You can speak for yourself, but I certainly didn’t mock anyone.

I’ve had a multi-decade interest in languages, though. IMO, it’s very natural to find patterns and associations like this and finding different ways of organizing taxonomies is fun.

I’ve also thought about why watermelons, pumpkins, cucumbers and bitter gourds all have the character 瓜 in them in Chinese. Not to mock speakers of language, but because I was nerdsniped. Have a nice day.

I understand being nerdsniped dissecting language, but doing it in front of them and amid jeers is kinda different imho. While I understand you weren't jeering, the context of this subthread makes it pretty weird to me.

Have a good one.

I don't feel mocked. I feel people are being pedantic. The Hacker News comment section isn't biology class.

"I went to the San Francisco zoo and aquarium and enjoyed the animals and the fish" is a perfectly acceptable sentence is it not?

I would agree, yes.

I certainly didn't intend to presume to speak for you, apologies if I was overbearing.

No problem. I'm a crusty old ex-Navy guy, but if I were a young person intimidated by Hacker News your support would have been appreciated greatly.

It's a redundant sentence. Fish are animals.

It's like saying "I went to the San Francisco zoo and aquarium and enjoyed the animals and the big cats"

It's not like saying "enjoyed the animals and the big cats". If English is your second language then perhaps this will help you speak colloquial English.

Functionally it is the same. Fish are animals, big cats are animals.

English is my first language, which is why I understand the analogy I gave is accurate, both in colloquial and technical forms of English.

Fish are animals, and only the extremely uneducated would think otherwise. Now that this has been pointed out to you, perhaps you will start to speak correctly from this point on, and educate your friends and family to do the same.

Knowledge and education in the US is bad enough. The last thing we need are people advocating to use incorrect language and spreading misinformation.

People using language differently isn't misinformation.

I think maybe it's time to let this disagreement go. The stakes are so small, it's been 18 hours, and it's been a difference of opinion this entire time.

Saying fish are not animals is 100% misinformation.

I'm happy to let it go, but if I get a reply that I feel warrants a reply, I will.

I would also find that sentence weird, for what it's worth. I don't think it's pedantic to point out that fish are animals.

I've never heard anyone speak like this, but I'm Canadian, so maybe things are different in the Bay.

I made the initial comment and I was not mocking anyone, I just think it's different how so many people think of fish as separate from "animal meat".

Even just "meat" by itself wouldn't have been interesting to me as that often is short for "red meat", but "animal meat" is.