Part of the point (the whole point?) of rhyming slang is that it’s opaque and convoluted. That’s what makes it fun. It also makes it a bit of a shibboleth - you only understand it if you’re part of the culture.

If you’re eating with an Australian and they ask you to “pass the dead horse”, it means they think you’re Aussie enough to know what it means. Or they know that you won’t know what it means and they’re fucking with you intentionally.

Fun fact: Lady Gaga chose that name because of that song.

Borat voice my wiiiiiiiife

Wow, haven’t seen a roflcopter in a long time.

It’s one word, all lower case, four words, all upper case.

The exception is password managers. It’s a very rare tool that makes things more secure and easier.

Your OS probably comes with one, and if not there are cheap or even free ones available.

Mate I appreciate that you seem to be coming at this with honest curiosity, but do yourself a favour and get this information from reputable news sources.

This whole thing is so polarised and so full of misinformation that anything you read from randos on social media you have no way of knowing if it’s credible or complete bullshit.

Forget about what’s normal for getting over a fight. You know what’s not normal? Getting into a screaming match with your partner every month.

I really can’t stress enough, that’s not ok. Not a healthy relationship, not a safe environment for your children, and not a good example for them to follow in the future.

You need couple’s counselling ASAP because this pattern has to stop.

Completely disagree, but upvoted for having a well-argued, unpopular opinion which is kind of the point of this thread!

That’s just Australian for ketchup: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dead horse

It’s more subtle than that. Obviously no one who already smokes is going to say “Oh, the packet isn’t as pretty as it used to be, guess I’ll quit smoking now.”

It’s about the big, long-term picture. Companies spend money on branding and advertising because it works. You create the perception that your product is for a certain type of person, which makes them more inclined to buy it. By making cigarettes boring, you make them less appealing, and on average less people will smoke.

The proof is in the pudding. Social attitudes to smoking in Australia have totally flipped within a generation or two. It used to be something that everyone did. It’s now mostly seen as a gross habit.

Great comment. We have the same thing here in Australia with tobacco laws. The most recent change was to ban almost all branding on cigarette packaging. They’re not allowed to use fonts, slogans, logos, or colours, just the brand name in plain text on a standard brown-green box.

The logic being that branding makes a product more attractive to a consumer. Make it duller and less people will buy it.

Tobacco companies fought it tooth and nail. Kept arguing it wouldn’t stop people from smoking. Well then why are you lobbying so hard against it? Obviously the only reason they will ever fight anything is because they think it will hurt their revenue. So whatever they oppose, I support.

What you said is often true but not always. Some communities prefer person-first language, some prefer identity first language.

For example, generally speaking, “autistic people” is preferred over “people with autism”. The reasoning being “this is just part of who I am, it’s not an affliction that I have.”

I’m not autistic but I have lots of friends who are, and they all prefer to say “I’m autistic” rather than “I have autism”.

Like you said, it’s best to ask, or just copy the language that the person uses for themself.

Cinephile is another common term.

It’s ragebait. Ignore it. Even if it’s not, attention is what they want. Engagement feeds the algorithm. Ignore it.

Bit of a left field suggestion but one thing that really helps is finding your people.

In my younger years I sometimes really struggled with casual conversation, I often felt like I was the weird guy who had nothing to say.

It turned out that was only really true when I was spending a lot of time with people with whom I had very little in common. As I got older I eventually found “my people”. Friends who I click with, who I share values and interests with, who communicate similarly to me.

It’s not about finding people who are just copies of you, that would be pretty boring and make for a real social echo chamber. You want a range of friends with different interests, from different walks of life. But you want them to be, for lack of a better term “compatible” with you.

If you happen to be neurodivergent then that adds a whooooole extra layer of complexity to conversational compatibility. There’s a stereotype that autistic people are awkward or socially inept, which is complete rubbish. They just communicate differently to neurotypicals. Put a bunch of similar autistic people in a room together and watch them have no trouble at all making conversation with each other, in their own style.

Anyway, maybe this isn’t relevant to you, and you’re already happy with the people in your life. But it’s worth taking the time to examine whether the reason you struggle to make conversation is because you’re trying to make it with the wrong people.