One that comes to mind for me: “Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is not always true. Maybe even only half the time! Are there any phrases you tend to hear and shake your head at?
The people who loudly proclaim that they “don’t care what anybody else thinks!” almost always care a great deal what other people think. The ones who truly don’t seldom announce it.
people talking about not being old enough to retire.
Retirement is a function of finance not age.
You can’t take money from certain funds like 401k before reaching certain age without paying hefty penalty tho
Not to mention social security. “Not old enough to retire” is extremely literally true for many people.
Still a financial issue
But one that is tied in with age.
There are parts of the world where it is a function of age, or at least of the number of years you’ve been working, because the government will pay you a pension after you worked and paid taxes this many years.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results.”
This is literally not the definition of insanity.
“Everything happens for a reason .”
No. Fuck no, and fuck you. I DARE you to say that to the faces of the endless innocent people—many of whom are CHILDREN—who have been murdered, tortured, abused, enslaved, raped, ect.
Second time I’m bringing it up in this thread, but in response to exactly that kind of thinking is why I’ve adopted “the universe doesn’t care, so we have to” as a phrase I try to live by.
There are so many popular ways of thinking that absolve humans and humanity of various kinds of responsibility.
It’s not good.
I hate how people use this but not the phrase itself.
Everything DOES happen for a reason. It’s literal, precise, and accurate. Reasons dont need to be mysterious, aloof, or unknowable. They often are because we choose to stop learning but everything does happen for a reason so start looking for better questions
The reasons just don’t necessarily come with any moral take away attached.
Children get bone cancer for purely physical reasons, yes, but there is no plan behind it, nothing that makes the situation better in any way and this is how the phrase is usually being used. It’s people saying: “Don’t be sad, something good will come of it.” to the faces of grieving parents or deathly ill people who have nothing to look forward to but pain.
Religious/spiritual proselytising has completely alienated the phrase from the methodological naturalism it could express.
Children get bone cancer for purely physical reasons, yes, but there is no plan behind it, nothing that makes the situation better in any way and this is how the phrase is usually being used
My exact point. Im glad you agree with me
All those innocent people being abused usually have a reason behind it too; it’s just that the reason is usually corporate greed and a lack of ethics in politics.
Key indicator of privilege right there.
I mean, everything does happen for a reason. It’s just that most of the time, the reason is “because so-and-so is an asshole”. It makes it essentially a useless platitude, but not an untrue one. I definitely take issue with the implication of it, that there’s some supreme, all-knowing authority in the universe who has this complicated, labyrinthine plan for everyone that involves massive amounts of suffering. That whole “mysterious plan of God” thing is a way for Christians to take credit for all of the good stuff that happens, while downplaying all of the bad stuff that happens as just “part of God’s plan!” It’s insidious.
My preferred response to this is, “Entropy. The eventually and unstoppable heat death of the universe where none of this matters is the reason.”
I think I get the sentiment that you are angry at but there is nothing wrong with that statement. It just doesn’t mean “whelp, there must be some higher purpose those things are serving that we don’t see” and is more like “there are some awful people doing bad things” or “they just were living in a seismic area” or “they had some genes not compatible with their survival”… There are always reasons. Not satisfying or purpose fulfilling reasons, just reasons.
I used to say this when I was a cringy 20-year-old, before I really saw and understood the world (and still believed in a god).
"just sayin’ "
Yes. Yes you did. You just said.
“honestly…”
Wait, you weren’t being honest before now? I catch myself saying this and it ignites that inner cringe.
I use “honestly” or “to be honest” myself sometimes.
It’s a simple way to convey “I’m going to give you a risky or unpopular opinion. Can be unpopular with you personally, or for public in general. But either way I value the honesty of sharing that opinion over the unpopularity it will cause”
I can see why you would hate it. it wouldn’t be unusual for people to share bigoted/sexist/violent opinions on subjects they should keep to themselves.
“Good vibes only”.
I don’t agree with it because if your life is trying to be only good things, all the time, then that means you don’t know what bad times are. It means everything in your life is artificial and you have no perspective on the world around you.
