Comment on Why is the US not considered a third world country?

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Anyolduser@lemmynsfw.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

Just because a lot of people use a phrase incorrectly doesn’t mean that it should be the accepted meaning.

A good example is “have your cake and eat it, too”. As the Unabomber famously fixated on, the phrase was originally “you can’t eat your cake and have it, too”. That saying actually makes sense and has meaning.

After a while people began to jokingly say it backwards, as “you can’t have your cake and eat it, too”. That was dandy, until people forgot that it was a joke. Now, years later, we’re all left with a saying that is fucking ridiculous sounding and but we keep saying it because we need the original phrase in our language.

Sure, language evolves and changes. Sometimes though, it’s a good idea to be sticklers about the rules.

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