"I would die for X" is one of those things people say colloquially that kinda contaminates the usefulness of language; people aren't even slightly serious when they say it

I don't wanna be stuffy abt hyperbole, but we could all be a lot more powerful if we understood word magic

eg suppose "i would die for x" is shorthand for something like "i would do an irrational amount of work for X", it would be accurate for me to say "i would die for the right to shitpost on main". I don't think I'd *actually* die, but... my entire life *is* structured around this

this is kind of what this joke is about. the humor in the joke is about the nature of language, and social norms / expectations around utterances. it's funny because i'm completely serious when I'm not expected to be https://twitter.com/visakanv/status/1268540336458158080

I suppose the thing I'm looking for – I don't want to police how people use language, and that never works, anyway – is a better sense of the actual risks people are willing to take, the actual costs and consequences they are willing to bear