Originally Posted By berol Sara Tonin cares 2 about Muppetvision, but could care 0. ksargen cares 0 about Muppetvision. I care 1. I can't care 0, tried everything! Sara Tonin saying "I couldn't care less" would be wrong cuz 2<0. ksargen would be right cuz 0=0. Even though I have 0 below me, I can't get there. So I couldn't care less, too. I couldn't care more doesn't automatically mean I care 10, either. I'll never care 10 about beer. blech.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Sorry, but no. If you care 1, then you COULD care less. Even if you've tried and haven't gotten there, that's irrelevant. You still do care 1. So you still care. If you care at all, by definition you COULD care less. It's really quite simple.
Originally Posted By ksargen *LOL* I actually like MuppetVision, so, in theory, I COULD care less. Not likely, though. What I couldn't care less about is the endless semantics discussion!
Originally Posted By berol I can't care less than 1 about Muppetvision because the premise is that I can't, exercise in futility, impossible. Knowing that 0 exists doesn't make the impossible happen. It's really quite simple. heh.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 That's not logical. If you're at one you could always go to 0. Saying it's "impossible" is introducing an unreliable variable, a classic logical fallacy.
Originally Posted By berol To prove it always means 0, everyone would have to go to 0 about everything. Since that won't happen, it can't be proven that it always means zero. It also can't be proven that it could mean more than zero. As a result, "couldn't care less" is vague. Another reason it's vague is it's possible that the speaker is at 1 and only thinks that they can't go lower. Nothing in "I couldn't care less" tells me if that's the case.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <To prove it always means 0, everyone would have to go to 0 about everything.> No, that doesn't follow. If I love baseball, football, and basketball, but am only a little into hockey, saying "I couldn't care less about hockey" would not be correct, because I do care a little. If I said it about the Pakistani field hockey league, it would be correct - I really don't care about that at all. But just because I don't care about that doesn't mean I "have to" go to 0 on hockey, or "everything" else. <Since that won't happen, it can't be proven that it always means zero. It also can't be proven that it could mean more than zero. As a result, "couldn't care less" is vague.> You are over-complicating this unnecessarily. For starters, it's an expression. The origin of this tangent was someone else insisting (rightly) that people often say "I could care less" when the correct expression is "I couldn't care less." After all, people say that when they mean "I don't care about this at all," and if you COULD care less then by definition you do care about it. So that's simply incorrect speaking/writing. As for "I couldn't care less," you are over-complicating it. Certain expressions aren't meant to be taken literally of course - "I have a million things to do today" can't be taken literally (unless you want to get REALLY literal and count every firing of the autonomic nervous system), and yet everyone knows what you mean when you say that. But even taken literally... if you couldn't care less, than you don't care at all, which is what people mean when they say it (assuming they say it correctly). <Another reason it's vague is it's possible that the speaker is at 1 and only thinks that they can't go lower. Nothing in "I couldn't care less" tells me if that's the case.> And now you're into the "unreliable narrator," which is a logical fallacy. If someone says "I couldn't care less," they MEAN they don't care about it at all; perhaps they're flat-out lying - who knows? But that's what they mean to say. Trying to parse it so that some other source than the speaker could hold that the speaker MIGHT actually care a little is going into absurdity. If I say "I was born in Denver," what I mean is that I was born in Denver. Perhaps I'm lying. Perhaps I only think (sincerely) that I was born there, because that's what my parents told me, and I was actually born somewhere else. But when I say it, that's what I mean. When someone says "I couldn't care less," they mean (unless they are imprecise with language) "I don't care about that at all." End of story absent absurdity.
Originally Posted By berol No wonder you think what I'm saying is nuts. We're talking about 2 different things. So, Muppetvision is closing early! AHHHH!!! hehe
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA In my opinion, " couldn't care less" is the grammatically correct option. You care so little, that you cannot care any less than you do. Anyway... I remember when I was in Jr. High in So Cal in the mid-70s, it was in vogue for the really dumb girls to say (in their ridiculous Valley Girl affectation) "I could CAAAAARRRRREEEE!" stupid....
Originally Posted By Bob Paris 1 The only Valley Girl I will accept is Janice from the Electric Mayhem, "Fer SHERRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb As a So Cal girl who was a teen in the mid 80s I can tell you Janice was NOT a Valley Girl. Her accent is more Surfer Chick or Druggy Hippy than VG.
