"I Hate To Say It"...Then Don't!

How many stupid, asinine comments have followed after someone started with, "Well, I hate to say it..."? What follows next is the BUT, which they usually make out of themselves.

If you hate to say it, then it probably shouldn't be said, hmm?

I've started responding by cutting people off thusly: "I hate to say it..." "Then DON"T." It usually stops the conversation. Sometimes, though, it doesn't. And in spite of my throwing up a net to stop stupidity, some people just charge right through.

"I hate to say it, but she was advertising and asking for it." One family member's non-brilliant insight on the Duke Lacrosse team's raping of that stripper. While I said bluntly that I didn't care if she was running around the room naked (which I assume she was), that didn't give someone any right to make a concious decision to hurt her. "Well, some men see that as advertising." I was told. "Then some men are STUPID, and need to be sent to a re-education camp." I said. We struck a truce on that note.

If you have to pad your words by saying that you are oh-so-reluctant to mention this, but it simply MUST be said, you are cowardly or stupid. If you believe what you say, say it loud and without qualifiers. If it's stupid, take the verbal drubbing you deserve. If you're just plain stupid, and I can't tell the difference these days, then take a lesson. Smack yourself everytime you say "I hate to say it..." and maybe, like Pavlov, we'll get you trained to shut up.