Words, usages, and phrases that annoy the shit out of you...

"I hear you" is passive-aggressive and fake sympathetic.

what? no. this is extremely context-dependent. most times i've used it and heard it used it is part of trying to communicate in an empathetic and constructive way. versus "you've made your point" which is almost always hostile and precedes "so shut up" or the equivalent.

"I see your point" is better than either of those 2, no?

p sure any formulation of "i entirely understand but i entirely disagree" can be delivered in asshole and non-asshole fashion, and can be misheard one as the other also

it can be "yes but" or "yes and" as well ofc

Agree to disagree
I hate this as well, for reasons previously stated but also because it's redundant. I mean, do we have any other choice?

let's agree to, to, that i am completely right and you are completely wrong

other choice would be to keep on trying to get the other person to agree with you

Let’s agree to disagree: dick move on the part of someone with more power who can’t justify themselves but can have their way regardless.

“Thanking you” bothers me (when said in person), which is bad of me because the people who say it are usually very nice. It just feels like a commentary on an action rather than a thankyou. But given it tends to come up during retail transactions I’m not sure a sincere ‘thankyou’ is called for.

I know this is me vs USA but I cannot abide grown adults using the terms "poop" and "pooping". It's like excusing yourself from a work meeting because you wanna go wee-wee.

"lets agree to disagree" often just a useful reminder that actual engagement in disagreement is 95% sophomoric performance and lunch is pending

sometimes tho it's a weaselly way to sneak out of an argument that isn't going your way

other phrases that have sometimes proved to be weaselly dick moves:
"you're right, i absolutely agree"
"i love you"
"this treaty means our countries will never go to war"

outright lies vs. rhetorical escape hatches

is there a way to suspend an argument that isn't going to be a rhetorical escape hatch tho? i often use "you're probably right" but inside i'm thinking "except you're totally not and one day i shall crush you"

http://imgur.com/QRMHLq4l.png

"Vacay"--ugh. Like it's not bad enough that you're posting pictures six times a day.

My favorite rhetorical escape hatch is "you could be right about that". So much more submerged than "let's agree to disagree". If you say it with the right tone of voice, your interlocutor will never notice you are not actually in full agreement. Works best with your boss.

"intellectual honesty" the worst people use this.

"i get that" another pretty good one but can easily slip into shades of peremptory condescension so handle with care

(i said that to my boss in a partic frantic roundtable conversation last week and immediately doubted myself)

ach sure nobody should do anything but agree sure

they should probably have to list back a precis of the discussion to ensure they were on message afterwards tbh

i realize i spend a lot of time beating up on "traditional media", but dogged conformance to journalistic style, after it has become abundantly clear that journalistic substance is a dead letter, really does chap my hide. recently i saw the headline "Employee, man brawl inside Chick-Fil-A restaurant in DC". If that's how your style guide tells you to write, you should strongly consider selectively ignoring your style guide.

Headlines are notoriously places where brevity is elevated above grammar and sense.

yeah wtf style guides rule

Re: ‘let’s agree to disagree’: “it is our duty to be inflexible on matters of principle: we owe our friends friendship, we do not owe them weakness.” (Ian Hamilton Finlay)

what is the outcome of that tho

as in i could see it being an argument for or against agreeing to disagree!

when scummy politicians say another one speaks "truth to power" is something I keep hearing recently, even before Andrew Bridgen used it about Boris earlier, I heard it used on another mendacious creep recently.

oftentimes

^ An American Thing

id use bytimes a good bit tbh

maybe I just notice it more for obvious reasons but I've been seeing "lodestar" a lot in non-political articles

I heard someone advocate recently for editing every possible cliche out of one’s writing, and I think it’s a good rule. I think that’s part of what this thread is getting at. We all read more writing from more people every day than at any previous point in history and most of it’s boring.

Conversely, you also run into writing that strains painfully to avoid cliche and to express simple ideas in unusual gimmicky ways and it can be a mess.

I used to use clichés like they were going out of style. Now I avoid them like the plague.

lol

Choreography has always been a lodestar for Ms. Letissier

oh god it's happening to me too

Conversely, you also run into writing that strains painfully to avoid cliche and to express simple ideas in unusual gimmicky ways and it can be a mess.

― mick signals, Wednesday, September 12, 2018 11:52 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is annoying but they are lodestar in comparison

anus champ

LoadStar, the floppy-disk-based magazine for Commodore 64 users, has always been a ... a touchstone for me.

xp that was the exact article that led me to mention it actually

lol i figured it might've been

I'm still waiting to see which Democratic candidate will turn out to be our Lode Runner for Atari 800, Commodore 64, and Apple II systems with at least 64k RAM

Avoid clichés by isolating, quarantining, and thoroughly fumigating them.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dm6vZTJXcAA_W-H.jpg:small

ew

I really want to start responding to 'morning' with a hearty 'well-observed'.

"Hello!"
"Oh, how very original."