Russian Court Fines Google $20 Decillion For Blocking Media Content (theregister.com) 263
A Russian court has fined Google an astronomical sum of around $20 decillion for YouTube's blocking of Russian media channels tied to sanctioned entities. The amount compounds weekly as Google continues to disregard the ruling. The Register reports: To put that into perspective, the World Bank estimates global GDP as around $100 trillion, which is peanuts compared to the prospective fine. Google might be one of the most valuable businesses on the planet, but even if Sundar Pichai rummages around the back of the sofa he won't be able to raise the funds to pay the penalty. The bizarre amount has been calculated after a four-year court case that started after YouTube banned the ultra-nationalist Russian channel Tsargrad in 2020 in response to the US sanctions imposed against its owner. Following Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022 more channels were added to the banned list and 17 stations are now suing the Chocolate Factory, including Zvezda (a TV channel owned by Putin's Ministry of Defence), according to local media.
"Google was called by a Russian court to administrative liability under Art. 13.41 of the Administrative Offenses Code for removing channels on the YouTube platform. The court ordered the company to restore these channels," lawyer Ivan Morozov told state media outlet TASS. The court imposed a fine of 100 thousand rubles ($1,025) per day, with the total fine doubling every week. Owing to compound interest (Einstein's eighth wonder of the world), Google is now on the hook for an insane amount of money, or what the judge on Monday called "a case in which there are many, many zeros."
"Google was called by a Russian court to administrative liability under Art. 13.41 of the Administrative Offenses Code for removing channels on the YouTube platform. The court ordered the company to restore these channels," lawyer Ivan Morozov told state media outlet TASS. The court imposed a fine of 100 thousand rubles ($1,025) per day, with the total fine doubling every week. Owing to compound interest (Einstein's eighth wonder of the world), Google is now on the hook for an insane amount of money, or what the judge on Monday called "a case in which there are many, many zeros."
Dr evil (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Dr evil (Score:4, Funny)
Hyperinflation is here. (Score:3)
Hyperinflation is coming to a Russia near you.
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He can't afford sharks. All he gets are sea bass.
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I sure hope they are ill-tempered!!!!!
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Crap. Let's try this again
Russia knows this fine can never be paid. They just want a legal excuse to instantly nab people from that company if they ever step foot on Russian soil
It's performative justice (Score:5, Informative)
They have no way of enforcing their rulings. Google isn't going to pay a cent of that fine and Andy Stone isn't going to be breaking rocks in Siberia.
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This. As you can expect from a totalitarian system.
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Not just that, it's also exclusionary justice. The purposes of such rulings are not to punish the targets, it's to actively exclude them. It effectively keeps Google out of the Russian market through a court order.
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They have no way of enforcing their rulings.
Unless of course Cheeto Benito wins, I'm sure he will be happy to extradite people to Russia and his packed courts will make it possible.
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Andy Stone isn't going to be breaking rocks in Siberia.
That is not entirely true. If Andy ever walks into a country that has an extradition treaty with Russia, he absolutely WILL be breaking rocks in Siberia.
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Re:It's performative justice (Score:4, Informative)
The ones that explode in their silos instead of, you know, launching? These Sarmat ICBMs?
Re:It's performative justice (Score:4, Funny)
Actually, they have. Just drop a couple of Sarmat ICBMs over Washington DC,
Given all the problems they've had with those missiles, "dropping them" over Washington - from a plane, from a balloon - is probably the only way they could get there.
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Hey don't knock the balloons. Nobody wants to shoot them down once they enter American airspace!
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Russian humor is an acquired taste (Score:5, Funny)
Of course by acquired I mean pillaged.
Handy list of large number names (Score:3, Informative)
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_large_numbers
Worthy note, a trillion is number 9 in the list whereas decillion is at number 16. Whoosh!
Re: Handy list of large number names (Score:2)
Banks can multiply money. Let's give Google permission to do this for one time.
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Re: Handy list of large number names (Score:2)
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Even more telling is they never even bothered to assign an SI prefix to it. That's how little anyone expected this number to be used outside of scientific notation.
A cue to anyone... (Score:3, Insightful)
who uses the words "real money" together unironically.
A good reminder that money only 'exists' so far as you can convince someone to act upon it, and then the precise numeral you put on it doesn't really matter much.
