this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2026
399 points (94.0% liked)
memes
22584 readers
2113 users here now
Community rules
1. Be civil
No trolling, bigotry or other insulting / annoying behaviour
2. No politics
This is non-politics community. For political memes please go to !politicalmemes@lemmy.world
3. No recent reposts
Check for reposts when posting a meme, you can only repost after 1 month
4. No bots
No bots without the express approval of the mods or the admins
5. No Spam/Ads/AI Slop
No advertisements or spam. This is an instance rule and the only way to live. We also consider AI slop to be spam in this community and is subject to removal.
A collection of some classic Lemmy memes for your enjoyment
Sister communities
- !tenforward@lemmy.world : Star Trek memes, chat and shitposts
- !lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world : Lemmy Shitposts, anything and everything goes.
- !linuxmemes@lemmy.world : Linux themed memes
- !comicstrips@lemmy.world : for those who love comic stories.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Honestly this doesn’t bother me half as bad as the ‘M as in’ part does. It should be
Mancy
Alpha
Romeo
Bravo
Lima
Echo
Not:
M as in Mancy
A as in Alpha
R as in Romeo
B as in Bravo
L as in Lima
E as in Echo
It's a reference to Archer.
True but also, people are stupid/ easily confused and have a lot of trouble figuring out what you mean unless you use the "As In" description.
Source : I both take and make a lot of support calls. I'd say about 1 in 5 or so people can handle the NATO alphabet at a normal speaking speed.
That doesn't mean they're stupid. If you say "V" over a phone or radio, it can be hard to tell if you said V or B. Likewise with M and N, and plenty of others.
The ~~pneumonic~~ phonetic alphabet (the real one, not this shitpost) disambiguates the sounds so there's no confusion. People who don't know ~~pneumonic~~ phonetic alphabet sometimes pick a random word or name to use for the same reason, i.e. "V as in vagabond"
If you're spelling something ~~pneumonically~~ phonetically to someone who doesn't know the ~~pneumonic~~ phonetic alphabet, it can be hard for them to catch the sounds they're not used to. Especially if you don't tell them what you're doing before you start spelling, it can sound like you're just throwing random words at them.
To illustrate the point, pick a language you don't know, and ask someone who speaks that language to spell out a word in their alphabet. Or maybe find some videos online of spelling quizzes in other languages. Most of the letters probably begin with the same sounds they make. So if your theory is true, then if you aren't stupid it should be easy to catch what they're spelling. Not the case though.
I think they just meant that most people don't pick up what you're doing when you start rattling off nato phonetic words unless you prime them with " as in"
Yeah that's what I'm saying. And my only point is that that doesn't make them stupid.
Yeah I just rattle off actual phonetic alphabet elements when on the phone with anyone I have to give long alphanumeric strings to. Occasionally it throws people off until they understand what I’m doing, but usually it is clearly understood on the first try.
That's the point. It's saying you no longer have to do that. Because now you can just say
Mnemonic
Aisle
Row
Bravo
Lima
Eye
(Which is confusing as fuck, because this is a shitpost and not remotely accurate, for anyone who didn't pick up on that)