So perhaps another anecdote is in order. I currently running three instances of Firefox (different profiles) on a low-end Celeron laptop. I don’t usually shut them except sometimes by mistake. What I do do is close tabs, if only for simplicity’s sake (because idle tabs are unloaded from memory anyway). I’m experiencing no sluggishness issues.

Sure. Personally I just close the tabs, tho.

Just to get ahead of any incoming skepticism and cynicism: IMO as a non-American, Al Gore is an American hero. Did more than any other politician to get the climate issue on America’s agenda from the 1980s. Dutifully conceded an election that morally he won in order to protect his country’s institutions. Then spent decades more hammering away with his important message.

Sure, Al Gore probably has a not-tiny personal carbon footprint. He takes planes and probably even flies business. But let’s try not to be too judgemental. People are always the products of their milieus and this one was born into the American aristocracy. He could have chosen to spend his life differently. And, as this article suggests, he seems to be trying his best. As someone who does have a very small carbon footprint, I for one do not care about Al Gore’s personal failings. The world would obviously be a better place if it had more leaders like him.

You’re missing one or two others.

Also, can I ask why you’d leave your browser open for weeks?

This just begs the question, Why do you not leave it open?

Agreed on all counts.

Enough with the spammy questions. I’m not going to convince you and vice versa, and nobody is reading because the conversation has moved on. Good night.

Sure, that’s fair. And of course the guy on the street is not waiting on a linguistics academy for permission to open his mouth.

But you’re gonna have a tough time persuading me that a change like this is somehow “good” for our language. Languages get poorer as well as richer through use. The envy-jealousy case to me looks pretty clear: most people never learned the difference at school, or didn’t understand it, or just didn’t care, and now the rest of us have to accept that there’s no word for “jealousy” any more. Coz the people is always right, innit? It’s this attitude that is really modern.

So many other examples. “To step foot on” springs to mind. Yes, yes, entirely correct, and logical (foot! step!), and probably already in the dictionary. But to me it will always be what it obviously is, really: a mishearing by a lot of people who never saw it in print because they don’t read.

While obviously you’re correct, this is not necessarily a good thing. The jealousy-envy collapse is clearly an impoverishment of language. These are two different concepts and it’s useful to have words for concepts.

FWIW: the doctrine that “whatever people say is by definition correct and wise” is actually a pretty Anglocentric and modern thing. Linguists didn’t always think this, and you won’t get people saying this for French, for example.

Related: Italy banned lab-grown meat even tho it doesn’t even exist yet and might never happen.

Remember these things next time you hear farmers and “country folk” claim that they somehow live in closer communion with the earth than the rest of us.

The hypocrisy and entitlement is infuriating.

The internet has destroyed journalism’s business model. A respected profession has been pauperized. Salaries in freefall, hardly any job security left.

And people who pay nothing (let’s be real, OP is paying nothing) add insult to injury by demanding a higher quality product.

The hypocrisy of these kinds of laws really bothers me. Another example: the German ban on keeping single guinea pigs.

The people who passed these (undeniably) good rules are very likely celebrating with chicken wings or ice cream.

It would be so nice if more humans would just stop and think a little.

To mindless downvoters: What is your exact objection to my point? Did you actually read it or did you just vote on the basis of what you vaguely perceived as negative vibes? Would you prefer that things stay the way they are, and that there is no difficult discussion of any uncomfortable subject? Seriously, I sometimes wonder what the point of a discussion forum is. End of rant.

Went there once in the 90s. It was a tawdry place, with games arcades and junk-food stalls next to big pools with orcas in them.

About time.

ITT: the justification for civics education.

Yes it would. As would the almost certain fact that you personally choose not to actually pay for journalism, despite criticizing it liberally.

This is a cynical take that would be disputed by the people you are denigrating.

The world you are advocating cannot work. We have specialized professions for a reason.

Of course. Hence the word “abuse”.

Yes, it is. It’s literally how a complex society works. Do you advocate trusting nobody about anything and somehow doing all the research yourself? Would you dismiss your doctor for their “appeal to authority” when they open a medical textbook? This is silly.

You’re doing exactly what you criticize others for doing.