to be honest a solid 80% of my problems socializing are due to this. even when around people who say what they mean I just do not believe them
@eta Although the issue is less prevalent in NL, it does happen here as well, and I've taken to just deliberately interpreting what people say literally and applying it in such a way that it would get awkward *for them* if they didn't actually mean it.
It seems to get the point across pretty well most of the time...
@joepie91 ah the violence approach! I both love and hate this
@eta I mostly hate that it's necessary, but I'm happy to at least have a tool that works without requiring too many spoons from my side 😐
@joepie91 @eta incidentally people in the East of England are more direct (and in some ways similar to the Dutch) compared to other regions, which makes perfect sense when you consider this region really isn't *that* far away from NL if you have a boat to get over the North Sea and there have been a lot of cultural crossovers over the centuries..