Re: A cue to anyone... (Score:2)
Money exists because it represents something of value. In the case of modern currencies it is a share in the BNP of the economy that creates that money. And that share isn't imaginary. In most countries anyway.
Missed opportunity (Score:5, Funny)
Russia is lame, they should have asked for a $1 Googol. :-)
Re: Missed opportunity (Score:2)
You beat me to it.
Or they could have asked for 26 Alphabets.
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Russian alphabet has 33 letters.
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That's coming. Currently 2 years in at 104 weeks we're at $1E36 but in 2028 the fine will reach $1E100
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Haha, in my rush to post my funny comment, I missed this one. Dang it!
So what should Google's response be? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Didn't Google's subsidiary in Russia file for bancruptcy in 2022 ?
I don't think there's any staff remaining.
Google also never was as big in Russia as in the rest of the world, thanks to Yandex, its pretty strong Russian competitor.
Re:So what should Google's response be? (Score:4, Informative)
Google's Russian business was wound up in 2022 and all staff not relocated out of Russia were laid off (200 of them). Incidentally Russia also seized their assets as a money grab to stop these rich companies leaving. There's nothing Google related in Russia anymore, there's no lip service required, there's simply nothing. Google has no businesses there and is unaffected and as such it doesn't warrant a response.
Responses are for PR. There's no point in doing any.
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The obvious response would be to cancel all Google and YouTube accounts that are based in Russia. Russia doesn't want Google? Fine; Google doesn't want Russia.
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I mean, sure, that's the obvious response if Google was in the business of making less money but ... it's not.
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No, that's exactly what Russia wants. They don't want their citizens able to get information outside their controlled propaganda channels.
They should just pretend Russia doesn't exist. Block the bots and troll farms as well as you can, but leave the rest of the information world open to the Russian citizens. If Russia doesn't like it, then let Russia do something about it. They can either block on their side (good luck) or go to war with NATO over some YouTube comments.
Payable in cookies? (Score:2)
Can I pay in cookies? I have a couple duodecillion.
Pay them in crypto (Score:4, Funny)
Create coin, say it's worth one dollar each, mint a hundred kajillions of them.
For added lulz, back it against World Liberty Financial tokens.
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Make the coins out of tungsten and drop them on the court from orbit...
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Russia would be pretty happy to get that much tungsten. Shame about the courtroom occupants though.
Good thing Google is a US company (Score:3)
I googled:
How much is a decillion?
noun. a cardinal number represented in the U.S. by 1 followed by 33 zeros, and in Great Britain by 1 followed by 60 zeros.
Sundar must be glad Google is a U.S. company.
Re:Good thing Google is a US company (Score:5, Informative)
Most people don't know that -illion in GB means 1,000,000^x, thus 10^6x. They know the USA version of 10^(3x+3).
Dec-illion in GB: 10^(6*10) = 10^60
Dec-illion in USA: 10^(3*10+3) = 10^33.
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noun. a cardinal number represented in the U.S. by 1 followed by 33 zeros, and in Great Britain by 1 followed by 60 zeros.
All forms of English are primarily short scale at this point, just like the U.S., even if they were historically long scale. [wikipedia.org] The term "thousand million" still survives as an historical curiosity, but it's synonymous with billion in most usage nowadays. It's Continental Europe (excluding Russia/Turkey) that favors the long scale. Like British/American English, Russian favors short scale, luckily for Google (not that they'd pay either version of a decillion, in either dollars or rubles).
Ohh, they gave them... (Score:3)
Excuse to ban Google? (Score:2)
Perhaps it's a fine designed as an excuse to completely ban Google in the country and replace its services with state-owned, survelied digital products?
Clickbait vs reality (Score:5, Informative)
Shit tier clickbait that is copy pasted from a X mistranslation from an X user who put the original source at the very end of the thread to ensure that as few people as possible would get to the source and fact check him.
