I Couldn't Care Less about it

English is my second language. Yet, I am completely annoyed by the usage of "I couldn't care less" phrase wrongly, not only on ATS, but also in "lame stream media". The whole point is that one uses this phrase when he/she cares about something so little, that he/she COULDN'T care less, because it is impossible (so, really, one does not care at all about the subject).

Yet, thousands of times, everywhere, it is used as "I could care less" - and this is freaking annoying!

Anyone else shares this feeling with me?

uhhh....this is causing global meltdown?

Is this a rant or are you saying you couldn't care less about a global melt down?

Sorry, this needs to go somewhere else, I will let moderators decide. Although grammar meltdown is also global these days

belowtopsecret does have a rant section

personally, I couldn't care less if this stays here though

I ate too much cheezeburgers at that restaurant further down the road to give a good reply. I ate good though.

reply to post by herbivore


:raises hand:

I'm guilty. I put a space between melt and down.

ETA: I don't mind errors or anything like that as long as I can get the basics of what the person is trying to convey. However, I find it funny when people attempt to sound intelligent but use words out of context.

[edit on 16-2-2010 by EMPIRE]

I'm on your thread today, and I appreciate you not caring more or less what I post. Thanks for sharing

Originally posted by EMPIRE
reply to post by herbivore

 

:raises hand:

I'm guilty. I put a space between melt and down.

Melt down was on the menu! Scrumdillyicious!

Me and him went and got a ton of 'em.

"I couldn't care less" makes perfect sense to me...but then I'm a Southerner.

"Fixin' to do something" & "Sweetie, could you put a star on your belt and get me a beer" are common vernacular here as well

reply to post by herbivore Actually, I heard a theory about this. "I could care less" is American usage only. America is an overly competitive place. So much so that Americans find it very difficult to admit to not being able to do anything, for fear of appearing weak or "a loser", even to the point of making a nonsensical statement.
Of course, having now been challenged about this, the other extreme will kick in & Americans will demonstrate that they can admit things that they can't do/be...
Except, having been "headed off at the pass", there's now a dilemma, eh?
Nevermind. Its just a theory...

It is inane.

However.....

I could care less..... implies that you could, but care so little you cannot even muster up the will to care to care less about it.

Originally posted by herbivore
English is my second language. Yet, I am completely annoyed by the usage of "I couldn't care less" phrase wrongly, not only on ATS, but also in "lame stream media". The whole point is that one uses this phrase when he/she cares about something so little, that he/she COULDN'T care less, because it is impossible (so, really, one does not care at all about the subject).

EXACTLY!!

Yet, thousands of times, everywhere, it is used as "I could care less" - and this is freaking annoying!

Anyone else shares this feeling with me?

me!
i do!

Bah! All o' ya! I could care a heck of alot more, in equal measure to the amount I don't care.

yes this does bother me, but not enought to post about it. there are lots of things, way more important to spend your time worrying about. this will get you nowhere, let it go

reply to post by Bunken Drum


I am perfectly capabable of having absolutely no idea what you are saying.

Personally, I don't want nothing to do with this mess. It's not like any of us are going anywhere anyway, and frankly, I don't want to go nowhere anyway! Besides, the use of the double negative is not just an American phenomenon. The Rolling Stones sang how they can't get no (satisfaction), even if they did try and they tried, and they try, try, try! Pink Floyd declare that We don't need no education, we don't need no thought control, and while Treasure of the Sierra Madre was a distinctly American movie, it was a Mexican federali who declared: "Badges? Badges? We don't need no stinking badges!"

Geoffry Chaucer wrote in The Canterbury Tales: "Ther nas no man no wher so vertuous", which translated would be: "There was not no man nowhere so virtuous".

Oliver Cromwell, considered by all accounts to be a well educated man, wrote in a letter to his brother-in-law, Valentine Walton: "A little after, he said one thing lay upon his spirit. I asked him what it was. He told me it was that God had not suffered him to be no more the executioner of His enemies."

Prince William once said when speaking of his dear departed mother: "There isn't a day when I don't think about her."

I have heard it said that contrary to double negatives, there is no case in the English language where a double positive forms a negative...

Yeah, right!

I ain't got no opinion either way.

reply to post by queenannie38


Thanks! It is a part of my therapy to find other people who suffer from this annoyance.


I already feel better

Originally posted by herbivore
Thanks! It is a part of my therapy to find other people who suffer from this annoyance.


I already feel better

me, too

i have several other annoyances
maybe we should get together and have a mutual therapy session?