Editing 2146: Waiting for the But
Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
The edit can be undone.
Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then save the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
Latest revision | Your text | ||
Line 8: | Line 8: | ||
==Explanation== | ==Explanation== | ||
+ | {{incomplete|Could use a little bit more, feel free to update anything.}} | ||
Often arguments are made in the form of "I think X, but Y", where Y is almost but not quite contradictory to X. More specifically, the argument would go "I am not [something generally considered distasteful], but [a more specific statement most people consider part of that general statement]". The first part of such a statement can sometimes be viewed as an apology or an excuse because the person talking knows that the second part might upset people. A common example would be "I'm not a racist, but I don't think we should let refugees from Africa into Europe." The idea of denying help to people from Africa will be seen as racist by many people, so the speaker tries to preempt that opinion of themself. | Often arguments are made in the form of "I think X, but Y", where Y is almost but not quite contradictory to X. More specifically, the argument would go "I am not [something generally considered distasteful], but [a more specific statement most people consider part of that general statement]". The first part of such a statement can sometimes be viewed as an apology or an excuse because the person talking knows that the second part might upset people. A common example would be "I'm not a racist, but I don't think we should let refugees from Africa into Europe." The idea of denying help to people from Africa will be seen as racist by many people, so the speaker tries to preempt that opinion of themself. | ||
+ | In this comic, [[Randall]] is having a conversation with [[Ponytail]], who lists several seemingly unrelated but agreeable positions, such as {{w|car accidents}}, {{w|arson}}, and {{w|American Humane|"No Animals were Harmed" disclaimers}} in modern media, with Randall wondering when the "but.." of the statement will come, and conjuring increasingly outrageous images of what Ponytail could have in mind that involves violating all of them, for example some sort of reckless fiery car stunt involving animals. | ||
− | In | + | In the title text, Randall gives another example of a sentence that will probably be followed by a but. {{w|Multi-level marketing|multi-level marketing schemes}} and the {{w|Spanish Inquisition}} are both considered bad but highly unrelated, so the implication that if the speaker has to apologize in advance for sounding like defending both of them, they must have a remarkably troubling idea in mind involving somehow using a version of the Spanish Inquisition as an MLM scheme. |
− | + | Another possible explanation would be that when people hear a sentence that starts with "Listen, I'm" they tend to wait for the "but", and the longer it takes the more tension it may cause them, while the speaker may never intend to say "but". A similar idea was used for [[559]]. | |
− | |||
− | |||
− | |||
− | Another possible explanation would be that when people hear a sentence that starts with "Listen, I'm" they tend to wait for the "but", and the longer it takes the more tension it may cause them, while the speaker may never intend to say "but". | ||
==Transcript== | ==Transcript== | ||
Line 30: | Line 28: | ||
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]] | ||
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]] | ||
− |