Dunno about OP, but I, for one, am not.

Well, you can’t really do that when it’s expressed in written form as long as it’s not part of a grander “manifesto” of sorts. Or better put, as long as it’s not grounded in a context.

This can only be solved by slapping as much nuance as you possibly can on everything you write, make it incontrovertible in its clarity.

But if you’re not in the mood for an adjoining essay whenever you want to post a one-liner (seriously not being snarky about this, I completely understand the feeling of utter tedium when having to explain the same damned thing for the twelfth time), you can always monitor the reaction then provide clarification. Once you’ve done that, you really don’t need to engage any further.

And the most important aspect is to never forget that this is the internet. Some people are in it just to stir up shit, and that’s a game you win by not playing.

Seriously! The easiest way to defeat them is to remove the value they seek. And what better way to remove the value of a good in Capitalism than to start giving it away for free?

Who cares if it’s messy or embarrassing? That sounds like 60% of my day as a biological entity.

This truly is a new age of Enlightenment for humanity!

Well, you’re off to a good start! Just need “uck” to go with that F and you’re golden!

Joke aside, this may be one of those situations where Corpspeak would just serve to make it worse, either by rendering your message inert, or by generating long-term tension. And, believe me, that tension gets really suffocating really fast.

I think your best bet at this point would be to readjust your view and approach with this coworker. My aunt told me a secret which helped me a lot in theatre, but I’ve learnt it also applies in pretty much every other situation: “if they won’t be your partner on stage, then let them be furniture.”

You have the immense advantage of knowing what to expect from them, which is essentially nothing at this point. I’d say the best response is to offer the exact same in return - if they ever need something from you, dodge, postpone and obfuscate. Fuck’em. Not worth wasting your energy on this situation, it only leads to stomach ulcers.

I almost never do. It’s actually a bit weird, I tend to ramble more in writing than I ever would while speaking and usually end up with mini-essays even for relatively straightforward ideas.

This is two-pronged, partly because I enjoy writing and expressing myself through it more than I do speaking, but it’s mostly because I’m obsessive about conveying nuances with as much precision as I can, especially in a medium as restrictive to conveyance as writing is (thinking about not having non-verbal and other purely contextual cues at my disposal).

It’s not like I intentionally bring out the expensive words just to flaunt my vocabulary (I even have issues with being perceived as pretentious), it’s just that some things simply require the extra precision when expressing their full complexity.

P.S.: Jesus Christ…

They’re not even trying… It’s obvious this has been a strategy and not a bug, and the ““apology””/excuse sounds like a boilerplate justification from someone who assumes everyone but them is an idiot.

And, realistically speaking, there’s no reason for them to care in the first place. It’s not like everyone’s stopped using Facebook so far for any of their shady shit, and they’ve pulled FAR worse shit than bot accounts.

Everyone now understands the limits and they’ll take full advantage of the buffer before hitting said limit - be less moronic than Musk and you’re golden. It’s really not that high of a bar for them.

Edit, to dispel any potential misunderstanding: I’m not defending them with my last statement, that’s just how it is! If anything, it is our, the consumers’, fault for putting up with this in the first place!

Yep… A Sock Puppeteer’s wet dream…

I wholeheartedly believe nothing is lost yet! We’re still around, we’re still full-on “seditious” (from the perspective of Big Bucks McOildrill), we can do this!

But, yes, we do need an Underground Railroad type network for now…

Right?! It’d be, like, Foundation levels of precog chess! I mean, he did star in the first Butterfly Effect, maybe that unlocked his potential!

It’s not young-you’s fault, they had us all hooked on that potential. And it 100% had and still has that potential, it’s just that the wrong people are calling the shots.

Tell you what, I’ll go back with you and we can punch the ones who ruined the internet!

This just in, Billionaires like money more than they do regressive morons! The entire world is aghast!

