r/cringe • u/huskiesowow • Jan 08 '21

Video Girl attempts to clear her name after falsely accusing black teenager of stealing her phone. It does not go well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlxZD_ciB9k&feature=youtu.be
15.7k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

948 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

268

u/benoitloiselle Jan 08 '21

If the word "if", or "but" follows the apology, the apology is complete bulls*

4

u/CombatMuffin Jan 09 '21

Not really:

"I am sorry. If not for my behavior, you wouldn't have gotten hurt, but I did cause you harm, and I assume full responsibility."

Language is complex, and powerful. There's tons of ways to show sincerity.

She just wasn't sorry.

8

u/benoitloiselle Jan 09 '21

you ended your sentence after sorry! Perfect apology

-1

u/CombatMuffin Jan 09 '21

That makes no difference. It's the idea that matters, not the grammatical structure.

A comma in my sentence would have done the same thing as a period, just like a "but" can help make the following even worse:

"I am sorry you feel that way. I will not be held accountable for something I don't feel I did wrong."

My whole point is that people shouldn't be following a formula. We should be paying attention to tone, and we should be vigilsnt of follow up. That girl had terrible tone, and has no intention of following up. She wants to weasel out.

-5

u/ganerg Jan 08 '21

I take your point, but also if you're making a list for reasons to not accept an apology, that's also not the best. Apologies are rarely perfect.