Normies and Associated Words

I notice that James Corbett of Corbett Report fame has been using this term for some time now and it's a term that perfectly suits a friend of mine who is an utter conformist when it comes to accepting whatever mainstream media propaganda is being trotted out. The top urban dictionary definition of the word is "a person who keeps up with mainstream media, and does what popular culture tells them to do". Here is part of longer definition on the same site:

A person gravitating to social standards, accepted practices, and fads of their own time & geographic grouping without broader cultural perspectives from which they draw. Normies possess a lack of interest in ideas not easily accessible or being outside of their/society's current range of acceptance. A straight. A follower. Most normies adopt a "popularity is the only measure of good or bad" mindset at an early age. Normies typically have a sense of cultural superiority over "counter culture" movements & foreign cultures. They will often try to discredit out cultures or choices falling outside of their majority think claiming those of other dispositions are mentally ill or out of touch with reality.

The equivalent term from my youth (late 60s and early 70s) would have been someone described as straight, who didn't smoke marijuana and take psychedelics, and had conservative political views. Nowadays, especially since the Covid-1984 scamdemic/plandemic was unleashed, a normie is someone who accepts the "official narrative" as propounded by MSM (mainstream media) sources.

Despite being a septuagenarian, I realise that there are other takes on the term "normie", especially in regards to memes on social media. Figure 1 illustrates this:

Figure 1

This investigation led me on to weeb versus normie with Figure 2 showing an infographic on the meaning of the former term:

Figure 2: source

However, there's a plethora of associated terms as can be seen in Figure 3. I can personally identify as a Boomer in the graphic and then, in addition to Normies and Weebs, there are Geeks, Memers, Gamers, Cosplayers, Bronies and Furries. I'm familiar with Geeks and Gamers and I know what a Meme is but I'm not familiar with Cosplayers and Bronies. I think Furries are people who like depicting humans with animal characteristics (cat ears, tails etc.).

Figure 3: source

One urban dictionary definition of a furry is (from March of 2021):

1. Someone with an interest in anthropomorphic animals.

2. An anthro or a human/ultra humanoid animal character. (Popular examples being Loona from HelluvaBoss, Lola Bunny, Beastars characters, etc.)

The furry fandom is a subculture focused around cartoon animals, anthropomorphic animals, and human-animal hybrids, commonly expressed through art, costumes, cosplay, roleplay, media, etc.

A definition of cosplay is literally "Costume Play", dressing up and pretending to be a fictional character (usually a sci-fi, comic book, or anime character). 

A brony is described as follows in this definition from September 2013:

A fan of the show "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic". Often male, but female fans are not uncommon. Bronies usually show a want to be accepted as normal people, but don't appear to realise that to be treated the same as anyone else, they need to stop making sure everyone knows and remembers that they are a brony at all times, without fail. They also don't appear to understand that most people don't appreciate the internet being taken over by their fandom, which is another main cause for the hate of bronies.

Here is good definition of dank that seems to pop up a lot amidst the previous terms:

Dank, is an adjective which is over-used by people in general and mostly by people trying to appear cool to their stoner friends. Dank means dark, sticky, gooey, and potent. It was originally a common word to describe disgusting basements and caves ect. Then the world of pot took it over and was using it very correctly to describe very potent strains of marijuana, seeing as the definition of dank meets all the qualities you find in good marijuana. Then "squares" and people who wanted to look cool to stoners started using it to describe anything they think is "cool" which in turns makes them believe they themselves are "cool" as well. In reality it makes them seem as illiterate as an ape. M&M's are not dank, chips are not dank, and your clothes are definitely not dank, you need to stop overusing and killing the word.

All this takes us right back to good old normy, norm, Norm (as in a person's name), normal and normality, normalcy, normalization/normalisation, normally, normative etc. with the etymology of normal being described as follows (source):

c. 1500, "typical, common;" 1640s, in geometry, "standing at a right angle, perpendicular," from Late Latin normalis "in conformity with rule, normal," in classical Latin "made according to a carpenter's square," from norma "rule, pattern," literally "carpenter's square," a word of unknown origin (see norm). Meaning "conforming to common standards or established order or usage, regular, usual" is attested from 1828 but probably is older than the record [Barnhart].

