“Caring less” singles out one thing in such a way as to indicate that you might actually care zero about it or care in the opposite direction from your audience.
Analogously, I embarrassed myself when watching the last World Cup with coworkers; when asked who I was cheering for (since the USA didn’t qualify), I responded “I just hope it’s not Russia”. This did not sit well at all with the Russian coworker who overheard. They wouldn’t have been upset if I’d instead expressed a positive interest in whoever was playing Russia at the time.
“Caring less” singles out one thing in such a way as to indicate that you might actually care zero about it or care in the opposite direction from your audience.
Analogously, I embarrassed myself when watching the last World Cup with coworkers; when asked who I was cheering for (since the USA didn’t qualify), I responded “I just hope it’s not Russia”. This did not sit well at all with the Russian coworker who overheard. They wouldn’t have been upset if I’d instead expressed a positive interest in whoever was playing Russia at the time.