Original source is Astra's telegram channel. Astra is a group of Russian expat journalists in the West who try to run an independent and iirc crowdfunded news outlet aimed at Russians. Mostly successfully, they're surprisingly good at what they do considering the meager resources. If you can read Russian, they're worth following if you want independent news source collating things happening in Russia while trying to not be biased. And yes they have the badge of honor of being declared a "foreign agent" in Russian Federation.
https://t.me/astrapress/ [t.me]
Or
https://astra.press/ [astra.press]
This is the story being incorrectly translated:
https://t.me/astrapress/67386 [t.me]
And this is the story they are referencing:
https://www.rbc.ru/technology_... [www.rbc.ru]
Story references an anonymous source saying that judge involved is "considering a case with lots and lots of zeroes". It's actually just a demand made by plaintiffs. This was being mistranslated as "this has been ruled on".
The actual fine that is in place is 100.000 roubles for every day block is in effect.
Very prosaic compared to bullshit title.
This is the twitter post with incorrect translation where everyone got their barely modified copypasta from:
https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/stat... [x.com]
Notice that he put the source at the very bottom of the thread so as few as possible would fact check him.
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Story references an anonymous source saying that judge involved is "considering a case with lots and lots of zeroes". It's actually just a demand made by plaintiffs. This was being mistranslated as "this has been ruled on".
The actual fine that is in place is 100.000 roubles for every day block is in effect.
How dare you post facts and spoil our two-minute hate!
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Bitch, I gave you two hours and forty-five minutes! :D
Re:Clickbait vs reality (Score:4, Informative)
and Astra, whom you spoke of fondly, summarized this as
If Google's and ChrisO_wiki's Russian comprehension are both bad, care to enlighten us with your superior Russian translation skillz?
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IDGAF about google translate. I speak the language.
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Admission by omission.
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Admission of what? I literally speak the language. I have the national tests to prove it too. Literally, highest level you can study a foreign language at in Finland, they test us on it when we exit lyceum.
I took highest level foreign language test in English and Russian. Aced both with highest available score (top 5% of all students who took that test at that level nationally that year).
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The actual fine that is in place is 100.000 roubles for every day block is in effect.
And that is actually believable and makes sense. Although on the low side, as that seems to be around $1000. Thanks for digging that up.
New prefixes are needed. (Score:2)
Wait for the overflow (Score:2)
Pretty soon the system used to track the amount of this fine will overflow the number of bits assigned to the amount, the amount will reset and Google can pay a fine of 1 Ruble.
Einstein (Score:4, Interesting)
From TFS:
Einstein's eighth wonder of the world
This references the quote often misattributed to Einstein that, "Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it; he who doesn't, pays it."
There is no evidence that Einstein ever said that.
It was first (mis)attributed to him in 1983, 28 years after he died.
Re:Einstein (Score:5, Funny)
Albert Einstein once said, "Don't believe every quote you read on the internet, because I totally didn't say that."
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You are right, this is actually a quote from Oscar Wilde [uncyclopedia.co].
Just what I came here for (Score:2)
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I propose advance payments in coins (Score:2)
Dropped from airplanes. There will be nothing left of Russia way before the sum is paid.
What is that in dollars? (Score:3)
Years ago Zimbabwe had a 100 trillion bill worth pocket change in USD. It is a good idea to keep these things in mind when sizing data fields because you never know when some random countries currency turns to ruble.
In this case I'm not sure what the correct move would be as there are no native types that will even represent a decillion short of resorting to floating point. You would need a big number library just to perform basic arithmetic. There are also business considerations - is it really in your interest to accommodate 2nd tier gas stations attended by alcoholics run by a small man in high heels who compares himself to Peter the Great? What are the opportunity costs? Legal? Moral? Reputational?
Missed opportunity (Score:2)
Russian court really missed a golden opportunity to just charge them one Googol
I guess... (Score:2)
...that's Scrooge McDuck territory.
Weird (Score:3)
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I hear the Chinese have developed a pretty good national firewall. You could buy it from them and install it around the US.
Re:Someone needs to do something about youtube (Score:4, Informative)
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What about asking you to log in to prove you're not a bot? Or randomly giving VPN users the endless circle?
Re:Someone needs to do something about youtube (Score:5, Interesting)
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YouTube is following Google Search: getting worse and worse.
Current example: I teach programming from a really excellent book where the author includes QR codes to videos snippets, in which he shows and explains how to solve certain exercises. This year, for no apparent reason, all of his videos are "unavailable". Inquiries to YouTube support? No answer, just a black hole.
Big companies are supposed to benefit from economy of scale. Why is it, that as companies get bigger, their services get worse?
