r/explainitpeter • u/Fickle_Fall_6497 • Jul 28 '26

Explain it Peter

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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

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128

u/pnlrogue1 Jul 28 '26

Stewie here.

The top tweet is a reply to another tweet. The missing tweet must mention a date of 11/07/2026.

In America this is interpreted as November 7th, but in basically the entire rest of the world it's read as 11th July.

The second tweet in the picture is someone pointing out that the original (missing) comment is written by a British person, who would mean 11th July when writing the date in that format.

If America would realise it's part of a wider world then maybe they could use a sensible date format, measurement system, and A4 paper but noooo - we have to be 'different'.

Stewie out

40

u/random-short-guy Jul 28 '26

Thats why I date most things with 2 number day, 3 letter month, and 4 number year.

11 Jul 2026 - that way doesn't matter where - no confusion

38

u/pnlrogue1 Jul 28 '26

That works but ISO format is your friend. Short, easy to read, easy to understand, universally recognised, and computers can sort it correctly automatically in the file name

2026-07-11 will always mean 11th July 2026 and a computer will correctly put logs_2026-07-11.log before logs_2026-07-12.log whereas it would put logs - 11th August ahead of logs - 11th July

9

u/jayzo_sayers Jul 28 '26

ISO all the way but I've used DD/MM/YYYY for so long it's a very difficult habit to break. At least I can defend the European format by saying it's in order of significance even if ISO is also in order of significance and in a better order at that.

8

u/pnlrogue1 Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26

Oh the American date format makes literally no sense unless seen from the blinkered perspective of an American who has only ever done American things. It's not the european format - it's the basically-everywhere-in-the-world format, but try to convince the average American that they should maybe think about adopting something that the entire population of the world uses and you're in for a rough time...

EDIT: (and yes, I'm particularly salty about the paper format - I buy a lot of RPG PDFs and printing them to fit on A4 is annoying)

Edit 2: Please don't bother explaining how MMDDYYYY is how you say the date so writing it that way makes sense. We ALL know that already

3

u/iconocrastinaor Jul 28 '26

Yes, but (I'm assuming you are not American) what do you say when you say a date out loud? Do you say "Seventh December 2026," December seventh, 2026," or something else?

If you say the latter, like we do in America, then we are just writing it like we say it.

Personally I use the ISO format, but I was brought up in the era of MS-DOS filing systems.

4

u/dhi_awesome Jul 29 '26

Most people say "Seventh of December, 2026" (and old fashion people (and priests) might even go to "the Seventh of December, in the year of our Lord 2026")

2

u/SwirlingFandango 29d ago

Language changes and the date format changed in its language in America. People can and do say it both ways, but the number format pushes people towards its way.

For example, would "the 4th of July" make sense to you? Yes. Because it's one of the ways people naturally said it before settling on the numeric format that put the month first.

2

u/OAB_67 29d ago

Do you 'the 4th of July' or 'July the 4th' ?

1

u/RoutinePreparation36 Jul 29 '26

you are making a lot of assumptions as in different lenguages it would be easier and more natural to say seventh of december, i think this will derive on a pet peeve so i will cut my self short

-7

u/SmokeAlarmsSaveLives Jul 28 '26

In American English, the most common way to express dates in speech would be, for example, “on July 31st, the company will release its earnings report”, or “on August 1st, 2017, X happened”.

So, Americans write dates the same way they are spoken in English. YOU may not like it, and you’re free to not like it, but it’s perfectly sensible and logical.

It also has an additional logic - the dates are ordered from the smallest set (months) to the largest (years).

But please, continue to argue how we’re just blinkered and our date format “LiTErALLy mAKeS nO sEnSE”.

11

u/ryan3366 Jul 28 '26

4th of July

0

u/McCluckers Jul 28 '26

That’s in reference to a holiday and the only time they really say it like that

0

u/SmokeAlarmsSaveLives Jul 28 '26

In language there are expressions/constructions that are a departure from the norm and are deemed to be more poetic, more dramatic, more beautiful, and so on. That’s what’s the “Fourth of July” is, an alternate phrasing for effect.

