The reality tether

[jaylake]

"These were failures of competence and judgment, and they were the result of having terrible ideas that were untethered to reality

Comments

[lnhammer]

Well, it matches my idiolect.

---L.

[desperance]

I think the disjunct is that you are reading this as an active untethering, which would certainly require "from", where what was meant is a state of not being tethered: the ideas are un-"tethered to reality". Which would certainly match my understanding; those ideas never were tethered to reality, and therefore cannot be untethered from it...

[fadethecat]

That's how I'd read it too. If there were some sort of action removing the ideas from reality, someone would have "untethered them from reality"; but they're just floating around there in a negated state of "tethered to reality."

[e_moon60]

IMO should be "...not tethered to reality."

[goingferal]

Yes.

[violetcheetah]

This. To me, "untethered" does not mean "not tethered," but specifically "no longer tethered." Of course, it's unclear whether the author means that the subject was never tethered -to-, or in fact did become untethered -from-, which, the more I think about it, is an important distinction.

[randomstasis]

this too!

[mary919]

Yes.

You can't untie something to something else.
You can tie something to something else. Or you can not tie something to something else.
But you untie from.

[readthisandweep]

"These were failures of sensible English & an ability to spell; they were the result of having terrible ideas."