• theneverfox@pawb.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    3 months ago

    I think you’re looking at it wrong, it doesn’t forcibly include the other participant, the usage you’re talking about does the opposite

    We [our shared group] don’t do that. We [me and my group] don’t do that.

    You can interpret it both ways - the first means “you broke the rule of the group”, the second means “you’re not one of us because you’re not following our rules”

    It’s visceral because it gently tickles the “fear of exclusion” part of our brain

    • Lvxferre@mander.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      3 months ago

      That’s an interesting take! After thinking a bit more on it, I think that it’s going both ways, depending on utterance:

      • the speaker into the hearer’s group (“how are we going today?”), for fake camaraderie;
      • the hearer into the speaker’s group (“we don’t do that”), to manipulate the hearer’s behaviour

      The later would work as you described, but the former also exerts some pressure - because rejecting someone from your group is a face-threatening act for both sides (i.e. “you’re not one of us” is shitty to say for the hearer but also for the speaker themself).

      • theneverfox@pawb.social
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        3 months ago

        Ah, I see what you were getting at now. Like “where are we going tonight?”, it’s a mirroring of the same concept, I think it’s fair to call that forced inclusion. Like you say, directly excluding someone is rude, so forcing that choice is pretty manipulative