• easily3667@lemmus.org
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    4 days ago

    That’s weirdly ignorant but that’s ok, everyone can learn something new. ’ is shorthand for foot, which was a historical unit used in various forms for several thousand years.

    Since 1959, the foot has been an SI-derived unit, being pegged to precisely 0.3048 meters thanks to the Commonwealth of nations, including Canada, agreeing with the united states to set the value as a metric unit as part of both nations’ slow but steady moves towards the metric system.

      • easily3667@lemmus.org
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        4 days ago

        So you did know all that but were just playing dumb in a petty show of patriotism? Color me shocked and appalled.

        • Otter@lemmy.caM
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          4 days ago

          The comment asking what a foot is, was building off the joke in the post image which was asking what a mile is, which itself is a reference to an American line https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/what-the-fuck-is-a-kilometer

          What The Fuck Is A Kilometer, also known as WTF Is A Kilometer, refers to an American catchphrase that is satirically patriotic by being aggressively ignorant of the metric system. This is because the United States doesn’t use the metric system (kilometers) and instead uses the imperial system (miles). The phrase’s first usage was in a moldy meme featuring George Washington with a bald eagle and a giant firearm.

          Only it started as being satire, but now it’s also used by some people trying to be patriotic