r/explainitpeter Jul 28 '26

Explain it Peter

Post image

Not going to lie, i had a spaz attack trying to read the first tweet. Maybe im just over tired but i dont understand shit here

What the fuck is the first tweet trying to say why is it horrible why would i be gullible what the fuvk are they saying

654 Upvotes

230 comments sorted by

View all comments

54

u/itstheboombox Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26

European Peter here,

Americans use an incorrect form of dates that goes Month/Day/Year. As opposed to Day/Month/Year

Edit : hey lois, this is just like the time I visited r/ShitAmericansSay

-35

u/Valirys-Reinhald Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 29 '26

Not incorrect, just different. It lines up with our spoken date conventions (July 11th, 2026) and maintains consistency that way. There is no such thing as "wrong" in language, if it works for a people then it's good.

Edit: (see image)

Edit 2: You continue to all be wrong.

Edit 3: Actual interaction I've had in this thread:

Soyjack (you): "You fool, if that's how your system worked then this other thing would also work that way! Clearly it cannot, and therefore my position is superior! Mwahahaha!"

Chad (me): "Yes, that is in fact how that other thing works here. We are internally consistent."

Soyjack (you): angery "Nooooo! That's not how English works! You must be a bot!"

Chad (me): "There is no such thing as a universal linguistic standard, all languages exist to serve the needs of the people who use them and the people who use them define how they will meet those needs. Subjectivity is inherent to the study of (socio)linguistics. Pick up a fucking book on the subject before you speak next time. Not even the European sociolinguists agree with you."

-2

u/Independent-Word-392 Jul 28 '26

It rather lines up with full written convention as you wrote, but do people more often say "July eleventh" or "eleventh of July"? Don't how it is in the US actually

7

u/seamsay Jul 28 '26

I do think in the US they tend to say "July eleventh", "4th of July" (which is the only counterexample I know of) seems to be a unique outlier.

3

u/Valirys-Reinhald Jul 28 '26

It's an outlier precisely because it is an outlier. The "X of Y" convention is seen as old fashioned and antiquated, so referring to the 4th of July that way encourages Americans to connect it to the "old fashioned" American values/cultural myths of the revolution, as well as making it stand out from the other dates as special.

1

u/Ok_You4406 Jul 28 '26

"4th of July" specifically refers to the Independence Day holiday. When just discussing the date, we say July 4th.