this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2025
644 points (97.5% liked)
Not The Onion
18660 readers
2204 users here now
Welcome
We're not The Onion! Not affiliated with them in any way! Not operated by them in any way! All the news here is real!
The Rules
Posts must be:
- Links to news stories from...
- ...credible sources, with...
- ...their original headlines, that...
- ...would make people who see the headline think, “That has got to be a story from The Onion, America’s Finest News Source.”
Please also avoid duplicates.
Comments and post content must abide by the server rules for Lemmy.world and generally abstain from trollish, bigoted, or otherwise disruptive behavior that makes this community less fun for everyone.
And that’s basically it!
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Ok, well, this article is trying to call people dumb for not understanding a concept that is incredibly confusing to everyone
It's not that confusing for anybody that paid the least bit of attention in school. I didn't know all the nuances of it, but I was well aware that English (as well as most other Western languages) uses the Latin alphabet and Arabic numerals since like 8th grade.
Seriously, the whole bit is just showing how ignorant these people are and how easy it is to frighten them. Like the "ban dihydrogen monoxide" petitions, but for racist chucklefucks.
But you dont use the same numerals that Arabic people use
I honestly have no idea what numerals Arabic people use. But as I said, I've known that the numerals we use are called Arabic numerals since at least 8th grade.
Lies your teacher told you, for the purposes of oversimplification
Not a lie. An oversimplification, perhaps, but that is entirely besides the point.
Eh, you don't need to know the entire history and reasoning behind numbers, just that the numbers we use are called Arabic numerals, which most people don't. The history is confusing, the fact that they are called Arabic numerals is not. It's just what they are.
There's two types. And we don't use the type in our schools that Arabic people use in their schools
I don't think the article is calling people dumb. It only states objective facts, and I think it was pretty good at NOT suggesting people are dumb. Ignorant perhaps, but it does stick to the facts (and some fluff to pad the page.)