English

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Etymology

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From a Twitter post by @pookleblinky on September 25, 2020:

"Every heartwarming human interest story in america is like "he raised $20,000 to keep 200 orphans from being crushed in the orphan-crushing machine" and then never asks why an orphan-crushing machine exists or why you'd need to pay to prevent it from being used."

Pronunciation

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  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

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orphan-crushing machine (plural orphan-crushing machines)

  1. (Internet slang) A notional machine representing a system or process that obviously facilitates suffering but is not acknowledged or examined, or for which no alternative is considered.
    • 2023 February 15, @lepetitereboot, Twitter[1]:
      "we live in a society", said the orphan-crushing machine operator
    • 2023 August 9, @DreadBirate, Twitter[2]:
      “ the orphan crushing machine isn’t the problem, it’s that people are using the orphan crushing machine wrong”
    • 2024 January 22, @Nemertes_, Twitter[3]:
      BREAKING: orphan-crushing machine manufacturer states there is 'no sign' of orphan-crushing machines being used to crush orphans

See also

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Further reading

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