Re:Someone needs to do something about youtube (Score:4, Insightful)
Big companies are supposed to benefit from economy of scale. Why is it, that as companies get bigger, their services get worse?
I've also consistently observed this in many areas: while things consistently get "bigger" and more expensive, the quality of service plummets. For example, the Deutsche Bahn. Railway tickets are so much more expensive than they were 20, 30 or 40 years ago, even adjusted for inflation. But the service and quality has declined in several ways. 20 years ago you could board a train and buy the ticket inside the train, from the ticket inspector. Nowadays, if you're on the train without a ticket, you're treated like a criminal: they want your ID and all your details to send you the fine, and will hold you if you refuse to show them. There is also a real crisis of punctuality and infrastructure.
You'd think that with GDP rising almost every year and immense productivity increases of the last decades, things would get cheaper, service better, infrastructure would improve..., but instead in many areas there seems to be stagnation or even decline.
At the same time you hear the news that the extremely rich just keep getting richer. Not surprising when CEO's give themselves 50% wage increases, while employees are laid off for "cost savings" the next year, and inflation adjusted wages for the working class have declined since a generation. Or who can afford to buy a house and a car in a single earner family these days?
I suppose this answers the question of where all that wealth generation from efficiency and productivity increases ends up going.
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I think there's an element of scapegoating too. The CEO or whatever is asked why the trains are losing money and so they blame it on "fare dodgers" without any evidence and then implement draconian measures to tackle the made up threat.
It became fashionable to blame shoplifters for retails woes last year in the US but I believe the thinking has moved on this year. Anything but blame poor execution
Re:Someone needs to do something about youtube (Score:5, Insightful)
First of all, why are you so angry? Are you one of those people who confuses wisdom with being a cynical asshole?
So let me get this straight: you expect to hop onto the train without a ticket that you could easily have purchased at the kiosks right there that you walked by in the station... refuse to pay... refuse to even show ID when caught... and then complain you're "being treated like a criminal" for your act of brazen theft? Yeah, you've got a fucked-up worldview.
Did you read what I wrote? Buying tickets inside the train (with a small surcharge) wasn't an issue 20 years ago. Sometimes you are in a hurry, the ticket machine is out of order and all the counters are busy, because only one of the five available is occupied, with a long line of people waiting to be serviced!
Doubtful. And I'm guessing "Asshole fuckwits who don't buy tickets and then pitch tantrums about how they're being 'treated like a criminal' for refusing to show an ID when caught" might account for an occasional delay...
No, that is certainly not the reason for delays.
https://www.dw.com/en/germanys... [dw.com]
https://www.bundesrechnungshof... [bundesrechnungshof.de]
https://www.theguardian.com/bu... [theguardian.com]
You should really grow up and work on your communication skills. Just being a cynical asshole calling people "asshole fuckwits" and accusing them of "fucked-up worldview" probably isn't the best way to get your arguments accross. I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt now, but I'm beginning to be less patient and starting to just completely ignore and stop reading comments as soon as my sensors pick up a cynical, disparaging tone. Life's too short.
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Current example: I teach programming from a really excellent book where the author includes QR codes to videos snippets, in which he shows and explains how to solve certain exercises. This year, for no apparent reason, all of his videos are "unavailable". Inquiries to YouTube support? No answer, just a black hole.
Two things to consider in the realm of "you really have trouble understanding how things work:"
1 - YouTube Support really isn't required to tell random emailers why a video is no longer availab
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Say hello to Gemini and other woke AI systems (Score:2)
It will only get worse as long as there is no purge like at Twitter.
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The comment moderation is out of control on youtube. I was just banned for posting a comment
isn't it obvious? Now that Reddit is making a profit, they are copying Reddit's business model. [slashdot.org]
Increase engagement by banning non-conforming ideas and values to create echo chambers. Society crumbles, but profit!
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Out of context, there is no way to tell if the ban is deserved or not.
But besides outright bans, YouTube shadowbans, or at least downranks critical comments a lot. It does a great job keeping toxicity out of the comment section (to a point), but it also makes it very boring. There is almost no meaningful discussion there, just the same memes repeated over and over. But considering the nature of the platform, this stance is understandable, it is not a forum, it is a video broadcasting website, they want you
Re:Someone needs to do something about you (Score:2)
And now you're here posting irrelevant comments.
