this post was submitted on 13 Dec 2023
475 points (95.4% liked)
Technology
69156 readers
2857 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
They used it in a perfectly acceptable and understandable way. The definition you're describing as sarcastic is an official meaning of the word. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/patronize
yeah, I get what you mean. But it's still mostly fitting in the way I feel about it. Basically: users can think for themselves. They don't need me to take care of the bit scary world out there.
Doing so for a whole instance feels super condecending. "I know better than you what you want. I'm going to block it"
It might be, but I've only ever seen it used in the condecending way. And it seems to be used like this for quite some time
yup. language is weird
Welcome to humanity since the invention of language
I don't know if it's perhaps a regional thing but, in the UK, "being patronising" is used pretty much exclusively in the pejorative sense, with a similar meaning to "condescending". I don't think I've ever heard (in actual conversation) "being patronising" used to mean someone is giving patronage, in fact - we would say someone is "giving patronage" or "is a patron" instead. We also pronounce "patronise" differently, for whatever reason: "patron" is "pay-trun", "patronage" is "pay-trun-idge" but "patronise" is "pah-trun-ise".
It seems the pejorative use of the word dates back to at least 1755, too, so it's not exactly a new development.
It's the same in the US, and has been ever since I can remember. No idea where this person lives that the positive meaning would be the first thing they'd think of.
What about patronising as in 'patronising this business'? A little archaic, but I do hear it from time to time, usually with the 'pay' pronounciation.
Then again, if someone is accusing me of being patronising (which happens a lot for reasons I don't quite understand, but I digress), it's split odds whether I'm "pah-trun-ising" or "pay-trun-ising".
English is weird (perhaps this is its wyrd?)
What if they're also using it sarcastically