22 minutes ago, NotReallyHere said:

If you want to be understood, it does.  But maybe you don't want to be understood, which is fine.  Your choice.

Where I grew up could care less was all I ever heard and everyone understood it. It's best to be tolerant of regional usage variations. 

1 minute ago, Jingthing said:

Where I grew up could care less was all I ever heard and everyone understood it. It's best to be tolerant of regional usage variations. 

ASEAN Now isn't your hometown.  Adjust or not.  Choice is yours.

 

Being overly tolerant is one of the problems with our modern age.  Anything goes...

 

To bring this back to the original post's topic, I don't give a <deleted> what you do or think, but don't expect to be believed when you tell everyone your particular hometown usage is "American usage".

Just now, NotReallyHere said:

ASEAN Now isn't your hometown.  Adjust or not.  Choice is yours.

 

Being overly tolerant is one of the problems with our modern age.  Anything goes...

 

To bring this back to the original post's topic, I don't give a <deleted> what you do or think, but don't expect to be believed when you tell everyone your particular hometown usage is "American usage".

It really is very common usage there.

sorry,  i'm a DILLIGARA  person. 

4 hours ago, Jingthing said:

"An idiom doesn’t need to make literal sense."

 

https://www.righttouchediting.com/2021/04/01/usable-usage-could-you-care-less/

 

"On the other side of the DEBATE, AHD labels could care less as an idiom, although secondary to couldn’t care less."

 

Attempt to normalize a common mistake or mere illiteracy. Couldn't care less isn't an idiom but a standard phrase.

 

couldn’t care less. This is the standard phrasing. Avoid the illogical form *could care less—which, though never understood in its literal sense, is a badge of linguistic carelessness.

     --Garner's Modern American Usage

 

“COULD CARE LESS.” An expression that once made sense, however
overused, has become a cliché in mutilated form. Educated users are uttering the very reverse of what they think they are saying.     

      --The Penguin Dictionary of American Usage and Style

I really could care less that the very charming use of could care less triggers so many people. 

 

I like the reasons of SARCASM and that could care less obviously SOUNDS better. In my cultural experience, using this idiom is usually related to sarcasm. I reject the explanation of lack of education as in my experience highly educated Americans often say could care less.

 

Perhaps I could convert some of you to the SUPERIOR option?

 

Wouldn't that be better than setting yourself up for a lifetime of HURT?

 

Of course it goes without saying that I could care less if you're some kind of masochist.

 

Quote

 

Correct Usage: Either

We understand why could care less sticks in your craw: it appears to mean something rather opposed to what it purports to mean. The person who says “I could care less” is, on the face of it, stating “Yes, it would be possible for me to care less deeply about this matter than I do, and therefore I am betraying some unspecified degree of care.” But if you are the kind of person who cries out against this abomination we must warn you that people who go through life expecting informal variant idioms in English to behave logically are setting themselves up for a lifetime of hurt.

 

Is It Could or 'Couldn't Care Less? | Merriam-Webster

5 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Where I grew up could care less was all I ever heard and everyone understood it. It's best to be tolerant of regional usage variations. 

Considering your original reply was just "could care less", I suspect you actually intended to have an argument about this. Why not be a little less American-centric on an International forum as all of the rest of the English-speaking world uses "couldn't care less" and I think you knew that.

This thread reminds me of one.

 

ACT

 

A

COMPLETE

T WAT

 

14 minutes ago, JensenZ said:

Why not be a little less American-centric on an International forum as all of the rest of the English-speaking world uses "couldn't care less" and I think you knew that.

IMHO many Americans just know that they are the center of the world. I remember talking on an US journalist some time ago and he was convinced that they took the original English language and improved it over there. Yeah, sure... 

38 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

IMHO many Americans just know that they are the center of the world. I remember talking on an US journalist some time ago and he was convinced that they took the original English language and improved it over there. Yeah, sure... 

