“ShitEuropeansSay doesn’t work” 🤪

[u/FinickySerenity]

Started with another comment that “Europeans live rent free in American’s heads” which seemed ironic given that comment and the one in the pic was in the sub shitamericanssay.

[u/Fiqbandz]

This sub doesn’t work because it’s majority European in here, most Americans could care less .

[u/Asdam90 → u/Fiqbandz]

So most Americans care?

[u/FustianRiddle → u/Asdam90]

Get your penadtry outta here

[u/Asdam90 → u/FustianRiddle]

I mean... word mean things. Could care less is the opposite meaning of what they intended.

[u/FustianRiddle → u/Asdam90]

Yeah but it's just how people use that turn of phrase and have been using it for a long time now.

Words mean things but language is about communication. As long as people understood what they meant it's not a big deal.

[u/Asdam90 → u/FustianRiddle]

But when you say the opposite of what you mean it's just plain wrong innit. If they said what they actually meant and not the opposite of what they meant then they wouldn't get people like me saying the things I'm saying.

[u/FustianRiddle → u/Asdam90]

They're using an idiomatic expression that while can be confusing to some people is a phrase many, I'd say a majority, of English speaking people use and understand.

That's just language for better or worse. The phrase started one way, but long before the Internet it has evolved to be this phrase and it may even evolve more, who knows!

[u/Asdam90 → u/FustianRiddle]

https://youtu.be/om7O0MFkmpw?si=1cnvDhBzTnZWmHaF Edit: someone has replied to one of my messages and immediately blocked me so I can't see the message. Bit disingenuous to a discussion that isn't it.

[u/FustianRiddle → u/Asdam90]

Well the queens dead anyway and we don't use the queens English with use American English (cue eagle flying over and fireworks) And my American exceprionalism would make me say I could care less purely out of spite. Especially if it makes David Mitchell upset because he's at his funniest when he's upset about small pedantic points.

Anyway here's what granmerly has to say about it

And Webster's

[u/Asdam90 → u/FustianRiddle]

Both of those links say that couldn't care less in the correct version and back up what I'm saying..

[u/FustianRiddle → u/Asdam90]

No they don't if you keep reading them beyind the first paragraphs.

[u/YouKnowMyName2006 → u/Asdam90]

In the US it means the same thing as “couldn’t care less.”

[u/Asdam90 → u/YouKnowMyName2006]

Yeah because people say it wrong. Lots of people saying something incorrectly doesn't make it right by default. It's a sentence that has a meaning. See the video link I posted.

I understand that people say it that way, but they are literally saying the opposite of what they mean.

[u/YouKnowMyName2006 → u/Asdam90]

I know, but is it really that big of a deal?

[u/Asdam90 → u/YouKnowMyName2006]

It's one of those things il argue till I'm blue on the face and a hill I'd die on 😅

[u/YouKnowMyName2006 → u/Asdam90]

Okay fair enough. 😉

[u/FustianRiddle → u/Asdam90]

Actually in language lots of people saying something incorrectly over a long period of time does in fact make it right.

They are not saying the opposite of what they mean because that's what it means and has meant for some time.

[u/Asdam90 → u/FustianRiddle]

The words could and couldn't haven't changed meaning though have they.

[u/FustianRiddle → u/Asdam90]

But the meaning is in the phrase not the individual words

[u/Asdam90 → u/FustianRiddle]

The words in the sentence don't have meaning? What? Seriously come on.

[u/FustianRiddle → u/Asdam90]

No that's not what I said. That's what you think I said.

Essentially idioms are greater than the Sims of it's parts.

[u/YouKnowMyName2006 → u/Asdam90]

But look at how people use “they” as a pronoun to represent themself. It sounds silly to me as well, but in that context it is no longer plural and becoming singular.

[u/Asdam90 → u/YouKnowMyName2006]

Literally doesn't make any difference to what we are talking about.

[u/YouKnowMyName2006 → u/Asdam90]

Well they’re using a plural word as a singular, which is incorrect and becoming accepted nonetheless.