But it wasn’t '95 that did that awful sweeping of the youth and commerce from your town, it was Obama’s solar farms. Insert facepalm here.
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Wait. Are we talking about Ted Cruz, or solar power?
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The technical term in English is actually “vicarious shame”. Apparently, psychologists figured that one out before it became a popular German neologism.
There isn’t one, yet (at least in Austrian German…). Christian fundamentalism hasn’t been on the list of “problems that are important right now” ever since basic science existed. So we usually use broader terms like “mittelalterlich” or “amerikanisch”, which refer to the time when such things were more common, or a place where they still are, respectively. Just kidding about the second one, by the way.
How about Holzköpfigkeit, Verbohrtheit?
The Germans have a word for that, too: Bielefeldverschwörung.
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The Interstates enabled people to avoid Rednecksburghs. They facilitated what people already wanted to do, i.e. drive past or get out.
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We have all been living under the false pretense that darkness is the absence of light when in fact the reverse is true; light is the absence of dark. The sun does not provide light, it sucks up dark instead. In the absence of sunlight man has invented dark suckers, or as many call them light bulbs, so we can see when the sun has set. Many are condemning this scientist for her remarks when in fact she is only stating the scientific truth. You deniers out there are making fools of yourselves in questioning the findings of this woman, she is an educated, proven expert.
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Fittingly, the first reference in this song is to “a town in Carolina”:
(internal error made me post again?)
I knew it! I came up with a similar theory when I was about five. I recall debating this with my mother, though I don’t recall who gave up first.
Man, I must have driven my folks crazy.
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I wonder if there’s a Planned Parenthood nearby?
But since the “science” teacher in question is retired, I’d say that horse left the barn a long time ago.
Finally! A real Scientician.
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So does English. If we don’t have one we wait for someone else to, then we steal borrow it.
I was sitting on the verandah of my bungalow in my pyjamas, when a bureaucrat rode up on his bicycle and promptly fell off into the delphiniums, giving me a frisson of Schadenfreude.
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Hey, make fun all you want but I have yet to hear a more plausible explanation for the starting plot point of Sunshine.
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Bravissimo!
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Indeed, I usually get the impression that English is the language that has separate words for everything. German, not so much. We’ve got that nice way of coining new words. But in principle, English has compound words, too. You just put spaces in between unless it’s a really old compound word.
The difference is that English has a much larger and less consistent vocabulary compared to many other languages. For example, compared to German. Compare “king, queen, royal” to “König, Königin, königlich”. That’s good for poetry. Very annoying for the intermediate language learner. Fun again for an advanced student of the English language.
I get the impression that English speakers are used to encountering unknown English words. A “dictionary” is a huge book with definitions for countless words. An educated person in the time of paper encyclopedias would own one of the big dictionaries and not be afraid to use it.
A “Wörterbuch” in German is consulted occasionally for solving hard spelling questions. Most of them do not even include definitions of the words. I do not think I have ever looked up a German word in a dictionary in order to find out its meaning.
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Whoa, that is an amazing culture difference!
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All your words are belong to us.
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OT but if you want a really amazing culture difference look at the size of the simple, logical and sensible German legal code versus the English one or the complete and often conflicting mischmasch that is the US system.
And you know what? We the British helped write the German post-Nazi legal code. Physician, heal thyself.
Sweet woodruff is awesome steeped in cold water, if you like having the weirdest, most vivid semi-lucid dreams imaginable.
I’m talking trying to find a hidden sword to combat werewolves in your childhood hometown weird.
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I love the fact that German still uses ‘Evangelical’ in its earlier sense, that is as a cognate of ‘Protestant’. Since the late 19th century in the UK, it has meant ‘foaming at the mouth batshit insane’.
However I think that there are plenty of examples of Germans practicing the kind of ‘wilful-and-yet-feigned’ self-deception that is being described. The LaRouche movement is massive in Germany and has many similarities to ‘old-time’ religious faith; not least that it’s total bollocks.
What I’m getting at is there is, in Germany as much as in the English-speaking world, a pressing need for a term to describe the composite act of talking complete bullshit, pretending to believe your own bullshit, and setting up defensive positions against rational thought, in direct contradiction to your pretended belief. German is the language to deliver us this term. You can do it. I believe in you.
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She should be executed. Seriously, if you prove yourself to be that unintelligent, you should be removed quickly. There isn’t enough air and water for people like that.
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This is exactly why I always cover my solar powered calculator when not in use.
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