Cainntear wrote:You didn't exactly de-escalate things though, did you? You can't have it both ways -- either it's off-topic and no-one including yourself should be talking about it, or it's on-topic and you can join in.
Personally, I think it's on-topic, although I don't think tractor brought it in in the best way.
I think there's genuine value to learners in effectively saying "you've already handled worse", and I tend to do so whenever anyone who speaks English says they're struggling with the lack of logic in another language they're learning. But fair enough -- tractor didn't explicitly do that.
I think I did actually attempt to de-escalate it, before it was even escalated and later a request for a chat.
Funny video about French, me reacting to funny video, then unnecessary comparison regarding English spelling being 'worse' (and with what motivation? As if I was trying to bring down French or something. Absurd). That's the order of events. Then me saying calm down because it was just about poking gentle fun at the French sound system. I shouldn't have even engaged with the introduction of English as some trump card because it was irrelevant and not 'on topic' at all. The title of the thread is pretty clear.
There is no 'both ways'. If you're planning on replying with some shape-shifting observation about this, please don't bother.