 

Just as Brazilian Portuguese is clearly much cooler than the stodgy old country version. 

13 hours ago, ThailandRyan said:

I still dont GAF

Curmudgeons rule....

7 minutes ago, zzaa09 said:

Curmudgeons rule....

No bad temper on my part......

I've had 11 wives.   Making friends after 40 became much harder, so I just started getting married.   Cats are way, way better but you can't take a cat to a restaurant.   First wife complained about the fridge not being full, TOXIC!!!!!  divorced.  Second was mad about something that happened at work.  TOXIC!!! divorced...... One got mad the bus was late.  TOXIC.    

 

choose which friends you will work with, be a real friend to, and not judge.  then toxicity can't happen.  

Sounds like you are the toxic one, which is FINE.   

Understand it's you, fix yourself (might take years), but be aware it's you.

 

If they are toxic, just stop talking with them without really telling them anything negative.  let it go.

If they are simply venting, decide if they are a friend or not.   friends vent to friends.

 

sounds like you are in the "Thailand, party of one" group.   The number 1 thing is to have good friends, yet we come to Thailand to have no friends.    Then we wonder we are not happy!!!!   555555555555555555555

 

Walking street!!!!  OMG< I hate all these foreigners!!!!!!  I want them to be my friend!!!!   55555555555555555555

5 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

they took the original English language and improved it over there. Yeah, sure... 

They did improve how to create companies, build wealth, enjoy beaches, travel, create everything, get rich, and be the undisputed NUMBER ONE power country in the world.

 

That island is OK, I guess, for those long-haired guys in boats ......

 

American English is only used in every movie every produced, and every language is actually a derivative of American English, especially Chinese!!!!   Fact:  American English was spoken in America 7 million years ago when God came down and said, "This place will be Number 1".   

Not really... everyone has their own foibles, but toxic people cannot move beyond their small world

I've also never heard of this word ????

 

But I can't understand why a life-scare (cancer) should cause you to shun 'toxic' people.  IMHO, you should be shunning such people anyway regardless of a sudden health care.

 

 

Do you listen or read any news sources? Mostly bad news. For sure you avoid them. They are toxic too. Toxic friends? No. They are my friends and why shouldn't I listen to their problems? Perhaps I can help. Sometimes it helps them already if the can talk about them.

11 hours ago, Jingthing said:

I really could care less that the very charming use of could care less triggers so many people. 

Doubling down doesn't help your case but is only to be expected. Quite a bit of effort expended for something you purport not to care about, no?

 

11 hours ago, Jingthing said:

I like the reasons of SARCASM and that could care less obviously SOUNDS better. In my cultural experience, using this idiom is usually related to sarcasm.

That doesn't work, either, though relying on one's own like is comfortably progressive.

 

Although some apologists argue that could care less is meant to be sarcastic and not to be taken literally, a more plausible explanation is that the -n't of couldn't has been garbled in sloppy speech and sloppy writing. As a linguist explains: "A listener has not heard the whole phrase; he has heard a slurred form. Couldn't care has two dental stops practically together, dnt. This is heard only as d and slurring results. The outcome is / c'd care less." Atcheson L. Hench, "Could(n't) Care Less," 48 Am. Speech 159, 159 (1973). For a careful seven-step explication of the loss of this alveolar closure, see James Sledd, "[kut] [kut] Be [kut], [kut] It?" 68 Am. Speech 218-19 (1993).

     --Garner's Modern American Usage

 

11 hours ago, Jingthing said:

I reject the explanation of lack of education as in my experience highly educated Americans often say could care less.

Educated in what is the question; how well-read, another.  Lists of misused phrases commonly include yours: 20 Embarrassing Phrases Even Smart People Misuse

 

But habits formed in youth can mean lingering misperception in adulthood. Great editors correct the best writers. If they failed to catch an illiterate could care less, they may now find solace in your authoritative rejection.

