Since it's widely accepted that the word "literally" can be used to add emphasis, we need another word that can be used when you want to make it clear that you really mean "literally" in the original sense.

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[–] 10 points 4 months ago (6 children)

it's widely accepted that the word "literally" can be used to add emphasis

You found the root cause.

The solution is vicious heckling of idiots who misuse it - treat them like a middle-school drop-out - until they fix their behavior. Do the same for people who pluralize mass nouns as well: trainings, supports (not used like struts), emails.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    I tried that with "irony". People don't give a fuck, they just want to randomly use words to seem smart.

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  • [–] 0 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    Make them feel dumb when you catch them at it

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  • [–] 0 points 4 months ago* (3 children)

    People who don't feel very dumb and just use random words aren't shamed by telling them they are dumb for using random words.

    They just come back at you with the old speech "did you know language evolves 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔"

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  • [–] -2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Linguistic drift happens over generations, that's just illiteracy, and if they're too stupid to feel shame they definitely don't know anything about that anyway

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