So this is a lil peeve of mine.. and that peeve is when people get peeved about someone saying "I could care less" instead of saying "I couldn't care less". I'm usually a grammar Nazi, but I use could rather than couldn't.
The reason being is because the couldn't version is shortened. Most people don't know the full saying and the full saying is "I couldn't care less than I already do, which is not at all" or something along those lines. That makes sense.. but when you shorten it, it doesn't.
It doesn't make sense because if someone is telling you something they care about or that you should care about and you respond with "I couldn't care less", you're saying "I could not care less". So, just making up numbers, someone's care factor is 80%.. you're telling them you're incapable of caring less than 80%. If someone thinks your care level should be 100%, you're telling them that you're incapable of caring less than 100%, which means you do care.
Now, if you tell someone "I could care less", you're telling them you are capable of caring less than what they want you to care. It makes more sense that way, if you're trying to go with the shortened version.
So, if that makes sense to you, join me in using "I could care less" when there is something you don't care about.. or don't, I could care less.
Many such stupidities persist.
First world problems.. they're the worst.
I find "I could care less" supremely irritating.
The expression means you couldn't possibly care less, in the context of not caring at all.
Next time someone says that to me (and I hear it a lot) I'm going to say "I don't understand what you're saying."
"What don't you understand??"
"Oh no, I DO understand, I just thought you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between "I don't" and "I do."
That's if you use the full saying though. With the full saying, you establish a baseline of no care. In a conversation though, someone tells you you should care about something, they're establishing the baseline of caring. If you respond with "I couldn't care less" only, you're saying you cannot care less than the baseline they've established, so you're telling them you could care.
@FatherOfNyx Very pretzel like.
@FatherOfNyx
I appreciate you trying to clarify but it only confuses things.
The only way "I could care less" makes sense, is if you care somewhat.
The original expression means you don't care at all.. and let's face it "I could care less" is just people messing up the expression. If it were to mean they DO care, they would have made up one that makes that clear. And, it wouldn't be confused with the original.
Either way, this is not that important. As long as I don't need to start taking medication to prevent me from committing a murder everytime I hear it, we're good!
I couldn't care less about this issue.
It's so nice to find people who care the same amount as me ?
If you couldn't possibly care less about this issue, you wouldn't have felt the need to reply.