5 ms·
Sometimes, treating a facetious/sarcastic request seriously helps disarm the facetiousness. Other times, it does not.
by tareqak 1y ago
Sometimes, treating a facetious/sarcastic request seriously helps disarm the facetiousness. Other times, it does not.
- jraph 1y agoAt this point, answering to a "rewrite it in Rust" comment which doesn't go into details is a cultural faux pas, you just smile or roll your eyes and move on :-)
- amendegree 1y agoEnglish is my first language but I don’t understand this use of “disarm”.
- jraph 1y agoYou counter the facetiousness in a way it stops spreading and possibly even spark a constructive discussion is how I understand it (ESL though). I certainly observed this phenomenon myself (although as the person being facetious, I often feel like "I was joking, I actually agree, that's indeed what I was actually implying, but good you made it clear and explicit I guess") I guess you'd disarm the person being facecious rather than the facetiousness, like you'd disarm someone about to cast you a magic spell.
- thaumasiotes 1y ago> I guess you'd disarm the person being facecious rather than the facetiousness No, you disarm the facetiousness, the same way you'd disarm a trap. Disarming the person wouldn't make sense. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/disarm https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/disarm > 2. (transitive) To deprive of the means or the disposition to harm; to render harmless or innocuous. > [quotations] to disarm a man's wrath
- jraph 1y agoInteresting, in French, you can both disarm someone or a gun. https://fr.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/d%C3%A9sarmer https://fr.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/d%C3%A9sarmer
- thaumasiotes 1y agoYou can disarm a person in English, but you can't disarm them of their mood.
- jraph 1y agoIn French neither, I took this as a figure of speech where facetiousness is likened to a weapon.