So most of these are things I’d try not to say myself (and would mostly succeed). But there are some where I can imagine versions that seem to me bad, and versions that seem to me innocuous.
And who does the world want to get back the most? Who’s the one person that everyone in America wants to save? Tom Hanks. Everyone will pull for Tom Hanks. Nobody wants to see him die. We all love him too much.
This is the bad version. But the actual quote was
And who does the world want to get back the most? Who does America want to save? Tom Hanks. We don’t want to see him die. We like him too much.
Which seems fairly innocuous to me. There’s no “everyone” here. I feel okay with saying “America” likes or wants something in a way that I’m not comfortable with “everyone in America”.
(Tom Hanks is probably not the one person the world wants to get back the most, but that seems like it’s probably not the issue here.)
(Seems maybe worth noting here that your memory was pretty close, up until the bit that seems to me most important. But if the actual version actually isn’t any better according to you, then less worth noting.)
nobody’s ever requested that before
Assuming true, then as written this seems innocuous to me. The bad version is if said with a tone of voice conveying “you weirdo” or something.
Eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable … The details of people’s accounts cannot be trusted.
This seems basically true to me. The innocuous version is if it’s talking about people-in-general. Like, “the courts don’t depend much on eyewitness testimony because...”
The bad version is if it’s about a specific person, “we can’t trust what Dave says he saw because...”. In that case I’d want to include something like ”...and afaik we have no reason to expect that Dave is an exception”, and then it becomes innocuous again.
Do the innocuous-to-me versions still seem painful to you? Do they seem less painful, at least? I can totally imagine something like… “the things that seem innocuous-to-me are painful-to-you, but mostly because you’ve been sensitized by a barrage of the things that do seem bad-to-me. Without those, the innocuous-to-me things wouldn’t be painful-to-you”.
I can also imagine that they’re just as painful as the versions that seem bad-to-me, but if so I expect there’s something that didn’t come across to me.
“the things that seem innocuous-to-me are painful-to-you, but mostly because you’ve been sensitized by a barrage of the things that do seem bad-to-me. Without those, the innocuous-to-me things wouldn’t be painful-to-you”
… seems about right.
Each of the versions you labeled innocuous is at least better; not all of them are all the way to good.
So most of these are things I’d try not to say myself (and would mostly succeed). But there are some where I can imagine versions that seem to me bad, and versions that seem to me innocuous.
This is the bad version. But the actual quote was
Which seems fairly innocuous to me. There’s no “everyone” here. I feel okay with saying “America” likes or wants something in a way that I’m not comfortable with “everyone in America”.
(Tom Hanks is probably not the one person the world wants to get back the most, but that seems like it’s probably not the issue here.)
(Seems maybe worth noting here that your memory was pretty close, up until the bit that seems to me most important. But if the actual version actually isn’t any better according to you, then less worth noting.)
Assuming true, then as written this seems innocuous to me. The bad version is if said with a tone of voice conveying “you weirdo” or something.
This seems basically true to me. The innocuous version is if it’s talking about people-in-general. Like, “the courts don’t depend much on eyewitness testimony because...”
The bad version is if it’s about a specific person, “we can’t trust what Dave says he saw because...”. In that case I’d want to include something like ”...and afaik we have no reason to expect that Dave is an exception”, and then it becomes innocuous again.
Do the innocuous-to-me versions still seem painful to you? Do they seem less painful, at least? I can totally imagine something like… “the things that seem innocuous-to-me are painful-to-you, but mostly because you’ve been sensitized by a barrage of the things that do seem bad-to-me. Without those, the innocuous-to-me things wouldn’t be painful-to-you”.
I can also imagine that they’re just as painful as the versions that seem bad-to-me, but if so I expect there’s something that didn’t come across to me.
… seems about right.
Each of the versions you labeled innocuous is at least better; not all of them are all the way to good.