Just apologize, dude. For REALZ.

[judecorp]

Okay, this is annoying. It's a total pet peeve of mine. Or really, more than a pet peeve. It's something that I get really REALLY angry about.

Pope sorry for reaction to his remarks.

I don't care if you are the Pope or whoever, you do NOT apologize for someone else's reaction. You apologize for your mistake, or your action, or your decision, or YOUR anything. "Apologizing" for someone's reaction or feelings is not apologizing at all!

I would feel a lot better if the article said, "Pope sorry for words spoken during oration," or something like that. Instead we get:

"At this time I wish also to add that I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims," the pope said Sunday.

Few things irritate me more than when someone "apologizes" to me saying, "I'm sorry you're hurt/sad/upset." I tend to snap back, "Please don't apologize for me." I just can't stand it.

Way to victim blame, Pope.

Comments

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

M and I just had a really good conversation about this (not about the fake apology). I also do not think his apology was adequate, and I thought ...well, a lot of stuff, which was crystallized during our debate (we do that a lot) but yeah. I mostly agree with you here.

My pet peeve with apologies is mainly centered around phrasing such as:

I'm sorry IF I blah blah.

Like, clearly if my feelings are hurt, you DID BLAH BLAH. Say, "I'm sorry THAT I blah blah" and it instantly sounds more sincere. Your peeve sounds a touch different, but I get it. =)

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can totally see what you're saying on the "if" thing, too. There's no "if" about it, if someone is hurt then they are hurt. I agree.

I haven't even had a good chance to really look into what's BEHIND the apology (as in, exactly what happened, how it was said, the context, etc.) but I was just so turned off by the headline. Argh!

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Well, basically your pope is a scholar and not a people person. He goes to turkey, and makes a well meaning speech about how a philosopher/Emperor of Byzantium said THIS about Muslims, where THIS is that it is a wicked and cruel faith.

Unfortunately his publicist never read it and distilled it into the headline of: Pope calls Islam cruel and wicked faith, which is distilled into the word of mouth of "Pope denounces Islam."

Sigh. It was a truly stupid thing to say. He intended something different. Go look on the beeb for the real text thereof, I read it this morning during our little debate.

[judecorp.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I actually looked and saw a little of it, and I can see how it kind of snowballed or whatever. Which of course it was going to. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that, you know? Someone should know better.

Sometimes I think people like to say hurtful things and then say "I didn't know!" or "it came from a book" or whatever. Like if I go up to you and say, "Hey Pru, look what it says about you in this book, it says you suck." And then you get upset and I'm all, "Well don't get mad at ME, I was just reading out of this book."

Idiots.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

I get what he was saying, but it was the wrong way to say it. Meh. Silliness.