#1576: I Could Care Less

[[Two Friends walking and talking.]]

Monologuer: …anyway, I could care less.

Listener: I think you mean you COULDN’T care less. Saying you COULD care less implies you care at least some amount.

Monologuer: I dunno.

[[Monologuer begins to monologue over many panels]]

We’re these unbelievably complicated brains drifting through a void, trying in vain to connect with one another by blindly flinging words out into the darkness.

Every choice of phrasing and spelling and tone and timing carries countless signals and contexts and subtexts and more,

and every listener interprets those signals in their own way.

Language isn’t a formal system. Language is a glorious chaos.

You can never know for sure what ANY words will mean to ANYONE.

All you can do is try to get better at guessing how your words affect people, so you can have a chance of finding the ones that will make them feel something like what you want them to feel.

Everything else is pointless.

I assume you’re giving me tips on how you interpret words because you want me to feel less alone.

If so, then thank you.

That means a lot.

But if you’r ejust running my sentences past some mental checklist so you can show off how well you know it,

then I could care less.