Welcome to General Chat - GAW Community Area
This General Chat area started off as a place for people to talk about things that are off topic, however it has quickly evolved into a community and has become an integral part of the GAW experience for many of us.
Based on its evolving needs and plenty of user feedback, we are trying to bring some order and institute some rules. Please make sure you read these rules and participate in the spirit of this community.
Rules for General Chat
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Be respectful to each other. This is of utmost importance, and comments may be removed if deemed not respectful.
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Avoid long drawn out arguments. This should be a place to relax, not to waste your time needlessly.
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Personal anecdotes, puzzles, cute pics/clips - everything welcome
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Please do not spam at the top level. If you have a lot to post each day, try and post them all together in one top level comment
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Try keep things light. If you are bringing in deep stuff, try not to go overboard.
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Things that are clearly on-topic for this board should be posted as a separate post and not here (except if you are new and still getting the feel of this place)
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If you find people violating these rules, deport them rather than start a argument here.
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Feel free to give feedback as these rules are expected to keep evoloving
In short, imagine this thread to be a local community hall where we all gather and chat daily. Please be respectful to others in the same way
Supertramp have some great songs such as Give A Little Bit. I really like this part of The Logical Song: “But at night, when all the world's asleep, The questions run so deep, For such a simple man”. A possible problem with the song is that it seems to set up a binary where you’re either a radical liberal or you’re a vegetable. We shouldn’t assume that the speaker is being 100% earnest. It may be tongue in cheek. It might be a double strawman: “They’ll be calling you…” might be the speaker strawmanning ‘them’ as if “they” are strawmanning the speaker. It’s difficult to know for sure. Supertramp could often be flippant, including in their choice of the name for the band.
Something similar happens in Goodbye Stranger. The use of “you” throughout the song probably refers to the “Stranger” the speaker is saying “Goodbye” to. The “Stranger” might not be a stranger at all, but someone once close who has changed and become like a stranger. The speaker probably wouldn’t bother saying goodbye to an actual stranger. But back to the strawmanning concept:
“You can laugh at my behaviour
And that'll never bother me
Say the devil is my saviour
But I don't pay no heed”
Here the speaker is saying the Stranger might strawman the speaker as being saved by the devil, but the speaker thinks it’s nonsense. Interestingly, the etymology of Goodbye is “1590s, from godbwye (1570s), a contraction of God be with ye (late 14c.)”. Someone saved by the devil probably wouldn’t wish for God to be with other people.