An MIT linguistics professor was lecturing his class the other day. "In English," he said, "a double negative forms a positive. However, in some languages, such as Russian, a double negative remains a negative. But there isn't a single language, not one, in which a double positive can express a negative."
A voice from the back of the room piped up, "Yeah, right."
Have you run across a reference that traces this story? Because you get everything from joke, funny story about the person to true story about the person. In seemingly endless circular reference.
funny but just in case anyone takes it literally, "yeah, right" requires some contextual indication of sarcasm to be negative. The same words could be uttered as an expression of impatient agreement rather than disagreement, and most positives can be turned negative with additional context.
This is different from the English double negative which is an application of context-free logic to a statement.
Indeed. This joke doesn't really work written down- it's absolutely possible to say "yeah, right" in an entirely positive way. It's the sarcastic tone when spoken that makes it negative.
The one item I've seen attributing this to a named person, attributed it to a philosophy professor at CCNY. This was in "The Lives They Led" year-end collection of obituaries the NY Times publishes, and it was probably at least five years ago.
In this metaphor, it’s unlikely that either WeWork or Uber could be taken aback by suddenly viewing their reflections in a mirror. The horror is common knowledge to everyone, excepting perhaps the money blinkered investors.
Instead of dreaming about what potential lies in Etsy 2.0, why doesn’t someone build a competing marketplace that takes the advantage by not accepting a shit-ton of corrupting VC investment?
Drivers who are aquainted with you may make a modest wage, and I’ll wager you know no drivers in Minneapolis nor Orlando, for their mileage rates cause their rideshare labor to be an entirely charitable endeavor.
Yup. In Florida, many of them are illegals, many of them are hobos with cars, and others are indentured to crime rings where one vehicle is swapped out with several drivers whose faces apparently all look alike to the rideshare company management. Here’s an example for you: today, Tuesday, MCO is closed, yet the rideshare staging lot has over 25 vehicles in it. Yesterday, Monday, FLL was closed for weather, and the rideshare staging lot had over 55 vehicles parked in it with their homeless drivers sleeping through the hurricane to get first crack at inbound flights once they resumed. Nice work if you can get it.
No one forces anyone to drive for Uber or Lyft. If they don't like the money they're making, they can go work at a regular job. With sub-4% unemployment there are PLENTY of jobs out there.
You’re being downvoted for what, suggesting people buy their own vehicles? The downvoters conveniently skipped that you mentioned the primary option would be to pay the real costs of a private ride . Rideshare is a swindle against gullible, math-challenged contractors while painting the whole affair as a progressive, environmentally conscientious techno-inevitability.
What’s the solution to so many world governments now being led by totalitarian intellectual degenerates, especially since it increasingly negatively affects the whole of humanity? Are we waiting for a vague, benevolent singularity to conquer us stupids? Or are we humans becoming the yeast cells in the brew of our own demise? I seriously posit this for intelligent answers as I’m stumped.
This reminds me of a time I needed a blower fan for my refrigerator and Amazon’s recommended one for next day delivery seemed suspiciously underpriced. I ordered it despite my trepidation that the item was going to be made out of silly putty by a Chinese pirate. Upon receipt, I discovered the serial number was filed off and I rested assured that it was a quality OEM but probably stolen. The motor is still working great which is more than one can say for Amazon.
> This reminds me of a time I needed a blower fan for my refrigerator and Amazon’s recommended one for next day delivery seemed suspiciously underpriced. I ordered it despite my trepidation that the item was going to be made out of silly putty by a Chinese pirate. Upon receipt, I discovered the serial number was filed off and I rested assured that it was a quality OEM but probably stolen. The motor is still working great which is more than one can say for Amazon.
Did you notify Amazon or any authorities about this? Would be curious to hear the response.
I didn't. My sense of disgust and disillusion was heightened by the fact that it was an Amazon recommended product. Of late, I am more and more spare about shouting into the wind.
It isn’t absurd in the sense that it’s untrue. It is factual that using electricity generated by carbon emitting processes affects climate change, but to factor every keystroke I’m making right this instant is a thought exercise warranting ridicule. We can cite the other extreme and condemn Bitcoin blockchain maintenance as an energy travesty.
