What is the deal with folks?

[ToesAndFingersCrossed]

I’m sure my first post on this board could/should have been something a lot more intelligent and thought provoking, but I’m desperate to know. It grinds my gears something rotten seeing “folk” written everywhere. Is “people” offensive now too?

@nibdedibble

For goodness sake, some of you just won't have it that folk/s is used by people other than trans supporters and is not even confined to the USA. Can't you give it a rest?

Someone MN once tried to tell me that young women only had long hair nowadays and this is because of trans people. Mumsnet has gone MAD.

Someone once tried to tell me that dinosaurs are no longer extinct and have been recreated on an island which had to be abandoned because dinosaurs started eating people. Island have gone MAD.

You can block the thread if you don't want to join in btw, that's the lovely thing about online forums, they are optional

I just had to get it off my chest, Zoikes

I live in Canada and it’s gone from zero use to constant and I’m not keen (unless you’re Scottish in which case, carry on). To me it implies a friendliness and a leveling which does not often exist between the people using it, it feels fake-friendly and a sort of jumping forward to a relationship that doesn’t exist. Also, and perhaps this is a Canadian perception (?), it feels like a term for country people and I am very much an urbanite so it feels silly that way too. People works just fine.

Didn't Frank Underwood in House of Cards use the "folks" over familiarity manipulation quite a lot?

He was a great study in manipulation and coercive group think tactics.

@TheProdigalKittensReturn

Where in Scotland are the people who're hearing it a lot from, out of interest? My family is mostly from sort of mid East coast (being deliberately vague because this board is monitored by nutters and that's why we can't have nice things like conversations about where we're from) and I don't recall hearing it much growing up.

I think the reason woke kids use it is because they've picked it up from Americans they follow online. It's very common in the American South and among African Americans, and sounds perfectly natural in that context, it's when it's some young person from Sussex whose vernacular is completely different says it that it seems a bit out of place and thus sticks out as something they must have adopted from somewhere else.

My pal just asked me yesterday if I'd "managed to get to see my folks yet?" meaning my parents.

I'm in Glasgow with some north east connections also but I've heard "folk" all around since I can remember.

Talking about "an old folk's home" meaning "old people's home" was a common usage.

"forced overfamiliarity"

YES

Scottish person talking about their family - absolutely fine
Someone from the deep South talking abouttheir family - fine
All other usage - passive aggressive pretending to be nice to manipulate and obfuscate - see some Cis Folk

It irretates the shit out of me. I find like a lot of their stuff its a childish affectation.

I'd use "yir fowk" or "yir fowks" to be your parents, but "fowk(s)" without the possessive would be people in general (or "yon fowkies" to be a specific group of people that weren't related to you). NE Scotland useage.

Down here in SE England, I'd not really use folk(s) in public, but amongst family I'd say "come on then folks, let's get going".

Just reminds me of luney tunes

I find it annoying, but then I also dislike sisterhood/siblings/brotherhood in any legal/human rights context.

Rights are for everyone, not just people in your club.

Local dialect for me always used it.

We only say it when we are wondering what's wrong with folk though

Wouldnt say "hi folks" etc

I've used 'folks' more since I lived in the US, and I've more frequently since I stopped using 'guys' which seemed to piss a lot of people off.

'Folk' is old English. I don't have a problem with it at all.

You can't please all of the folk guys peeps people all of the time.

'Folks' is also used in Ireland a fair bit too (I do know someone mentioned Northern Ireland earlier) don't mention the border

(I am 'calling out' this 'cultural erasure')

But as a term, like 'y'all', as others have noted, it is basically... on social media/forums, at least, it's become a TRA/woke 'dog whistle' - a coded phrase or word that seems innocuous but signifies you're on a certain 'side', to those in the know.

I only know about 'dog whistles' because apparently there are lots of secret ones that the evil T*rfs have and people start the virtual pile-ons when they see them. Like 'safeguarding' or 'biological sex'.

There's nowt so LGBTQIAPPFQWERTY+ as folk.

You do realize that y'all applies to smallish groups. If you want to include the whole larger group it should be all y'all.

'Folk' is old English. I don't have a problem with it at all.

I think the problem is context. 'Folk' is fine as a friendly colloquial way to refer to a group of people, but when used in a human rights context, it implies an in appropriate value judgement.

'inappropriate'

a coded phrase or word that seems innocuous but signifies you're on a certain 'side', to those in the know.

The modern usage of "folks" in an activism context by people who have adopted it having not been brought up with using it is about appropriation and signalling. Particularly that one is down with the poor and/or oppressed. That's why like many here hearing it used like that is grating. It's similar to people rolling their eyes on hearing Tim Westwood son of Bill Westwood, former Anglican Bishop of Peterborough, being consciously ultra urban.

Yes, 'folk' always sounds a little out of place in a business / serious discussion context (probably because it sounds as if a hoedown could break out at any second).

It’s used in Yorkshire and always has been (eg “I’m going t’visit me nana in old folks home”) so I’m totally cool with it.

I've always used folks, I didn't realize it was a Scots thing.
Anyway I like it and I'm not stopping using it.