its a rhetorical technique whether its effective seems situational "sorry if this is insulting" won't be effective if what you follow it with is truly insulti

its a rhetorical technique whether its effective seems situational "sorry if this is insulting" won't be effective if what you follow it with is truly insulting we all know thin skinned people though, sometimes the best way to get them to hear a benign (or neutral, or even constructive critism) comment that they might dismiss is to procede it with "sorry if this is insulting" so there are certain scenarios where I'd say those phrases are ok (this board with their sometimes quick downvoting, seems like an ok use to me)