Slop was totally a thing people used before AI slop became a thing tho. So doesnt really fit in with the others.
slop = slop
AI slop = AI slop
this post was submitted on 12 Sep 2025
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"Woke" has been a term most white people were just unaware of for decades. "Gaslighting" is from a century-old story.
Gaslighting isnโt even real
What? You always liked the term gaslighting, you must be misremembering things.
Youโre definitely mistaken I donโt think Iโve ever even said gaslighting in my life, what is it?
Oh silly you, always you and your gaslighting. Gaslighting this, gaslighting that
Lol. Lmao, even
Idk if it existed before, but iirc it began as a reference to matrix.
Then redpilled came as the parallel, as in Neo takes the red pill and wakes up from the simulation (woke), but the meaning was utterly twisted to say people that have taken the republican pill and are brainwashed.
Redpilled people using woke to describe people that, in their minds, have been brainwashed, is extremely funny with this context.
I'm kinda sad that we lost the "take the red pill" term due to them tho.
"Woke" predates the Matrix. It meant you'd "woken up" to the underlying racist structures in the US. RATM's "Wake Up" was the needle drop at the end for that reason.
Yeah, for sure, but the meaning is all in all the same, the waking up after the red pill in the matrix is used as a metaphor for the same concept.
Yes, the point is that's how white folks were introduced to it.
Woke predates the matrix by like 60 years
Exactly, they were old unused terms that people revived with a new meaning. Slop was not like that.
I do not understand people who get uptight about English. French? Sure (I'm still gonna laugh at them, but I get it).
English has always been a joke of a language and I have nothing but respect and sympathy for people who pick it up as a second+. So long as you're understood, it's fine. Brutalizing it is half the fun. See how far you can bend it and still get your point across.
The speed at which it mutates is also interesting just to watch, and I say that as someone who isn't even a linguist. How quickly a term catches on, gets overused, and migrates to ironic is culturally fascinating. I type like this and use proper spelling because it's a stylistic choice for how I represent myself on the internet, but I couldn't give a damn if you use the wrong you're/your when half of you buffoons are spelling it "ur" anyways. I'm not ur English teacher, do what you want.
Your argument is perfectly cromulent.
Indubitably
Most certainly
His noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.
Mmm, yes. Shallow and pedantic.
So long as youโre understood, itโs fine.
Burying the lede here.
But also like language shapes the way we think. If you just let all your words boil down into "good" and "ungood", you're reducing your tools for thinking. 1984 and The Dispossessed are great books, by the way.
Lol, wut?
Burying the lede here.
I don't think this is the expression you intended to use, or if it was, you used it poorly.
In my post I:
- Open by indicating that I think it is foolish to enforce strict language standards
- Affirm this point by saying that the primary purpose is to simply be understood
- Expand on this point by saying I think it's cool that language evolves
Where did you even pull that "good" and "ungood" dichotomy from?! Don't be smarmy and quote high school literature reading lists at me. But if that's the extent of your repertoire, perhaps I have some recommendations for you ๐ซค
You say it's foolish to enforce strict language standards, but the most important thing about language is that it is understood. You buried that point in the middle of your second paragraph.
Did you read 1984? It has a major thread though it about how collapsing language reduces the ability of people to think. One of the first and most prominent examples in the book is replacing the many words for "good" and "bad" (eg: great, amazing, excellent, terrible, atrocious, etc) with simply "good" and "ungood". Similarly, the dispossed has some writing in it about how language shapes thought. For example, the prevalence or absence of possessive forms (eg: my house vs the house I stay in)
The reason I used "good" and "ungood" is because those are the preeminent examples in 1984. They're not a judgement of your post.
I'm not sure why you're dismissive of "high school reading lists", but you are coming off as someone who might actually be a high schooler. Your last emoji didn't render, so maybe that would've changed the meaning.
Alright, chilling out for a second, I understand your point better. Thank you for the additional information.
I do still feel we may fundamentally disagree though.
It's honestly been a good long while since I read 1984, but I think my interpretation was different. You use the word "collapsing" but Newspeak was a more intentional reinforcing through rigid structure. They purposefully reduced the language to good and ungood as a direct means to smooth out the nuance.
In essence I'm contesting that strict language standards are necessary to be understood. I mean, of course some standards are still required, just not strict enough to be all uptight about it when people start to bend them. The fluid nature of language is what allows it to evolve and I think stifling that evolution is both foolish and downright impossible in the long run. The advent of the internet and social media speeds things up.
Let's set aside the stupid TikTok censorship stuff for the moment because that has ~~it's~~ its (ah fuck, don't crucify me) own unique motivation. Slop as a noun has existed for a long while with its set definition. The modern use of it has evolved this new connotation to specifically imply something is rushed, derivative, or overabundant. As people start to apply it in more situations, it shows an understanding of those new connotations even when they haven't been directly communicated. I think that's cool. I think that shows a deeper understanding of how language moves and is shaped than strict adherence to definitions. True, eventually its overuse may dull the meaning a bit, but by allowing language to be continually fluid we leave the door open for other new wordly innovations.
But again, I aim't not linguist.
Thanks for the reasonable response.
In essence Iโm contesting that strict language standards are necessary to be understood. I mean, of course some standards are still required, just not strict enough to be all uptight about it when people start to bend them.
We agree on this, I think. I'm mostly a linguistic descriptivist - that is, language is what people speak more than what's written in a rulebook somewhere. I'm not a linguist but I have an undergraduate degree that required some courses on English language.
It can be annoying when there's a word for something (eg: enshittification, gaslighting, woke) and people then over extend it to mean "things i don't like". There's not much to stop that, other than as an individual trying to be more precise in language. I think it's not good for one's brain to only have a few catch-all words for stuff.
I think "slop" specifically is a very old word (1400ce, if etymology online is to be trusted). But like if there was a word for "low quality LLM content" (let's say.. slopplement), applying that to any low quality writing would kind of suck. it would almost certainly happen, though, because all of us humans are kind of lazy.
Anyway. We mostly agree. I would just recommend being mindful of one's word choices, because a narrow vocabulary can be a drag on thinking and communication.
People hate AI slop, but you know who's going to make it acceptable? Children. They will grow up using AI generator apps and websites. So at some point, us adults will have to accept it. It reminds me of dating apps and websites when it was considered taboo and seen as sad to use them. Twenty years later, dating apps are now ubiquitous and normalise them because younger folks made it normal.
You're not wrong. But I low-key wish to hate you for how simple and inevitable you've put it. I won't shoot the messenger, but I want to.
Slop is such an overused term that my eyes just drift away whenever I read it. Use words more better.
Conceptually, isn't content that focuses exclusively on being content and pandering to the algorithm slop in the same way AI stuff doing the same thing is slop? Isn't that what the term is getting at, the quality of being a hollow product devoid of sincere expression?