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The moderation of comments is nothing. After all, it's comments. Youtube's comment section is a cesspool.
You know what's worse? The self-censorship from creators. They want to keep the CCP happy so they censor every single video that may have anything that could be considered even remotely negative. Content found in shorts is mostly made for Tiktok and reposted to Youtube. Tiktok is all about happy, harmless, funny and positive videos. Nothing political. Nothing negative. No discussions about sex, death, su
Re: Someone needs to do something about youtube (Score:5, Insightful)
The woke bros are easily triggered. The "Totalitarian Left" true to form. The party of peace and love and tolerance are as nasty and intolerant as Pol Pot.
Yeah, with totally sane takes like that, I bet it was the Trump thing that got you banned, and not this bullshit alt-right rhetroic.
You morons are always so obvious. Go cry more, snowflake.
Re: Someone needs to do something about youtube (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Someone needs to do something about youtube (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, a group that has made 'alternative facts' part of their worldview isn't exactly reliable when it comes to stories of their persecution by their made up enemies.
I kinda like that they adopted this false persecution complex from the Christian upright moral brigade, that's the largest religious group in our country, continually whining about being oppressed because some folks happen to not be Christians. It helps signal to rational and sane individuals that these folks are not really worth wasting time on, and helps gather them together to huddle around their suffering and persecution.
Re: Someone needs to do something about youtube (Score:4)
You just proved his point.
If his point had been "there are trolls and assholes on Reddit, too," then, yes.
Re: Someone needs to do something about youtube (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re: Someone needs to do something about youtube (Score:4, Insightful)
Immediately with the whataboutism.
Your political views are so fragile that even the mention of Trump being a convicted felon awaiting sentencing for crimes that include possible incarceratory punishment makes you immediately try to bothsides it and draw false equivalencies.
I'm not the guy you replied to, but let's try this on for size:
If you can answer "yes" to these three questions:
1. if you are convicted by a randomly selected jury of citizens who listen to the evidence and unanimously agree that you committed crimes;
2. the crimes you were proven beyond a reasonable doubt have legal punishments that include incarceration;
3. the judge presiding over your sentencing hearing decides that you need to see the inside of a prison for your transgression;
Then you need to go to jail.
Hunter Biden was convicted of a crime, by a jury, in a court of law.
I don't know if his particular crime he was convicted of carries a jail sentence or not. It's also not for me to decide - that's for a judge to decide.
Hunter Biden hasn't been sentenced yet. Thus, he doesn't need to be in jail yet until a judge says so. Just like literally every other defendant out there, up to and including Trump.
Now let me ask you if you agree with what I've written here, and that it should apply equally to Trump. My guess is that you'll offer some mealy-mouthed reasoning and create your own double standard, exactly the opposite of your false equivalency argument I'm replying to.
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Turns out that what flows freely is conspiracy theories and self-censorship and pressure to conform put even the Chinese censorship to shame.
Not pressure to conform. Presure to move to a channel that echoes your political beliefs.
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Re: Someone needs to do something about youtube (Score:4, Insightful)
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And when that megaphone is saying why people shouldn't shoot at other motorists on a busy street with houses on it over vandalism, and it gets silenced while other megaphones are cheering on the gunman's actions.
"waa waa" indeed. "Waa waa" when this unchallenged cheerleading emboldens another nut to do the same thing and an innocent kid is laying down, bleeding to death on a sidewalk.
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Re: Google aren't my favourite entity but... (Score:2)
No, that's just the alt right disagreeing with his feeling on the handler of their leader.
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> I put it to you...
No, you don't put anything to anyone. Be quiet and stop trying to excuse illiteracy and stupidity.
Your failure to comprehend an agreed upon protocol (the English language) isn't something you "put to anyone."
Just be quiet and learn. Your failure reflects poorly on you, not those who point out that failure.
Given both your exemplary command of English, and your pissy outrage at people whom you believe to be misusing the language, I'm quite certain that you are familiar with the word "pedant". However, I'm much less certain that you are familiar with the more common word "humour". I suggest that you look it up in the dictionary, then consider whether you might wish to acquire some humour for yourself.
You might also find value in the definition of the word "vernacular"; after all, I suspect that even you put asi