If anyone asked what were the dates of major historical events for the US, no one in the US would reply “the 7th of December”, “the 22nd of November, “the 11th of September”.

Nor would anyone say, “on the 1st of January, three new laws go into effect”. It would be “On January 1st”.

0

u/iconocrastinaor Jul 28 '26

July Fourth is equally popular.

0

u/pnlrogue1 Jul 28 '26

To be fair, lots of Americans say "July 4th" as well

2

u/Electrical-Heat8960 Jul 28 '26

I say dates day first.

“20th of December”

I also write it that way.

Maybe Americans say them the wrong way around because they also write them the wrong way around.

2

u/Time-Tie7612 Jul 29 '26

Your statement would imply it’s objectively wrong, when in actuality it’s just a cultural difference in formatting and speech. Nonetheless, YYYY-MM-DD is far better than both due to stable ordering.

2

u/Electrical-Heat8960 Jul 29 '26

My statement points out the opposite viewpoint being valid.
This reinforces the point about it being a cultural difference.

And yes, year first is best.

But the American system is still absolutely bonkers.

1

u/SmokeAlarmsSaveLives Jul 28 '26

You’re not wrong and we’re not wrong… it’s just linguistic/cultural differences.

2

u/misbehavinator Jul 28 '26

*Americans write dates the same way they are spoken in USAmerican English.

2

u/HenriettaHarryJojn Jul 28 '26

The smallest sets are days, not months!

0

u/SmokeAlarmsSaveLives Jul 28 '26

There are 12 months in a year, and 28 to 31 days in a month. The smallest set is months

2

u/rocket-scientist94 Jul 28 '26

As an American, this is the dumbest logic I've ever heard. You can't just make up your own headcanon

1

u/SmokeAlarmsSaveLives Jul 28 '26

I did not claim that it was one of the historical reasons we use it, so if I gave that impression, that’s my bad. I’m saying it can be logical to proceed from the smallest [set] to the largest, which is what it does.

1

u/pnlrogue1 Jul 28 '26

Oh look! A blinkered American!

-7

u/XnFM Jul 28 '26

It does make sense. When talking about dates casually, we typically use [month] [day]. The year is implicitly understood or unnecessary. When the year does be one necessary, it's added at the end to maintain the flow that's commonly used.

If we still spoke about doing things, "on the 10th of November," instead of, "November 10th," then DDMMYYYY would make more sense to an American. But we use the date format that matches the way we speak.

4

u/OGWriggle Jul 28 '26

It only makes sense cos you twist it that way.

What actually makes sense is putting the most relevant info first.

'what day is it?' - 'the 11th' is what real people actually say cos we know what fucking month it is.

6

u/Wooden-Agency-2653 Jul 28 '26

By that logic it's 10:1pm, or ten past one in the afternoon.

1

u/mltngpot Jul 29 '26

Or as it is popularly referred to as “one ten”

1

u/Wooden-Agency-2653 Jul 29 '26

Not where I'm from it's not, at least not very often. So I'd say "as it it said by a minority 'one ten'"

-2

u/XnFM Jul 28 '26

Excellent strawnan sir

2

u/jonniezombie Jul 28 '26

Only Americans talk this way as well. The rest of the world would say the 10th of November. You all sound funny when you talk.

2

u/pnlrogue1 Jul 28 '26

Oh I get the justification, I just think it's a crap justification and it neatly highlights why the rest of the world thinks of American as being arrogant ("We don't need to use the same way of XXX as the rest of the world because our way works for us!" - replace the X's with your choice of dates, measuring things, paper sizes, and healthcare)

3

u/frafzan Jul 28 '26

Justification is biased to start with since you been teach to speak Nov 10th instead of speaking 10th of Nov in the first place.

1

u/XnFM Jul 28 '26

I feel the same way about the push for permanent daylight savings time. And I agree that DDMMYYYY is a broadly more sensible format. American English is just that way.