51 minutes ago, georgegeorgia said:

That's in the past !

Nearly every post over the last 10 years you mention it 

Why give a F about her now ,you won't be here in 15 years anyway 

Old people like me often think about the past, we lived most of our lives there!

4 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Old people like me often think about the past, we lived most of our lives there!

There's a lot of silly words about these "Do I really look like I give a monkies " is what remember in the past. ????

On 3/11/2023 at 6:25 PM, Jingthing said:

I could care less.

 

What happened to empathy?  Isn't it a saving grace ? Friends are people who help you move house or bring home-made food to your pot-luck.  Everyone else is an aquaintence.

 

6 hours ago, Cricky said:

Yep, miserable, complaining foreigners, there are lots here. 

 

Like I keep saying, the worst thing about Thailand is some of the foreigners. 

For the negative guys. 

Glass half empty types. 

Become a POSITIVE person. 

 

On 3/11/2023 at 5:09 PM, georgegeorgia said:

This is mainly aimed at guys over 6o yo 

But ....the last few months I have went through a cancer scare where I was told my liver had cancer them later it turned out to be a fatty liver which is still can be terminal I'm told . And no cure

There are many ways to rejuvenate a fatty liver.. lets just say a balanced healthy diet is the start.

An their are many youtube videos on the "liver clean-up regime"

Two are prominent doctors who know what they're talking about.

Try Dr. Sten Ekberg and Dr, Eric Berg as a start.

look for videos of "fatty liver"

 

13 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Another source confirming that both usages are correct and mean the exact same thing.

Projection on your part. She didn't confirm both are "correct." She's no authority, so merely conveyed what Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com say about how they're being used. By whom, exactly? Oh--people.???? 

"People use the two phrases in the same way” is a flawed rationalization for the leveling of the real differentiation conveyed in the original English and persisting today in Brit English.

As she correctly notes, “Americans corrupted the phrase.” Which Americans? The uneducated. And she agrees that probably nt was dropped by "less than precise speakers." I gave a reference for this earlier.

She recognizes the illogicality. Along the way, she rejects the sarcasm theory that @Jingthing tried to float earlier. I also gave an authoritative reference for that.

 

The flaw in the modern dictionaries' rationalization she couldn't see, or wouldn't dare point out, is that the "people" who use the corrupted phrase “in the same way” do so ignorantly without knowing what the other way is. And that’s a large number, but hardly everyone.

 

Americans who do know, because they’ve studied under a competent English teacher or from reading great writers, don’t use the two phrases in the same way. Some of them may be annoyed by the unwashed, others may laugh; yet, as an indicator of literacy, the misuse may undermine the credibility of the speaker with the knowledgeable. It appears @Jingthingfinds that just awfully annoying, so annoyance may exist on both "sides."

 

Modern dictionaries carefully omit this distinction among "people" except under favored circumstances. That reflects another sort of corruption. Good thing we have older reference sources and as-yet-uncensored great works available. So far, anyway.

 

On 3/11/2023 at 6:06 PM, nigelforbes said:

Fatty liver is easily treated.

 

Two common causes are alcohol consumption or food (NAFL), both are easily treated by exercise, diet changes and reducing alcohol intake....been there, done that, it's not a biggee unless you do nothing.

 

EDIT to add: I forgot, apparently another cause is excessive or long term use of artificial sweeteners. It seems the body doesn't know what to do with aspartame or perhaps its dietary fructose or sucrose (or similar) so it parks it on the liver, well you would, wouldn't you!.

And I was always thinking, it is good to take your whisky longdrink with Cola light.

I could care less. So I care a little bit but almost none at all if I really cared I would let you know.

 

For now I would prefer to procure a medium coffee without the "How are you?" Fine thank you and you? so I try to fit in but every casual interaction I have with locals when I return to the US is stilted and unnatural I think they don't find my concern with their well being to be sincere.

I spent years learning to fake Giving a <deleted>; pretend empathy and all that. Hope this  not giving a Fart is easier mode to get into. I'm thinking in order to get good at it I have to put the donkey before the cart or something.

40 minutes ago, Peterphuket said:

And I was always thinking, it is good to take your whisky longdrink with Cola light.

The two problems with that are the alcohol and the sugar don't go away.

5 hours ago, Rumpelstilskin said:

What happened to empathy?  Isn't it a saving grace ? Friends are people who help you move house or bring home-made food to your pot-luck.  Everyone else is an aquaintence.

 

Very true , 

But if I was one of your work colleagues and say you had like 50 work colleagues and one you saw regularly started approaching you thinking he is a friend telling you or gossiping you about another work colleague then he thinks he is not a aquaitance 

1 hour ago, IAMHERE said:

I spent years learning to fake Giving a <deleted>; pretend empathy and all that. Hope this  not giving a Fart is easier mode to get into. I'm thinking in order to get good at it I have to put the donkey before the cart or something.

This was part of your job ?

 

On 3/11/2023 at 11:42 PM, NotReallyHere said:

 

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  was common enough to be used in an episode of Seinfeld.

 

OP, some f@cks must be given at some stage. Personally, I feel like you are only handed a set amount of f@cks in this lifetime to dish out. So if you use up a <deleted> on your old China who took an interest in a coworker's inner thigh, then you have one less <deleted> to use on something really worthwhile. YMMV

 The OP has been diagnosed with 'fatty Liver' (but didn't inform us whether it is alcoholic or non-alcoholic) and no cure. Are you in pain or not? How do you know there is no cure? What is the diagnosed stage of the disease? It seems to me that suddenly your 'world' has collapsed and you are perhaps now angry which is why you appear to find people 'toxic'. Terminal patients sometimes experience this and it's called Terminal Agitation. It might be worthwhile getting a second opinion on your Liver condition (if you haven't already done so). TA can also deteriorate into other more serious forms so perhaps seeing a therapist might help. Also, as other members have suggested, there are detoxification programs which might help 

Don’t be a cheerleader of anothers funk… maybe they’ll find a way to deal with life’s drama…. 

