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What's a Good Verb I Can Use Instead of Simp(ing)?

posted 2 years ago by HarveyManFredSin (4877)
27 replies | jump to latest

I know a lot of people associate the term 'simp' with incels, but when I use the term 'simp' I do so with respect to all people who display blind, uncritical and rigidly devoted faith to an individual, or ANY gender, or corporation/company, brand or political party.

It's akin to shilling/to shill or to suck up to, but unlike shilling and sucking up to, there's no transactional relationship involved. If you shill for a person, it generally implies a relationship in which one person is bigging up another person in collusion (and the person doing the shilling is likely getting paid/renumerated in some way for their effusive praise of another), and sucking up also implies a two-way relationship in which the individual doing the sucking-up is proactively currying favour with the individual who is being sucked-up to.

But when I refer to 'simping', I'm describing a particularly maddening and frankly irrational sort of behaviour, where someone sings the uncritical and often mindless praises of another person or entity, without any apparent benefit. Although such behaviour may be relatively sincere, in comparison to shilling and sucking-up-to, that sincerity is arguably scarier, because it makes no sense, and suggests an almost-cult-like devotion and a degree of prostration. Instead of focusing on one's own goals and potential, or actual, achievements, it sees a person pay blind devotion to another, and there's something rather sad and pathetic about such behaviour.

NO-ONE should be placed on a pedestal. It makes the person who sits on it, arrogant, hubristic and entitled, and unable to handle criticism. We should promote equality, equity and egalitarianism, which means we should neither abuse anyone nor worship them. But simply treat all humans with roughly equal degrees of respect (unless of course they are abusive/harmful, and even then, they are still entitled to *basic* human dignity and respect).

Anyway, like I asked, what is another word for 'simping', or more specifically, *my* particular use of the term? Because in order to challenge such maddening behaviour, we need to have a word for it...unless, of course, you, and the powers that be (i.e. the, often powerful, people being simped) disagree... 🤔

[–] nyctc7 (44116) 2 years ago

Drinking the Kool-Aid
Brainwashing
Drone
Robot

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) 2 years ago

But none of those are verbs.

And they all imply groupthink. Not ALL simping (to use my definition) is groupthink. You can simp for an individual that absolutely everyone else detests and thinks poorly of (although, admittedly, in most cases an individual tends to have multiple people simping over them).

[–] jriley555 (8552) 2 years ago

a shill, shilling, shilling for

shill
2 of 2
noun
1
a
: one who acts as a decoy (as for a pitchman or gambler)
b
: one who makes a sales pitch or serves as a promoter
2
: pitch sense 8a
Did you know?

The Conniving Roots of Shill

Someone who shills today may very well be employed to simply extol the wonders of legitimate products. But in the early 1900s, when the first uses of the verb shill were documented, it was more likely that anyone hired to shill was trying to con you into parting with some cash. Practitioners called shills did everything from faking big wins at casinos (to promote gambling) to pretending to buy tickets (to encourage people to see certain shows). Shill is thought to be a shortened form of shillaber, but etymologists have found no definitive evidence of where that longer term originated.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shill

[–] Mrmojo4700 (21721) 2 years ago

I’ve never used the word “simp” in my life, so I have no clue.

[–] nyctc7 (44116) 2 years ago

I've never used it, either. My favorite use of a form of the word is on the infamous Watergate tapes, President Nixon referring to Senator Howard Baker as a "simpering asshole." Wonderful!

[–] Mrmojo4700 (21721) 2 years ago

Now that is a great example of a use of a form of the word, and Nixon definitely had a funny way with words.

However, in current times if I encounter that word being used it’s a sign of a conversation that I’m probably not interested in.

[–] db20db (17756) 2 years ago

I think it might be a word used by pompous, pseudo-intellectuals.😉

[–] Mrmojo4700 (21721) 2 years ago

That sounds about right. Lol

[–] AndyKing1967 (39865) 2 years ago

Quite the opposite actually. I unfortunately spent a couple of minutes looking at Mrs K’s Tik-Tok account; simping is apparently all the rage on there.

[–] db20db (17756) 2 years ago

"simping is apparently all the rage on there."

Oh, more internet slang and another internet fad.🙄 What was wrong with the time-tested words of schmoozing and fawning that some asshole had to come up with a substitution? I have never used the stupid expression "my bad" and never will. It's kind of sickening how that caught on and spread like wildfire. We might as well abolish the notion that, "to err is human...". "Mistake" is still perfectly adequate in my vocabulary.

Don't get me wrong, Andy. I'm not slamming you, just the stupid, mindless, sheeple nature of some people.

[–] AndyKing1967 (39865) 2 years ago

I get it. It reminds me of when sentences were shortened by teens; ie ‘You wanna come with?”

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) 2 years ago

I don't think so, but even if you're right, I'm asking for an alternative word that has the same meaning as the one I've outlined. Right now 'simp' suits me, but in view of its associations with incels/misogynists, even though I personally use it for other contexts (and often in relation to people 'simping' for men or institutuions, rather than women), I'd ideally like to have an alternative, preferably something as snappy as 'simp'.

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) 2 years ago

Good for you, but I'm asking people what word they use instead. Or are you saying you've never encountered anyone who displays blind, unthinking, slavishly uncritical allegiance to another person or entity, without any reason or rationale, in your life?

[–] ShogunofYonkers (78608) 2 years ago

Holy hell, you need to bang on a girl and put her lights out.

