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Did it, though? My 90 year old mother used it in the same way since her childhood. I think it’s always been sarcastic, probably from use by lowly soldiers. In the phrase, she pronounces and spells it as “gummint work” even though she would normally say “government.”
You made points others didn’t, and your edit demonstrates another aspect of the alone/crowd response to a prompt.
Laughing with a “crowd” supports you until you realize you were alone all the time, whereas thinking you’re the only commenter frees you to share your insights, but finding you were part of a crowd made you embarrassed about it. Don’t be. We all know being first allows comments to get more points, but more slowly typed comments also add value to the conversation.