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Comment by deprecative | Hacker News Reader

It's pedantic to most, I'm sure. Just FYI, though, antisocial is to be opposed to society - like Timothy McVeigh. Asocial is probably what you're looking for.

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You're not just being pedantic, you're also wrong [0][1][2][3]. Their usage is 100% standard and is encoded in every dictionary I can find, and etymonline lists it as the original definition dating back to 1797 [4], with "hostile to social order or norms" first recorded a few years later.

[0] https://www.dictionary.com/browse/antisocial

[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/antisocial

[2] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/antisoci...

[3] https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/anti...

[4] https://www.etymonline.com/word/antisocial

Usage seems different between US and UK. I didn't understand ASBOs at first since I thought "what's wrong with teens wanting some alone time?"

To be extra pedantic, I believe you meant Ted Kaczynski.

Timothy McVeigh was trying to make the US government pay for specific things it did to "his people"; Ted Kaczynski was lashing out at the industrialised world after living in isolation in his cabin in the woods.

IMO, Anti-social is defined in context of and from the perspective of the dominant social structure.

Both individuals and groups who are in opposition and sufficiently disruptive are anti-social, hence the distinction.

Asocial = a loner

Anti-social = against society, either as an individual or group.

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