Joke and insult aren't mutually exclusive categories. 'Taint nothing wrong with it among comrades who have the established rapport to contextualize a little ribbing, but for outsiders to use it is mighty presumptuous. A fellow soldier might someday earn a Purple Heart, but some sideline civilian isn't ever, and that give the same words from civilian mouths a nasty edge of "what you can have and we can't, we'll run down".
I mean, saying, "Oh, it wasn't anything," oneself, is humility. Saying, "Oh, it wasn't anything," of someone else, is a put down.
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zvi and
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Date: 2010-02-16 11:48 pm (UTC)I mean, saying, "Oh, it wasn't anything," oneself, is humility. Saying, "Oh, it wasn't anything," of someone else, is a put down.