The hypertext for that emoji is “thinking”. I’ve used it a lot here, because so many things that people post here are interesting and make me think! I’ve used it all along to indicate “Hmm, that makes me think…” I’ve never used it to indicate sarcasm. Do people think I’ve been sarcastic here all this time?? This is bad news to me.
I may have to give up on using emojis here, if they’re giving an impression I don’t intend. Which makes me sad. But I’m glad you mentioned this, because I didn’t know.
The libritarians would have us believe that government regulation is bad. This however is a textbook case of why we have and need more regulation and regulators who are empowered to bring justice quickly and devastatingly down on the heads of greedy asshats.
You’d think a militant(!) tenants’ association wouldn’t be something to piss-off, but it doesn’t sound like they get much support from up the chain of command.
One night, the two sat in the back of an Army vehicle on a live-fire shooting range during a field exercise, recalled McNeill, a retired four-star general. McNeill says he was doubtful a private developer could manage the housing better than the military. Picerne’s earnest manner and business expertise won him over.
“I was quite the cynic about it, but I basically realized I didn’t know what the hell I was talking about” when it came to managing homes, recalled the general, who retired a decade ago. “I was fairly certain he knew what he was doing and his intentions were good.”
Huh. Why didn’t you think of it as a logistics problem general? You might not know how a truck works, but know how important they are, and have people in charge of them who do know how they work, make sure that they’re working, and report that rather than their good intentions, right?
I guess the conditions were much nicer along brass row, and it never worried his pretty little head.
Not always! It takes other signals for it to truly indicate sarcasm. For example, my footnote. You’re safe as long as you didn’t also accidentally include “/s”.
That matches my experience in the Army back in the late 1980s, and I suspect it has been that way for as long as there have been armies. Enlisted personnel, especially E-4 and lower, are basically cannon fodder.
That’s interesting! For me, I would say the “winking” one indicates good-natured humor/teasing/joking, but not sarcasm.
More about the “thinking” emoji—
Here’s an older one that seems more good-natured, and seems more like it’s saying “Hmm, that’s interesting; you’ve made me think…” or maybe “Hmm, I wonder…” (I found this screengrab in my BoingBoing/bbs folder; I’m pretty sure it came from here at some point in the past.)
While the current version here seems more critical, more like it’s saying “Oh yeah? Well, I’m not so sure about that, buddy…” so I can see where people may equate it with negativity/mocking/sarcasm
(I much prefer the older, more kindly-seeming version. It suits suited my needs better.)
Well, we’re certainly off-topic here…but this topic closes in two hours anyway, so what the heck. Thanks for indulging my interest in emoji communication
one. I’m not sure there are any others that work quite as well.
