[mtrimpe]

You're shitting us right? Manpages referred to manuals, not men.

But given that I'm obviously swimming against the tide here at HN I'll just cave .....

Word, brah! Like, totally right on! We should be making like 'sispages' next with like only explanations and shit. Get it? For like the sissy-grammers! Awesome dude. You da bomb!

[pstack]

I can't tell if people here are being intentionally thick or not.

"Is bro supposed to be sexist or is it meant to be ironic?"

"Man referred to manual, not men!"

I can't even imagine many of you people watching a stand-up comic. Your heads must verge on exploding. The diagram for the pun/humor here would be about as simple as a diagram could be.

[neumann]

Well, bad comedy is still bad. Much like the naming of this idea.

The term is already reserved for a subgroup that celebrates itself for being exclusionary, crass and insistently unreflective about its privilege in society.

[pstack]

It has been a casual term of friendship and acknowledgement between guys for even longer than it has been a douche-bag-frat-boy-sleazy-programmer reference, however. There's not really any need to associate every occurrence of the word "bro" with that, unless it is clearly intended to do so (which, maybe this is, I wouldn't know).

I just know that getting irate over this, at the moment, is like losing your crap over someone including a "manifest" file with their software.

People gotta calm down and not be so jumpy. There's enough intentionally offensive and exclusionary stuff going on in our world without assuming everything else is, too.

Not to say I disagree with you about the way it is often used, though. Nothing more grating than playing a game and hearing a bunch of teenagers say "bro" and "brah" thirty-seven times per minute.

[nknighthb]

> It has been a casual term of friendship and acknowledgement between guys for even longer than it has been a douche-bag-frat-boy-sleazy-programmer reference, however.

In my entire life, I have only heard "bro" come from the mouths of bullying douche-bag frat-boy sleazes, usually while telling me the assault they just committed against me was "just a joke". It has never come from anyone I would willingly subject myself to.

[wutbrodo]

And in my _entire life_ (including a lot of time spent with friends in fraternities and at frat parties in colleges), I've never heard "bro" used as anything but a shorter form of the term of endearment "brother", or at worst an ironic reference to the stereotype of the super-fratty popped-collar bro. Obviously both usages are prevalent, but your contention is that the term can't POSSIBLY be referring to anything but your usage. Why exactly is that?

[nknighthb]

> including a lot of time spent with friends in fraternities and at frat parties in colleges

Then you're most likely exactly the kind of person I'm talking about.

[jacobtracey]

I've never been near a frat or anything related to an American college and I lots of my female and male friends use the word 'bro' to greet/reference each other.

It's terrible that you've had such a shitty life, but it'd be great if you didn't push your stupid 'I'm offended by everything' agenda down everyones throat.

[nknighthb]

It'd be great if you could demonstrate actual compassion and understanding of other human beings instead of pushing your stupid "I should be able to say whatever I want without social consequences" agenda down everyone's throat.

[reallyseriously]

One of the top headlining comedians in the US talks about this. Some people will be having a great time at his show and laughing at everything. But, then when it comes around to something about them, all of the sudden it's not so funny anymore. If you don't understand how absurd that is, you don't understand comedy.

Hopefully you realize that your personal experience and everything you load into the word "bro" is not universal.

[dreamfactory2]

Do you have any sources for the existence of this subgroup you could share?

[smtddr]

>>I can't even imagine many of you people watching a stand-up comic.

For the record, I think comedians like Louis CK & Dave Chappelle do society a disservice by making serious issues into trivial jokes but that's just me. So yeah, there are some people out there who can't watch those types of stand-up comics. I also believe the term "brogrammer" and the issues of sexism in tech has pretty much taken over the term "bro" whether you like it or not. The word "gay" originally means "happy", but it would be absurd to use it today and expect people to interpret it with that definition now. In the world of sports, "bro" probably still just means "Come on, bro!"... but in tech, the term has taken a new definition. To officially use that term in the tech-sphere and pretend you don't know the negative ideas it brings to mind is ignorant/insensitive at best, or just plain terrible & purposely malicious at worse.

____

Disclaimer: I'm not going to debate this so don't bother replying me asking pedantic questions or setting up hypothetical situations. Everyone has a bar for sensitivity & respect. I think yours is too low, you probably think mine is way too high. I'm sure you have a bunch of friends/coworkers that agree with you and I have a bunch that agree with me. Don't know where that leaves us... but there you go. Just adding a data point. Off I go...

[wonderzombie]

Why should anyone's head explode? A stand-up comic who isn't funny pisses off the audience, it's incredibly painful to watch, and the comic doesn't get invited back.

[ItendToDisagree]

Seems to work for Dane Cook pretty well doesn't it?

Ba Dum Chhhh!

In all seriousness though "funny" is in the eye of the beholder. Jon Benjamin and Mitch Hedberg both tell what amount to non-jokes and have intentionally unfunny standup on occasion and that's actually their whole gig.

[wonderzombie]

This is in part why I inserted the "invited back" clause. :)

[DanBC]

I have this really funny cat picture. We'll vectorise it and use it for the logo. Because, lol, funny, right?

[lhnz]

Yes, I was kidding about 'man', but my point is that 'bro' isn't that exclusionary.

In fact, I think the problem here is that a lot of geeks don't like 'bros' and I am doubting that they're hated by women as much. Personal opinion here, but: a lot of women have friends that are bros; a lot fewer geeks have friends that are bros.

[couchand]

Curious that you seem to think that women and geeks are mutually exclusive groups...

[lhnz]

No I didn't say that. I think that is completely false.

>> A lot of geeks don't like 'bros' and I am doubting that they're hated by women as much. Personal opinion here, but: a lot of women have friends that are bros; a lot fewer geeks have friends that are bros.

I think women that are geeks also have fewer 'bro' friends.

Geek is a property of men and women, it is not a mutually-exclusive group.

Nice try, trying to implicate me in sexism but I do not like it when people try to read things into what I say that I've never implied. I intended one thing, stop trying to use it against me...

What I am saying is that I think a group of non-genderised geeks define the label 'bro' by its negative connotations more so than the greater super set of non-geeks (even those which are of the female gender.) It's a case of a new set of people 'bros' joining another set of people 'geeks'; it's exactly the same group behaviour as you see when people from different cultures immigrate into a country; same us-vs-them group behaviour; same magnification and amplification of negative connotations.

A bro is just a stereotype. People are people and you should get to know them first before rejecting them (and especially if there are negative behaviours that you want to treat.)

[GFK_of_xmaspast]

If people are often reading sexist intent into your words maybe you ought to consider the possibility that the things you are writing are, in fact, sexist. Or be more careful.

[lhnz]

It rarely happens.

And in this case I think it was blatant and aggressive straw-manning.

I simply have no patience for people being exclusionary that accuse me of being exclusionary.

[dreamfactory2]

On the other hand, it may say much more about the person doing the misinterpreting.

[wildgift]

Yes. Geek culture isn't about being a bro. When I think about "bros" I think about guys who party, and then let someone else do the work. It's about power disguised as being carefree. Geek culture is about a kind of unification of mind and action. It's also about creativity within traditions.

[001sky]

Exactly...this is merley trend_bastardization...not original thinking.

...but hey #1 on HN...

Let's call it a "growth hack", bro ;D