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What else belongs on this list? 1. “Schrödinger's Cat:” invented as a send-up of Bohr and Heisenberg, now invoked as a demonstration of quantum mechanics →

Jonathan Hoefler

@jonathanhoefler.com

2. “Funeral Blues” by W. H. Auden (“Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone”): written to satirize the exploitation of tragedy for political gain, now quoted earnestly at funerals →

30/3/26, 5:27 pm0 reposts1 like

Jonathan Hoefler

@jonathanhoefler.com

30 Mar

3. Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken:” written to mock an indecisive friend, now interpreted as salute to individualism

Daniel Benneworth-Gray

@danielgray.com

30 Mar

Jingoistic use of Springsteen’s Born in the USA?

Dave DeSandro

@desandro.com

31 Mar

Prodigal son - original biblical story is that the son is a mess, but now conventionally used for a returning triumphant son

David

@daviderroll.bsky.social

30 Mar

The "Big Bang"? Aterm originally coined to mock the idea that space and matter expanded from a single point, now the accepted term for that beginning.

David

@daviderroll.bsky.social

30 Mar

Maybe "Capitalism" First coined by Marx as a derisive epithet, but now generally adopted by everyone as the basic description of market-based economics and proudly touted by its adherents?