Speech/writing pet peeve
You know what really grates on me?
When people express an opinion by starting their sentence with “I feel” rather than “I think.”
You don’t FEEL that Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube ought to be replaced, and you don’t FEEL that the war in Iraq is wrong. You THINK these things. These are opinions, not feelings.
You FEEL sad or angry about Terri Schiavo, or you FEEL sad or angry about what’s happening in Iraq, but in order to have an opinion about something, you must THINK about it. Feelings are the result of opinions and you only make yourself sound like a wishy-washy idiot when you confuse the two.
March 27th, 2005 at 1:00 am
Harlan Ellison once said that you are not “entitled to your opinion;” rather, you are entitled to an informed opinion.
March 27th, 2005 at 1:07 am
Actually, I think it’s more likely that they haven’t actually thought about it or bothered to be informed in any real way, and therefore what they are saying is based entirely on feelings. And because everyone has been incessantly told “all feelings are valid” and “you can’t help how you feel” then you can’t even argue with them. And if you try, they say things like Pete Angelos, “The facts don’t change my position.”
March 27th, 2005 at 8:11 pm
I know that I sometimes make the mistake in my blog, but I read it back and cringe. I edit copy all day, and I tell the appropriate editors to change “feel” to “believe” or “think,” and they never do because they think I’m nitpicky. I have five grammar books that will prove that it isn’t my rule. To feel is tactile in the written sense — you feel the warmth of a blanket or the scratch of a cat claw. You think the sun is beautiful and you believe the cat needs its claws clipped. *sigh* What will happen to this language if we aren’t here to perpetuate it in its correct form?
March 28th, 2005 at 9:19 am
As a linguistic obsessive, I thank you for your contribution to the betterment of the English-speaking world.
Though I must concur that when people say “I feel,” they are (more often than not) expressing an opinion derived from dogmatic or externally-dictated belief rather than individual, rational thought. Or perhaps they’re (even subconsciously) trying to elevate their thoughts to the level of unassailable “feelings.”
Of course, now I’m going to have to look back at my own writing to at least minimize my hypocrisy…
March 28th, 2005 at 11:39 am
Spot on. And I know I’ve been guilty of it myself on occasion. I thank you for writing this
so ensuring I don’t do that is now front of mind!
April 1st, 2005 at 6:31 pm
I feel that you are entirely too wound up about this. Go take in a baseball game or something.