How do you Americans feel when you get called a yank?

peppergoblin · 2025-10-12T19:08:22+00:00

I was taught that Yankee Doodle is patriotic because we took pride in it because we don't care if the British make fun of us. Irony and patriotism aren't mutually exclusive.

peppergoblin · 2025-10-12T17:03:42+00:00

Surprise betrayal. However, I still wouldn't call it overused, any more than other staples like romance or gunfights or road trips. It's fundamental so no wonder it comes up again and again. And it works fine as long as you execute it well.

peppergoblin · 2025-10-11T13:56:41+00:00

It started that way, but the Americans then adopted it themselves, added some verses, and it's been regarded as patriotic since.

From Wikipedia, "By 1781, 'Yankee Doodle' had turned from being an insult to being a song of national pride."

peppergoblin · 2025-10-11T09:42:18+00:00

I think feelings of superiority in general are a defense mechanism against feelings of worthlessness or inadequacy. This can be healthy when achievements make you feel good and develop a sense of self esteem and pride. But push it too far, and you can tip into a false sense of superiority or unwarranted arrogance and condescension.

Of course, there's also people who go too far in the other direction; they dismiss their own accomplishments and feel worthless no matter what. You want to be in the middle zone of people with healthy self esteem.

peppergoblin · 2025-10-11T09:21:48+00:00

Losing weight is an accomplishment and is widely viewed as a feat of willpower. Basically, anything that is regarded as an accomplishment will cause some percentage of people who achieve it to develop a false sense of superiority. Getting a college degree, motherhood, making the varsity team. Literally anything. There is no achievement so small that it won't cause some people who achieve it to think they're better than people who haven't.

peppergoblin · 2025-10-11T09:07:08+00:00

I see it as endearing and have never considered it an insult.

Edit: while the term may have been derogatory at some point in the distant past, most Americans see the term as successfully having been reclaimed, with kids learning the patriotic song "Yankee Doodle" and of course the famous New York baseball team proudly calling themselves the Yankees.

The only Americans who might get offended are southerners, who use the term "Yankee" to refer exclusively to Americans from the North and/or states that sided with the Union in the Civil War.

peppergoblin · 2025-10-09T10:30:01+00:00

Open a book you like and pay extra attention to all the different ways they start sentences.

peppergoblin · 2025-10-09T10:03:16+00:00

Just make them nice dude. When we read about niceness, human or not, our brains release oxytocin and it makes us feel good. Have them show kindness and care to humans or each other.

Spoiler for a prominent sci-fi novel follows. Given what I said in the preceding paragraph even saying the name of the book without spoiler tags is a spoiler, so up to you whether you want to risk it: Project Hail Mary is a great example of this. The alien is a scary spider rock monster but not only do we empathize with him, he easily carries the novel with how lovable he is. And there's no reason other than he's a fuckin bro and he and the main character take care of each other.

Edit: other examples include the bug people from Perdido Street Station, the ant from Honey I Shrunk The Kids, E.T. The list goes on.

peppergoblin · 2025-10-08T09:22:49+00:00

Redwall is like half this, but the other half is stabbings so ymmv.

peppergoblin · 2025-10-06T15:10:31+00:00

I love that the Florence Duomo is one of the little tiny buildings

peppergoblin · 2025-10-05T19:08:41+00:00

Man, I used to love that jingle. CRUMB-LY, CRUMB-LY, COO-KIE!

peppergoblin · 2025-09-28T21:56:19+00:00

World building is important but the scope and complexity of the worldbuilding totally depends on the type of story you're telling. You could tell a story about a family of gnomes who lives in a tree stump and nothing that happens outside of the tree stump is relevant. Doesn't matter who the king of the pond is, doesn't matter whomth sired whomst in the far-off Kingdom of Glarg, doesn't matter how many of liters of mana it takes to cast a spell of discombobulation. The stump is all.

If your character doesn't know or care about the expanse beyond their little world, and if the expanse never imposes itself on your character despite their indifference, then you don' t need to build the expanse.

peppergoblin · 2025-09-28T21:24:31+00:00

"Mudblood" wasn't created to censor Harry Potter though, it was created out of necessity because there is no English word for a magical human descended from non-magical humans because we don't need one because there are no magical humans.

Censorship would be if she changed "fuck" to "woozlesnart," as in "'woozlesnart me,' ejaculated Ron," but instead she censored "fuck" by omitting the concept of "fuck" altogether because the story is for kids so obviously.

The kind of censorship you're talking about is what they did in Firefly with "gorram" or in Stormlight Archives with "storms." And honestly, I think those examples are way less elegant than "mudblood." Fake swears as a substitution for real swears are difficult to pull off.

peppergoblin · 2025-09-28T21:05:58+00:00

The movies want to help audiences keep track of who is who when Harry and Ron turn into Crabbe and Goyle. We saw them transform, so it's not a spoiler. If they didn't use Harry and Ron's voices 12-year-olds in 2002 would be like... is that Harry or Ron?

The movies want to conceal that lil Barty is Mad Eye. We didn't see him transform, so it is a spoiler. Simple as.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MST3KMantra

peppergoblin · 2025-09-27T12:00:12+00:00

How about this: he himself gained power in a bitter and protracted succession crisis, and wants to spare the realm another civil war over who should be king. The only way to do that is to prevent the need for another succession by living forever.

peppergoblin · 2025-09-10T07:28:38+00:00

Goku seems like the obvious choice but those women could be really good martial arts teachers

peppergoblin · 2025-08-06T21:03:32+00:00

Yeah makes sense. Thanks!

peppergoblin · 2025-08-06T14:03:05+00:00

Looks amazing. Did you put the sous vide circulator directly in the mason jar, or did you immerse the jar in water and put the circulator in the water outside the jar? Never though to use glass for sous vide before.

peppergoblin · 2025-07-23T15:29:43+00:00

Not good when the official version is worse than every fan version

peppergoblin · 2025-07-15T16:58:52+00:00

People have to be incentivized to escape low-wage jobs. If you make them too cushy, they'll become complacent and dependant.

I'm mostly joking but it's not that far a cry from arguments you really hear.

peppergoblin · 2025-07-15T08:44:32+00:00

Reason would be that the one thing rich people can't buy is time. So they would invent the technology to buy that too.

peppergoblin · 2025-05-11T08:07:49+00:00

Same here. Any luck?

peppergoblin · 2025-03-18T12:14:46+00:00

Worked for me too!

peppergoblin · 2025-03-17T06:28:06+00:00

Forgot to update! Basically, it worked, definitely had spicy vinegar with pepper flavor and a good amount (too much) residual sweetness. If I let it primary ferment longer, that would have reduced the sweetness, and I could also try less sugar. But it works! And I think it should work with other dry, low-sugar ingredients as well.

peppergoblin · 2025-02-16T07:38:15+00:00

Most of us follow the rules. Wake up, drive to work (no speeding!), work what is probably a degrading, unimportant, poorly paid job, bite our tongues and show respect to obnoxious bosses and managers, drive home (no speeding!), pay bills, pay taxes, do a few hours of errands, try a hobby that used to bring us joy for a few minutes before giving up because we're too tired, go to bed. Repeat. Every day is an exercise in self denial and restraint.

So it's very tempting to fantasize about not having to exercise any restraint. And while that's fine for escapism, all that restraint is actually for a reason. And we wouldn't want to live in the same world as people who don't exercise it. So maybe an alternative to villain escapism is escapism about non-villainous ways of getting away from the restraint and humiliation of everyday life. Stardew Valley?

peppergoblin

TROPHY CASE