.
Totalitarianism always eats itself in the end, even if the next stage is also totalitarianism.
Totalitarianism always eats itself in the end, even if the next stage is also totalitarianism.
November 21, 2025 at 12:22 AM
Oh dear, I expect we'll be seeing some oligarchs falling out of windows soon.
Totalitarianism always eats itself in the end, even if the next stage is also totalitarianism.
Totalitarianism always eats itself in the end, even if the next stage is also totalitarianism.
I was wondering why my hoodie was suddenly on backwards!
November 21, 2025 at 12:11 AM
I was wondering why my hoodie was suddenly on backwards!