14 hours ago, Wanderer555 said:

Population of the USA:   333,287,000

Population of the UK:       67,508,000

 

Statistically, almost 5 times as many more people will understand the American version than other more archaic versions. 

 

Facts are facts, but in real life many could care less. ???? 

Do you think only the UK speaks British English? "couldn't care less" is not archaic, but currently used by a huge population around the world.

 

British English: 128 million in India, 108 million in Pakistan and 79 million in Nigeria... also Australia, NZ and South Africa (at least another 40 million) and other British ex-colonies. 

 

You can probably subtract about 30 million of the US population that wouldn't have a clue about "could care less" as they can't speak enough English to care. I would also suggest that a lot of Americans still use the British phrase, and Canadians too.

 

The Philippines, which has a lot of American English speakers probably couldn't care less about this phrase. Maybe some could care, but I've never heard it used there.

 

Then, a simple Google search reveals:

 

"couldn't care less" = 13,7 million hits

"could care less" = 7.07 million hits

 

A Microsoft Bing search reveals:

 

"couldn't care less" = 25.5 million hits

"could care less" = 2.36 million hits

 

"archaic"? Absolutely not!

 

2 hours ago, LS24 said:

It  was common enough to be used in an episode of Seinfeld.

 

OP, some f@cks must be given at some stage. Personally, I feel like you are only handed a set amount of f@cks in this lifetime to dish out. So if you use up a <deleted> on your old China who took an interest in a coworker's inner thigh, then you have one less <deleted> to use on something really worthwhile. YMMV

I would be surprised if it wasn't could care less on Seinfeld.

As mentioned before the influence of Yiddish grammar mixed with sarcasm is one theory that I personally think has at least some merit. That influence is apparent on Seinfeld. You should be so lucky.

 

Now this is interesting.

Suggesting could care less (used with a sarcastic tone) is OK in spoken English but not OK in written. 

One might argue that posting online is an INFORMAL use of English as well.

 

"I couldn't care less" vs. "I could care less" : Pardon the Expression | Vocabulary.com

 

 

Obviously my position isn't that could care less is THE American usage, but rather that its AN American usage. It would be impossible to really know what percentage of Americans that use either phrase favor could care less, but I think there has been a good consensus that I agree with that the could care less usage is more common in the US (and based on something I have read Canada as well) than the UK.

Cheers.

23 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Couldn't care less and could care less are casual idioms that mean the exact same thing.

If you fail to understand that, that's your problem.

They have the exact same meaning only to those individuals who have somehow progressed through the American educational system over the past few decades without having a command of basic English grammar, usage and spelling, as well as older "wannabes".

1 minute ago, DrDave said:

They have the exact same meaning only to those individuals who have somehow progressed through the American educational system over the past few decades without having a command of basic English grammar, usage and spelling, as well as older "wannabes".

No. They have the same meaning. PERIOD.

1 hour ago, Jingthing said:

No. They have the same meaning. PERIOD.

Profound ignorance makes a man dogmatic.
     — Jean de La Bruyère

Quote

 

Being overly logical can make you stupid.

When your assumptions are wrong, you have no mental safety net as you dive to absurd conclusions.

 

Arvind Narayanan

2 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Being overly logical can make you stupid.

When your assumptions are wrong, you have no mental safety net as you dive to absurd conclusions.

That's just word salad. It's quite logical, and reasonable, that in a world where 100s of millions use English as a second language, that we should be as literal as possible in our word choices. This is an international forum, and a lot of people would not understand what you mean by "could care less". This is not about who is right and wrong, but basic rules of comunication, where the goal is to get your point across.

 

For example, would you tell an immigrant to "go jump in the lake" or "go away". We have choices in English - a lot of choices.

 

If you were on an American-only forum, use "could care less" and all your buddies can agree with you. I would hazzard a guess that non-Americans outnumber Americans on this forum by a significant degree.

On 3/11/2023 at 6:25 PM, Jingthing said:

I could care less.

 

No. It isn’t American usage. Think about what you are saying before you spew it.  Idiot. 

11 minutes ago, keysersoze276 said:

No. It isn’t American usage. Think about what you are saying before you spew it.  Idiot. 

It actually IS an American usage which has been well documented here already. Think more carefully before spewing specious insults. 

In defense of could care less.

From an American media source, of course.

He's big on the sarcasm angle, as am I. 

But really you don't need to feel bad if you want to use couldn't care less.

 

The real reason people say “I could care less.” (slate.com)

 

Quote

It is perfectly appropriate to use “I could care less” to mean that one does not care at all

 

Another amusing thing about all this is the common British misconception that Americans don't get irony or sarcasm. Yet it seems to be the Brits here most outraged by my defense of the American sarcastic use of could care less. So who doesn't get sarcasm then snookums? 

 

 

11 hours ago, georgegeorgia said:

This was part of your job ?

 

Not part of my job, just everyday getting along with folks. I got good at it, then around early to mid 60's the ability started to wane. 

15 hours ago, nigelforbes said:

The two problems with that are the alcohol and the sugar don't go away.

Cola light don't have sugar but aspartame, about the alcohol....I don't say anything.

Yeah, but when you're older, you much, much more don't GAF.

 

And then, because you're older, nobody G'sAF that you don't GAF.

 

But then once you don't GAF about that, you win. You have left the wheel of GAF samsara.