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"It's almost like ___" is common internet vernacular for "I can't believe this isn't obvious to everyone, but apparently it's not, so here it is: __"
by rabidrat 7y ago
"It's almost like ___" is common internet vernacular for "I can't believe this isn't obvious to everyone, but apparently it's not, so here it is: __"
- anigbrowl 7y agoQuite so, but (like Jacques, apparently) I've come to think that the posture of ironic disbelief expressed in that phrase is corrosive of public discourse. I suspect it's responsive to unfavorable external conditions, like the famous line from Casablanca where the police chief raiding Rick's cafe insincerely says 'I'm shocked - shocked - to find that gambling is going on here,' to offset his embarrassment at functioning as a tool of the Nazis' political strategy. Put another way, we pretend to give people we dislike the benefit of the doubt and they pretend to believe us, to avoid the unpleasant fact of an underlying social conflict.