A proper screw is a handy endgame.

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) 2 years ago

I don't think it's that simple.

[–] capuchin (3369) 2 years ago

Kowtow?
Fawn (over)?

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) 2 years ago

Fawn over is the closest synonym so far, but it's a bit cumbersome.

'Kowtow' once again implies a conscious relationship between the person lavishing praise and the person *being* praised, and a lot of what I describe as 'simping' involves a situation, often seen on social media, where someone (usually a regular joe, so to speak) 'fawns over' a celebrity who doesn't even know they exist, or an institution/organisation.

[–] capuchin (3369) 2 years ago

Well, I suppose you're not going to find a direct synonym. Your definition of 'simping' (not unjustly) seems to require a parasocial element. Parasocial relationships aren't new (and neither is that term), but obviously with social media that phenomenon has risen. Perhaps we've never needed a precise word for the behaviour you describe before.

Perhaps 'simping' is the unimprovable mot juste.

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) 2 years ago

Thank you again for a thoughtful and intelligent post. And you're 100% right in your observation about 'parasocial' relationships, and why the rise of social media creates, or certainly expands, certain dynamics that were hitherto relatively uncommon. Hence the arguable need for new terms/words.

[–] Wint3rFir3 (7386) 2 years ago

The word "stan" was originally intended to describe someone like this, as shown in Eminem's Stan music video. I know today it has more positive or neutral connotations more closely resembling "super fan", but that is what a stan actually is, an irrational, blindly faithful fan.

Some titles that also fall into this family, though aren't quite as succinct, are sheep, follower, zombie, minion, zealot, sycophant, errand boy/girl, flunky, disciple, parrot, and probably more. It really depends on what you're saying to the person in question, the context of the discussion, who you're directing the title at and if you're feeling reasonable or not.

[–] capuchin (3369) 2 years ago

I've thought about this before. And it's interesting to me how words that mean 'fan' very quickly soften their register, and lose their pejorative connotations -- including, of course, the word 'fan' itself. Originally, it was a bad thing to be a fan -- simply an abbreviation of 'fanatic', of course -- but very rapidly became neutral or indeed positive. Suddenly there's a huge difference between being a 'religious fanatic' and a fan of religions.

And because it became neutral or positive, we needed replacement words for its original negative usage. But the same rapid journey of decreasing power happens with just about any of them as people embrace the label: superfan, fanboy/girl, Stan... and now probably also Simp.

I'm not going anywhere with this. It's just a random observation about a quirk of the language.

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) 2 years ago

No, this is a really good post. Thank you for these observations.

I don't know if anyone else really uses the term 'simp' the way I do, so I wouldn't necessarily assume that it's going to be a replacement for 'fan' or 'simp' (it reminds me all of the way Lacey Charbert's character tries to make the word 'fetch' happen in 'Mean Girls'), but you do reassert my original point about why we arguably need a replacement word for 'fan' or 'stan'.

[–] Wint3rFir3 (7386) 2 years ago

The thing is, simp is already on its way out of negative territory, since people often self-title themselves now as simps for so-and-so actor or singer, etc. That's truly the fast-moving nature of language, and I'm sure something new will pop up to replace it naturally from young people, as it always does.

[–] capuchin (3369) 2 years ago

Yes, very much so.

I hear -- or more usually read, if I'm honest -- people semi-ironically self-describing as 'simps' all the time. They're simps for Taylor Swift or simps for Apple products or whatever it may be. The word seems to be speedily taking the same journey as all the others I mentioned. And probably more besides that I haven't thought of.

It seems this particular area of language moves from negative to neutral or positive very, very rapidly. I've no idea why. But, yes, it'll be replaced by a new term... that will take the same journey again. Unless the new term is 'delusional maniac'. Then it might stick for a while.

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) 2 years ago

Good response. Thanks.

But, as you say, 'to stan' is not really a pejorative anymore. I wouldn't necessarily say it has positive connotations, for the most part, but it does strike me more as a neutral, objective term, whereas, I won't deny that when I use the term 'simp for' I *am* generally making a judgement.

And a lot of those other words are nouns rather than verbs, and apart from 'follower' can't easily be converted into verbs.

'Sychophant' mostly describes the type of person I'm referring to (although even that word mostly describes a dynamic in which someone is bigging up another individual, with the latter's knowledge, and likely with the conscious aim of currying favour for some sort of reward/renumeration).

[–] Wint3rFir3 (7386) 2 years ago

Language is kind of individual anyway, so as long as people understand your meaning when you use a word, just use whatever word fits. Language changes, but if someone calls something neat, or groovy, or out of sight, or swell, it's easy to infer meaning even when you don't quite know what a word means, and language and slang is always being upgraded. Like I just posted above, even the term simp is losing its power as a negative word because people call themselves simps now.

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) 2 years ago

True, I guess.

Hence, another reason why we need a new word to describe what I'm referring to.

Then again, maybe it's a good thing that some people regard 'simp' as a sign of pride. When I use the term, I'm not necessarily trying to hurt anyone's feelings, but simply call out something I find questionable, and would like to think others do too, but as long as people are honest about what they are (i.e. "I'm a simp") I can't argue too much. It's people who lavishly praise and fawn over an individual (who is no doubt as flawed as ALL human-beings are), without recognising what they're doing, who particularly bug me. You (in the general sense, not *you* specifically) don't have to agree with me, but at least OWN your behaviour/beliefs.