Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by bigDinosaur 952 days ago
Were your quotation marks meant to indicate that was the literal language used? I interpreted it in the opposite way (as scare quotes), but would agree extremely authoritarian orders will produce interesting and counterproductive reactions.
1 comments

JFYI, scare quotes are also indicating the it is "the literal language used". The quotes are added to say that you are quoting literally what other people/the culture uses, but that you disagree with how that term/phrase is used.
I'm aware, but what I meant is the ironic usage - you can use scare quotes in an ironic way (i.e. you may be quoting someone or an expression or idiom but we do not know it is the boss being quoted verbatim).