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Just because others say it doesn’t mean you should

May I kindly request that we outlaw this construction:

Just because S1 doesn’t mean S2

(where S1 and S2 are sentences)

from the English language?

Just because this construction doesn’t mean anything sensible.

Examples:

Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they’re not after you
Just because someone is cold doesn’t mean they don’t have feelings
Just because it’s ‘green’ doesn’t mean it’s smart
Just because it’s a cliche doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt
Just because it’s reliable doesn’t mean it’s believable
Just because something contains something doesn’t mean it’s about something
Just because something’s popular doesn’t mean it’s good
Just because something’s legal doesn’t mean it’s right
Just because he roars doesn’t mean that he really will attack an intruder
Just because someone’s excommunicated doesn’t mean she’s the bad guy

Nyargh.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 26th, 2007 at 12:04 pm and is filed under Language, Rant. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “Just because others say it doesn’t mean you should”

  1. Gunnar Says:
    January 26th, 2007 at 4:37 pm

    Just because you hate it doesn’t mean it’s worthless.

    It may help in pointing out fallacies.

    But to be fair, just because it may not be worthless doesn’t mean you mustn’t hate it.

    Multiple negatives on the other hand deserve all the hate you care to expend.