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Comment by mikkergp | Hacker News Reader

FYI, culture is a noun: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture

I don’t think you can make it a verb by adding ‘ing’. I think that may be why I don’t understand your point, can you clairify?

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In conversational English, you can turn nouns into verbs by adding "ing", similar to a contraction.

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/the-basics-of-verbing-nouns/

"Cancel culture"-ing means "engaging in cancel culture". (Which, to be clear, optimizing ad spend is not).

Would it mean “engaging in cancel culture” rather than “applying one’s culture to another person”(as in encouraging them to cancel). I think “engaging in cancel culture” would just be “cancelling (or engaging in cancel culture as you said)

I guess there’s also enculturatibg, but to take another example, what would it mean to “American Culturing” someone, I think it’s just nonsensical

In the context of what that person was saying, they certainly just mean "cancelling" and misused "verbing" to make their communication more difficult and less succinct, defeating the entire purpose, yes. When you use "verbing" the actual verb is assumed, not explicit, so it's not specifically "engaging in cancel culture" so much as it is "the existence of cancel culture in the context of someone doing something".

maybe we can eventually make language a complete impediment to understanding

Totally verbing that noun

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