Pet Peeve

[kialio]

If you understood what I was trying to say you would agree with me.

Examples:
You misunderstand what I'm trying to say.
I didn't word it properly.
I chose the wrong phrasing.
My word choice was poor.
I'm not expressing myself well.

Assumed:
If you understood what I said you would undoubtedly agree with me. E.G. there is nothing wrong with my argument; the fault lies in your comprehension and/or my efforts to convey meaning. Our disagreement can only come from the fact that you are reading the "letter" instead of the "spirit."

Also known as:
Intentions.

Comments

[tekanji.livejournal.com]

What about the times when it's actually a miscommunication?

I can't speak for others but I know that when I use phrases like those it's not about the other person agreeing or not agreeing but rather when what they are saying I said is fundamentally different to what I was trying to convey. A lot of how we interpret what we say (or what's being said) is informed by our own personal context and it's not uncommon, at least in my experience, for people from two different contexts/perspectives to read the same phrase in two vastly different ways.

[allburning.livejournal.com]

When someone says that to me, I'm often likely to think, "If you understood what you were really thinking, you would disagree with yourself. The reason you can't articulate it clearly is because you're not thinking about it clearly (and you probably have to keep your thinking on the subject fuzzy in order to protect yourself from realizing how messed up your opinions really are)."

I'm judgmental like that.