Indonesian Vocabulary: Pisah

Figure 1

Partisi pemisah agar jaga jarak lebih nyaman are the words on the green divider at Starbucks (see Figure 1). Google Translate renders this in English as "separation partition to keep the distance more comfortable". In this post, I want to focus on pemisah and the words related to it because they have wide applicability.

Pemisah itself translates are "separator" but it usually appears in the form of pemisahan as in these examples:

• Presiden Habibie mengampu pemisahan Timor Timur dari Indonesia = President Habibie supports the separation of Timor Timur from Indonesia.
  
  
• Pemisahan induk dan anaknya dilakukan ketika anak harimau itu sudah berumur satu tahun. = The separation of the mother and the baby was carried out when that tiger cub was one year old.

The root word from which both pemisah and pemisahan derive is pisah from which the following, additional words derive:

• berpisah: to part, to be separated as in Kita akan berpisah di tikungan jalan itu. = We will separate at that bend in the road; Dia berpisah dengan pacarnya. = She's split up with her boyfriend.
  
  
• berpisahan: to part from each other.
  
  
• memisah: separate

Figure 2

• memisahkan: separate, isolate as in Kulihat dia memisahkan diri dari kelompoknya. = I see that he has separated himself from his group (see Figure 2).
  
  
• terpisah: separate (issue, thing) or to become accidentally separated as in Kami hidup secara terpisah selama beberapa tahun. = We have lived separate for a number of years. 
  
  
• perpisahan: discord, leave-taking as in Perpisahan antara ibu dan anak itu sungguh mengharukan. = The discord between that mother and child is truly heart rending.

Figure 3: Source

Here are some more examples of words or phrases related to pisah:

• garis pemisah: dividing line
  
  
• terpisah-pisah: fragmentary; disjointed
  
  
• tanda pisah: dash (see Figure 3)
  
  
• juru pisah: arbiter
  
  
• dipisah-pisah: separated
  
  
• dipisahkan: separated as in Dipisahkan oleh ruang dan waktu. = Separated by time and space or Terpisah jarak dan waktu. = Separated by distance and time.
  
  
• pisah mereka!: spread 'em
  
  
• pisah!: break free
  
  
• pisah rancang: literally separate beds meaning Tidak lagi berhubungan sebagai suami istri, tetapi belum resmi bercerai. = No longer related as husband and wife, but not yet officially divorced.
  
  
• pisah tidur: same as pisah ranjang
  
  
• berpisah-pisah: split-up as in Tidak baik kalau ayah, ibu, dan anak bepisah-pisah tempat tinggalnya dalam satu kota. = It's not good if father, mother, and children live separately in one city.
  
  
• tidak terpisahkan: inseparable as in Bekerja dan belajar merupakan bagian hidupnya yang tidak terpisahkan. = Work and study is an inseparable part of his life
  
  
• temu pisah: farewell (temu means meeting)
  
  
• tinggal terpisah: live apart
  
  
• sampai maut memisahkan kita: until death do us part

Pisah is definitely a word for our times, given how fragmented the human race has become.

Egregious Errors

Some language blunders just leap out at you. Take this one by Mark Moss as shown in Figure 1. He is saying that "The US Dollar Is Under An Eminent Attack | Prepare Now". Oh dear, he means that it's under imminent attack, doesn't he? Maybe I'm missing something. Perhaps there is such a thing as an eminent attack. China is certainly an eminent country so if it attacks the US Dollar then maybe that constitutes an eminent attack. I don't know.

Figure 1: video source

Anyway, I left a comment and received the following cryptic replies as shown in Figure 2:

Figure 2

Now I know that Hugo from Hugo Talks is guilty of a misspelling. See Figure 3.

Figure 3: video source

Again, I left a comment but received no reply. Brazenly, the mistake is still there for a shocked world to see. Alternative media videos are easily dismissed simply because they challenge the mainstream narrative. Spelling mistakes, like 'seperate' instead of 'separate', and misapplied words, like 'eminent' instead of 'imminent', only give the critics extra ammunition. It's disappointing that content creators are unconcerned about errors pointed out to them.