In all seriousness, I had a brief moment of depersonalisation when I looked at humanity from a distance, and I didn’t understand a damned thing about what’s going on. I mean, I get what’s happening, but… Like… what the fuck is even happening, what even is this, are they for real?! Did they expect something else to happen?!

Is this Punk’d, are we getting Punk’d? Mfw Trump turns out to be Ashton Kutcher wearing a Total Recall mask…

The flat type was the second to fail, my first was a standard tube-y one… Granted, I bought mine in 2020, I think, so it may account for a drop in quality.

Bought it exactly based on that rationale, no dice in my case. Started developing a crease right where the cable met the nub toward the USB-C end, then it devolved into severed connections - would work if I wiggled it. And I really didn’t rough it up, it was either plugged into my PC, or plugged into a wall charger at night, with "normal’ amounts of flexing (I feel there’s a word for this, but I’m missing it).

It was my favourite from an aesthetic standpoint, too…

I’m honestly not going to argue against their efficacy as transfer mediums, because I didn’t have much contact with the Apple ecosystem other than for work.

But that is another mark against them in my book. What use is a good cable when it’s only usable with a single type of device? They could have the highest transfer rates ever and still wouldn’t serve, like, half of the people who use phones and computers. That’s to say nothing of the myriad other peripherals out there (even vapes use USB-C for charging).

That plus the really poor design/build quality of the cable itself are what make them bad cables.

Well, maybe I spent all my good fortune on that MicroUSB, because I sure haven’t had the same luck with other cables… The only other good one seems to be from my Sennheiser headphones, but that doesn’t get used much, either…

Hey, maybe I got extremely lucky with that one cable, but I don’t remember ever having had problems with MicroUSBs.

I even accidentally bent the whole MicroUSB plug by slapping my phone off the table, bent it back into place, and it was good to go! Genuinely felt so much confidence in that cable, that I gave away all other MicroUSB cables I used to get from whatever tech included one in the package.

I now own two 140W USB-C cables which were very expensive - I bought them thinking that I’d take better care of them knowing how much money I wasted. I barely even use them for anything other than charging, so they are hanging off of my nightstand 24/7, and that’s because I’m afraid they’ll snap at the joint if I use them too much.

Trauma dump time, it all started with my first USB-C cable, a OnePlus one. First one lasted for about a year. Bought a second one which lasted about the same, official OnePlus gear. Luckily, everything started coming with its own cable later on, so I didn’t feel the need to stock up. But the two expensive ones are the only USB-Cs I’ve owned for more than a year, because most of the other ones started getting busted joints.

They really don’t make stuff like they used to, pretty much nobody. And credit where it’s due, Apple have been leading the planned obsolescence movement from the start (their iPhone 3 cables were just as bad as the current ones).

On the other end of the spectrum, I own a single no-name MicroUSB cable. I’ve owned it for, I think, a decade at this point. Maybe even longer than that. It was the cheapest cable I could find over 2m in length, cost me about two bucks back then. I’ve used it for phones, MP3 players, external hard drives, mice - you name it, it’s been plugged in it. It still performs just as well as it did when I bought it, it hasn’t lost its shape, and believe me when I say it received zero preferential treatment.

I honestly lost count of how many USB-C cables have failed me so far. Seriously…

That is most gracious, and it would be an awesome response to globalisation! Heck, it would only make sense to globalise Unions as well!

Thank you! I’ll keep you updated in case I strike gold! And even if it doesn’t work out for me, I’ll ask around and I’ll drop you deets for whomever proves relevant!

Good riddance, historically the shittiest cables in existence in terms of build quality and design, and they polluted USB-C with that design, too…

What, you want the thing to be reinforced with a flexible brace near the plug so that the cable won’t fray? Fuck you. Oh, your cable frayed near the plug? Fuck you. Buy more cables, it’s just e-waste. Not like the environment’s going down the toilet or anything.

Resources, too, the whole kit and kaboodle! Again, really can’t thank you enough!

On a side and completely personal note, I can’t describe the big, fat smile I’d wear on my face if I could call myself a Union rep:))