When playing Nation State Am I the Arsehole? The answer is always “Everyone Sucks Here”.

It’s very, very strange to me that there are “socialists” out there who simp for China.

Comrade (those simps, not you), the working class don’t control society just by being considered by the ruling party, who you can’t recall, or vote out.

They have to actually have democratic control over society, which they most certainly do not in China, and there’s absolutely no plans to move toward that.

People there very much support the government when asked, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that support is justified when accounting for control over the media and suppression of dissent, and even industrial action smh. Similarly, Americans think they have democracy, which to be honest, they pretty much don’t, because there is no real democracy under capitalism where the wealthy will always have undue influence on the system, and especially not under their whacky-ass voting systems.

I dislike how people can’t grasp the concept that all ruling classes are bad, and just because one slaps “socialist” on their branding, doesn’t mean you need to support it…

Very much agree with you. Trams and metros fulfill different functions.

The “crazy” take in my opinion was equating keeping the tram system with not building metros, that trams “clog up the road”, and the dubious claims Musk could actually provide boring at ludicrously low cost.

Don’t get me wrong, the costs involved with building metros in the anglosphere are not in step with the rest of the world, but colour me sceptical about anything to do with musk, given all the quality issues with Tesla.

The average speed is from being slowed down due to traffic and non-priority signalling.

You, and Alan, clearly have no idea what the tram system in Melbourne is like.

He presents no reliable argument for why “trams […] clog up the roads”, nor why trams are a mistake to have kept.

He conflates the fact Melbourne didn’t build more metro lines (which we absolutely should have, and should do now) with keeping the tram network.

It’s pro-car nonsense.

Cars clog up the roads and slow down trams, not the other way around.

Thankfully Melbourne kept its tram network, sadly, it did not build enough trains.

My understanding, from how people use it here is that irony is a situation which is a contrast between the expected/intended and actual outcome.

It’s ironic when a fire station burns down

This definition is truly upsetting: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irony

Americans, no. Bad Americans.

This definition is correct (until we come up with a good substitute, FFS America): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony

Glad Wikipedia agrees with me on this one haha We’ll at least the introductory definition.

Edit: to answer your question. I dunno. I just think this form of “ironic” just didn’t take off in Australia.

Mostly because we already have words for what Americans use it for. And don’t have words to replace irony.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh interesting, I hadn’t noticed that!

The American use “ironically” is probably the only difference between our dialects that I’ll stand firm on.

My friends, we already have a use for the word, and it’s not this!

I’m all about linguistic innovation, but using “unironically” in place of “seriously” and “ironically” in place of “sarcastically”/”not seriously" is not happy times for me.

Unless you give me a new word for irony.

I quite like y’all, I use that all the time, not against Americanisms in general, just this one.