Why do people say "I could care less?"

[Izzy]

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"

Reminds me of the term "near miss"

Isn't it a near hit?

edit: Someone should try saying. "I couldn't care more." and see what the person says.

[devonin]

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"

Reminds me of the term "near miss"

Isn't it a near hit?

It's a miss that was near. As opposed to a far miss, or a wide miss.

[Izzy]

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"

Maybe, that isn't what wikipedia says.

[devonin]

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"

It says what? "A miss that was close enough to cause some damage" in a military context, or "Something that could have caused injury but didn't" in a safety context...how do either of those definitions disagree with "a miss that was nearly a hit"?

[Flaming_Dingleberry]

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"

People never learn the basics about the phrases they use anymore. People have way too many learnt phrases because they don't have the grammatical accuracy to create their own. People hear a phrase, develop an understanding of said phrase, and sometimes use it incorrectly because they never broke it down to understand how every word contributes to the meaning. Anyone who uses any phrase in general isn't as clever as someone who doesn't.

[Izzy]

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"

Other familiar terms for these events is a "close call", or in the case of moving objects, "near collision". Indeed, the term "near collision" is less contradictory in nature than "near miss", since a "near miss" would be a hit that almost missed (a glancing blow) versus a miss that almost hit.

It makes sense, but it is still a confusing term.

[RaGe-]

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"

I could care less about this topic, but because i couldn't care less i decided to post for once.

[dore]

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"

I use "could care less" with a sardonic tone but "couldn't care less" if I'm just making a statement. "Could care less," with the right emphasis (facial expressions, stuff you can't do on the internet) can be used mockingly; it's like saying "I could care less so you should be happy that I care as much as I do to have listened to whatever you say." The phrase "I could care even less" would give it the correct emphasis in that context, but with an omitted "even" the phrase loses some of its power.

though I rarely if ever use these phrases so whatever

[DrKirth]

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"

I use "could care less" with a sardonic tone but "couldn't care less" if I'm just making a statement. "Could care less," with the right emphasis (facial expressions, stuff you can't do on the internet) can be used mockingly; it's like saying "I could care less so you should be happy that I care as much as I do to have listened to whatever you say." The phrase "I could care even less" would give it the correct emphasis in that context, but with an omitted "even" the phrase loses some of its power.

though I rarely if ever use these phrases so whatever

This is precisely what I thought the phrase meant.

[Gray Fox]

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"

whatever happened to just saying "I/we care"?

IIRC ffr used that frequently awhile back. Sarcasm statement or some crap

[GuidoHunter]

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"

People never learn the basics about the phrases they use anymore. People have way too many learnt phrases because they don't have the grammatical accuracy to create their own. People hear a phrase, develop an understanding of said phrase, and sometimes use it incorrectly because they never broke it down to understand how every word contributes to the meaning. Anyone who uses any phrase in general isn't as clever as someone who doesn't.

This is precisely the problem.

I can only counsel the youth of today to please PLEASE pause and think about what you say. Perhaps you'll reflect on a contradiction or a poor choice of words, perhaps not, but introspection is never bad.

In a similar vein, listen to yourself some time. You don't, like, type, like, well, like this, y'know, and it sounds, like, as dumb as it looks, y'know, so don't, like, talk this way.

--Guido

http://andy.mikee385.com

[RaGe-]

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"

Guido whatever your name is. Whatever you just said made me think you are a complete and total idiot. Like whatever you tried to say didn't contribute to the topic at all. What you said was a pointless Thing. matter Of fact it might as well have killed the topic of discussion. You should be BEATEN boy!. BEATEN!

EDITTING:

AND GOD FORBID that we have an IDIOT like you Counselling our youth today.

[Vanilla Mnm]

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"

YESS! That bugs me too. I think about that a lot.

[Ice wolf]

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"

If you think that it will be easy to make people realize what they are saying, you have another think coming. It will be hard, but we must persevere.

Although I would prefer that everyone just learn Lojban.

http://www.lojban.org/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=What+Is+Lojban?&bl

[Izzy]

Re: Why do people say "I could care less?"

I'm glad I don't have a habit of saying "like".