It’s not human to expect only to feel good all the time. It tells me there’s a drug induced artificial happyness that’s probably a bigger problem then just having a rough day.
We still experience bad times. But the point is not to be a dick
You can have the worst day of you life and still have good vibes. The real toxic saying would be “good moods only.”
“Make America Great Again” 😂🤣
Clearly many of us would define that differently. Mine is probably equally fantasy, but it means working toward things we can be proud of, things that build a better future for all humans together, things that make a positive impact.
The MAGA street salesman I see on my way to work now has “KEEP America Great” merchandise and I’m super tempted to pull over and act super enthused that he supports Harris
In Montana those people started labeling everything the “Biden-tester-harris agenda” 💀 like come on, they only added in the Harris part a couple weeks ago.
I mean, if there wasn’t fourty years worth of context for why this is bad, I’d agree with it.
Like, it could mean infrastructure projects or a renewed investment in education or something. But alas it honestly just means “destroy and loot America by deceiving uneducated rural whites” at this point.
When you forget what you were about to say:
“Must not have been important”
How in the ever-living fuck could anybody come to that conclusion?
Every single time that’s happened to me and I later remembered what it was, it wasn’t important.
I’d only ever say it while referring to myself, and when I do it’s not of a consolation to myself or maybe as a way to tell the other person to not feel sorry about distracting me and making me forget. Is that the same way you interpret it?
Not important to them, very important to you.
I meean, if it was really important, it’s very unlikely you would forget it. We use that saying a ton here
“I’m really great at reading people/spotting BS/etc.” It seems like almost invariably this is said by people who are quick to make assumptions about people and as a result, are terrible at figuring out what someone is actually thinking.
The “Yeah, no.”
“He/she just tells it like it is” No, they are just saying things that resonate with you, but have no actual alignment with data, facts or morality. Simply saying things with no filter doesn’t equal “like it is”. I find it is usually attributed to, at best, oversimplified or completely ignorant statements, at worst, misleading and/or hateful statements.
“they say racist things and i like that because people don’t like it when i say it. this way i can be racist but outsource the messaging”
good for other kinds of bigotry and douchebaggery
I think it depends on the context. If we have an expert on a topic who tries to use some form of simplified Modell and direct speach to make his knowledge more understandable for everyone it is true. Even tho it may be simplified it still contains the most important parts.
But that isn’t the context that phrase is normally used in. That phrase is more like a euphemism for “I’m an asshole, but want it to sound like I’m not”
They’re just saying that it feels good to their confirmation bias.
You just reminded me of this
Those who champion “brutal honesty” are more interested in the brutality than the honest
“You can not buy intelligence”
But the product of appearing intelligent is sold: private Education. Also you need to be able to afford the right condition: Not starving to death to appear intelligent, afford food & afford some water without lead contamination (since lead in the water lowers IQ), lead pipes where used for drinking water in poorer areas … Also research and innovation costs lot of upfront capital investment and connections nowadays.
“Cheer up, it may never happen”
I’m sorry but if I’m not in a good mood or I’m sad it’s because something has happened to make me feel like it.
“to be honest”
So, you’ve been dishonest until this point?
That’s why I prefer “to be frank” or “to be blunt.” Same implication but without that possibility.
Stand-up meeting: “to be frank, Frank is starting his holiday in Frankfurt next week so…”
“to be frank” or “to be blunt”
Oh so you’re such a dishonest person you’ll change your name to Frank or Blunt midway? Unbelievable.
“To be honest” is mostly used in two situations:
- to warn the listener that they might not like what they’re going to hear; e.g. “to be honest your lasagna is a bit too salty”
- to highlight an apparent contradiction; e.g. “I like lasagna, but to be honest I’d rather eat pierogi today.”
It should almost never be interpreted literally.
In my experience, people sometimes use the phrase “to be honest” to preface a lie.
“[Thing] is a game changer!”
Almost always used in the context of brand-speak/commercial marketing. What’s the game, guys? Corporate propaganda? Cause no, using an app to book a handyman that pays to be advertised on your service, or buying microplastic encapsulated detergent is not a goddamn “game changer” for anyone, besides the shareholders.
