I think this point about Americans being uptight is correct, but what the author may not know is that it's a super recent thing. It's all post-2014
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I think a lot of the political reaction we are seeing is people being absolutely sick of it. And I sympathize. Though the problem is that pre-2014 the loose banter was often sexist or softly racist.
sep 2, 2025, 2:28 pm • 17 1 • view
Eh, I think it's bilateral. A lot of people *hated* the pre-2014 banter (with reason) and finally gained enough power to do something about it. But they lacked power to do *much,* so it sort of fizzled. Also, a lot of load-bearing morale stuff died post-GFC.
sep 2, 2025, 3:38 pm • 1 0 • view
Our current state isn't anyone's desired outcome. We're in an interregnum without a regent. Waiting for the old world to finally die, and a new one to be born. In the meantime, we're all stuck in labor.
sep 2, 2025, 3:38 pm • 1 0 • view
The USA has contradiction in its genes. Free-est country in the world except for slavery/racism/natives is the prime example.
sep 2, 2025, 8:23 pm • 0 0 • view
I think part of what explains this is that during the GFC white collar companies fired every single person that didn’t have a college degree. Used to be a lot of un-degreed people in white collar jobs! That’s not really a thing that exists anymore.
sep 2, 2025, 2:59 pm • 0 0 • view
Don’t think it’s new. It’s just that for a long time american uprightness was wrapped up in evangelical Christianity which people generally felt had to be tolerated. What happened in the post 2014 era was secular groups adopting some of those traits.
sep 2, 2025, 2:35 pm • 7 0 • view
I recall pre ~2014 you could have a bit of mutual teasing with your coworkers and now it's basically off limits because there is a very small percentage of people with no sense of humor
sep 2, 2025, 2:41 pm • 9 0 • view
I worked for a non-American commonwealth company for a while and it was like a blast from the past. "Wow, you're allowed to tease that guy over an obvious physical/personality trait and not worry about a talk from HR? How retro."
sep 2, 2025, 2:41 pm • 6 0 • view
Eh. I don't know about this. I think the issue is that the KIND of teasing evolved and certain older sects of workers didn't. The teasing the younger cohort at my job engages in is VERY different from the older cohort but the two are VERY careful when the streams cross.
sep 2, 2025, 2:47 pm • 8 0 • view
And we're a pretty tight team. But the cultural barriers of generations DO cause issues.
sep 2, 2025, 2:47 pm • 3 0 • view
The problem is a lot of bullies/real assholes would use "just friendly banter" as cover. A hard line had to be drawn and unfortunately, some relatively harmless stuff got killed because the real dicks couldn't control themselves.
sep 2, 2025, 3:34 pm • 0 0 • view
What happened in 2014? Why that year?
sep 2, 2025, 3:02 pm • 1 0 • view
Not sure. Been wondering myself. But it does feel like a real inflection point with the benefit of hindsight.
sep 2, 2025, 3:04 pm • 2 0 • view
Gamergate. Hardened up the factional lines, explicitly entryist on the part of the channer fash, happened around the same time as Ferguson, which led to cross-pollination between two distinct but related sets of fights.
sep 2, 2025, 3:31 pm • 0 0 • view
Weinstein.
sep 2, 2025, 3:25 pm • 0 0 • view
Weinstein was 2017
sep 2, 2025, 3:26 pm • 1 0 • view
A number of things came to a head in 2014. Gamergate, BLM, and early MeToo (they didn't call it that but there was a big thing and SA on college campuses). Why? No idea. It was just time I guess.
sep 2, 2025, 3:29 pm • 1 0 • view
Big thing about SA*
sep 2, 2025, 3:30 pm • 0 0 • view
I mean they all had specific events behind them, but they weren't the first such cases of any of them.
sep 2, 2025, 3:29 pm • 1 0 • view
Don’t feel like it gotten enough examination but Trump was only successful because unleashed evangelicals from their self imposed need to pretend to be proper, he allowed them to openly hate the sinner
sep 2, 2025, 2:43 pm • 2 0 • view
Not to blame everything on phones, but I think you can see an increase in the middle class exhibiting "proper" behavior at all times once everyone had a good quality camera in their pockets at all times.
sep 2, 2025, 2:49 pm • 1 0 • view
This corresponded with the rise of "cancel culture", previously you had to do something pretty bad for damage to occur to your career, now you could be recorded at any given time straying slightly over standard colleague interactions and find your professional prospects diminished.
sep 2, 2025, 2:52 pm • 1 0 • view
To be totally clear the pre meToo world had a lot more workplace harassment and abuse than we would tolerate today and its removal is a good thing.
sep 2, 2025, 2:53 pm • 1 0 • view
But this is also why dating has moved over to apps, the one place where you have undeniable consent to flirt with someone. The risk reward of flirting with someone in your office, your friend group, your run club, simply isn't worth the chance of your prospects being slashed.
sep 2, 2025, 2:57 pm • 2 0 • view