Spontaneous Impressions

I was over reading happyduck’s post on Fat and Feminine in Toronto (side note: Yeah canadian bloggers) about insults and how the person who’s usually hurled the insult starts off or eventually mutters the phrase “Don’t take this personally” “I mean no offense”… Now I will admit i have been know to say these myself, who hasn’t? But her post got me thinking because it kinda applies to what’s been going on in my little circle of friends (I’ll spare the gory details but two pals had a fight and aren’t talking).

But are we saying these phrases to make ourselves justify the insulting things we say? By saying the phrase does it somehow in our minds make it ok? That the person whom were talking to we assume will “understand” our intentions are pure? That it somehow transforms the negative insulting thing into something positive?

Is the phrase “Don’t take this personally” more to do with justifying and making ourselves feel better about putting someone/some people down?

I find on the recieving end as soon as that phrase has been said it makes me even more angrier than if the person would have just been bluntly insulting in the first place. At least if your going to be mean, own it and (hopefully) feel bad about it! Geez… If your going to make someone else feel bad, might as well that you feel bad for saying it too. Or maybe in the first place if we find ourselves using that phrase we should just shut or f-ing gobs because who’s business is it anyways to hurt someone else or be insulting… The world definatly wouldn’t miss insulting asses (like me sometimes) out there anyways.