This screenshot is old (at least 12 years).

    • blarghly@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Because trashy people never saw Austin Powers and updated their use of quotation marks to denote sarcasm.

      Quotation marks were historically used to add emphasis to text, the way asterisks are used today. Old people who refuse to change and don’t realize their way of writing is actively making fun of themselves still use them this way. These are also the people who watch Fox.

      • sfbing@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Quotation marks we’re historically used …

        Meh. I am in my late sixties, and that was never proper usage. These people were merely always illiterate.

        • BatmanAoD@programming.dev
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          6 months ago

          It’s valid usage if you go waaay back, i.e. centuries. You also see it in some late 19th/early 20th century newsprint and ads.

      • BatmanAoD@programming.dev
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        6 months ago

        “Scare quotes” definitely precede Austin Powers, though that may have spurred a rise in popularity of the usage. (Also, “trashy people never saw Austin Powers” is honestly a pretty weird statement, IMO.)

        That said, in this case, arguably the quotes are appropriate, because “the github dictionary” isn’t something that happened (i.e. a headline), but a thing they’ve made up.