 

Nowadays, writers have access to tools like Grammarly to avoid such embarrassments and later excuse-making. It's just a browser plugin, so, in theory, you can use it.

 

11 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Wouldn't that be better than setting yourself up for a lifetime of HURT?

A Complex Question fallacy. It's fun laughing at all the mistakes in grammar, spelling, punctuation, and syntax here. In fact, ANF has its own canonical spellings, e.g., boarders for borders (this has been vigorously defended with tortured nonsense when called out), loose for lose, etc. But we can't really talk about this, so I hope you're able to see my post before it's removed.

11 hours ago, Jingthing said:

I really could care less that the very charming use of could care less triggers so many people. 

 

I like the reasons of SARCASM and that could care less obviously SOUNDS better. In my cultural experience, using this idiom is usually related to sarcasm. I reject the explanation of lack of education as in my experience highly educated Americans often say could care less.

 

Perhaps I could convert some of you to the SUPERIOR option?

 

Wouldn't that be better than setting yourself up for a lifetime of HURT?

 

Of course it goes without saying that I could care less if you're some kind of masochist.

 

Is It Could or 'Couldn't Care Less? | Merriam-Webster

I believe the correct is  '  I couldn't care less '       that's proper English in my book.

18 minutes ago, steven100 said:

I believe the correct is  '  I couldn't care less '       that's proper English in my book.

Both are actually correct as I have documented. 

 

Or maybe I've been taking the p--s which the terminally literal would insist must involve actual urination. 

2 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

Both are actually correct as I have documented. 

 

Or maybe I've been taking the p--s which the terminal literal would take as involving urination. 

No, they aren’t. 
You could say “I could hardly care less”. But repeating an incorrect form does not make it “American usage”..

Just now, NextG said:

No, they aren’t. 
You could say “I could hardly care less”. But repeating an incorrect form does not make it “American usage”..

They actually are.

See link above.

To insist the way your prefer is the only correct option is both wrong and obnoxious.

3 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

They actually are.

See link above.

To insist the way your prefer is the only correct option is both wrong and obnoxious.

I think we all understand what is wrong and obnoxious here. 
You just want us to agree with your point of view. No go it seems. 

12 hours ago, Jingthing said:

I really could care less that the very charming use of could care less triggers so many people. 

 

I like the reasons of SARCASM and that could care less obviously SOUNDS better. In my cultural experience, using this idiom is usually related to sarcasm. I reject the explanation of lack of education as in my experience highly educated Americans often say could care less.

 

Perhaps I could convert some of you to the SUPERIOR option?

 

Wouldn't that be better than setting yourself up for a lifetime of HURT?

 

Of course it goes without saying that I could care less if you're some kind of masochist.

 

Is It Could or 'Couldn't Care Less? | Merriam-Webster

A shame that you cannot even see the difference in the way the phrase is being used, even in your own examples. 

JT - What do Americans say when they really COULD care less?

39 minutes ago, Lee65 said:

JT - What do Americans say when they really COULD care less?

Nobody says that.

.

These are informak idioms.

1 hour ago, NextG said:

A shame that you cannot even see the difference in the way the phrase is being used, even in your own examples. 

What's really a shame is having a brick wall in the brain preventing people from understanding that both usages are correct.

 

You have a problem with this?

Take it up with Mirriam Webster.

Or. would you rather just whine about the Big Dict lobby?

 

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/could-couldnt-care-less

Correct Usage: Either

 

10 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

What's really a shame is having a brick wall in the brain preventing people from understanding that both usages are correct.

 

You have a problem with this?

Take it up with Mirriam Webster.

Or. would you rather just whine about the Big Dict lobby?

 

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/could-couldnt-care-less

Correct Usage: Either

 

It seems that you think you are the smartest person in the room ☺️

3 minutes ago, NextG said:

It seems that you think you are the smartest person in the room ☺️

Hardly.

Just now, Jingthing said:

Hardly.

Exactly. You were wrong. Move on.