Why are so many people "apologizing" these days ???

COOL MAN

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Jun 19, 2001
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It's no secret that we have "apologies" coming from pretty much every direction these days; whether from BHO for our bombing an Afghan hospital.....from Volkswagen Managers for sending diesel cars to the US with law-breaking software.....from Intuit telling Turbo Tax users last season that we unintentionally screwed you....from Justin Bieber/Donald Sterling/Ray Rice/Reese Witherspoon/Paula Deen/Arnold Schwarzenegger/et al for their personal screw-ups......or any number of other instances which, to me, have become kind of silly.

In fact, come to think of it, about the only place from which you seemingly won't get an apology these days is the guy who probably should be apologizing (Trump). I think I might be getting to the point where I actually appreciate the fact he owns what he says......even if it's borderline stoopid.....and doesn't really care what his opponents (or his supporters, for that matter) think.

Anyway, it's pretty clear that Crisis Managers everywhere have convinced their clients (and themselves) that "apologies" are the silver bullet in this day and age. Well, they (usually) don't work with yours truly; though I'm anxiously awaiting the day someone (or some Company) steps to the dais and announces.......not that they made a "mistake" (for which they extend their "sincerest" useless apologies)......but that they were wrong and that they take responsibility for our actions. Maybe, I'm the only one who doesn't accept all these mea culpas at face value.

Anyway, does anyone happen to know the specific circumstance(s) which ended up resulting in this torrential flood of public "apologies" which have apparently been defined as the solution to pretty much every possible human/corporate f****-up ?? Lord knows, I myself am sick to death of them.
 
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DvlDog4WVU

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Feb 2, 2008
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It's no secret that we have "apologies" coming from pretty much every direction these days; whether from BHO for our bombing an Afghan hospital.....from Volkswagen Managers for sending diesel cars to the US with law-breaking software.....from Intuit telling Turbo Tax users last season that we unintentionally screwed you....from Justin Bieber/Donald Sterling/Ray Rice/Reese Witherspoon/Paula Deen/Arnold Schwarzenegger/et al for their personal screw-ups......or any number of other instances which, to me, have become kind of silly.

In fact, come to think of it, about the only place from which you seemingly won't get an apology these days is the guy who probably should be apologizing (Trump). I think I might be getting to the point where I actually appreciate the fact he owns what he says......even if it's borderline stoopid.....and doesn't really care what his opponents (or his supporters, for that matter) think.

Anyway, it's pretty clear that Crisis Managers everywhere have convinced their clients (and themselves) that "apologies" are the silver bullet in this day and age. Well, they (usually) don't work with yours truly; though I'm anxiously awaiting the day someone (or some Company) steps to the dais and announces.......not that they made a "mistake" (for which they extend their "sincerest" useless apologies)......but that they were wrong and that they take responsibility for our actions. Maybe, I'm the only one who doesn't accept all these mea culpas at face value.

Anyway, does anyone happen to know the specific circumstance(s) which ended up resulting in this torrential flood of public "apologies" which have apparently been defined as the solution to pretty much every possible human/corporate f****-up ?? Lord knows, I myself am sick to death of them.
Celebrities have their image to worry about and most actors realize they can be yesterday's news in the blink of an eye. Probably the weakest willed and lowest self esteem as group of individuals you will find. They will do or say anything to maintain their status. Companies on the other hand worry about scandals correlating to stock prices. You also have the lawyers out to sue over the drop of a hat and companies find it cheaper to settle than go to court. Then you have the social media warriors and somehow you have to protect your "status" online. Lastly you have those who have to worry about advertising dollars. For the most part, it all boils down to dollars.

How it got started was simple. The social justice warriors are further emboldened by their success to faux outrage. All you need to do is tell them to pound sand and they go away when they realize they won't get their moment of justice. Once more and more people push back, the tide will subside, but right now there is no end in sight.
 

RichardPeterJohnson

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It's no secret that we have "apologies" coming from pretty much every direction these days; whether from BHO for our bombing an Afghan hospital.....from Volkswagen Managers for sending diesel cars to the US with law-breaking software.....from Intuit telling Turbo Tax users last season that we unintentionally screwed you....from Justin Bieber/Donald Sterling/Ray Rice/Reese Witherspoon/Paula Deen/Arnold Schwarzenegger/et al for their personal screw-ups......or any number of other instances which, to me, have become kind of silly.

In fact, come to think of it, about the only place from which you seemingly won't get an apology these days is the guy who probably should be apologizing (Trump). I think I might be getting to the point where I actually appreciate the fact he owns what he says......even if it's borderline stoopid.....and doesn't really care what his opponents (or his supporters, for that matter) think.

Anyway, it's pretty clear that Crisis Managers everywhere have convinced their clients (and themselves) that "apologies" are the silver bullet in this day and age. Well, they (usually) don't work with yours truly; though I'm anxiously awaiting the day someone (or some Company) steps to the dais and announces.......not that they made a "mistake" (for which they extend their "sincerest" useless apologies)......but that they were wrong and that they take responsibility for our actions. Maybe, I'm the only one who doesn't accept all these mea culpas at face value.

Anyway, does anyone happen to know the specific circumstance(s) which ended up resulting in this torrential flood of public "apologies" which have apparently been defined as the solution to pretty much every possible human/corporate f****-up ?? Lord knows, I myself am sick to death of them.
My favorite is the politician (usually a right-wing whacko) who has some personal indiscretions, and then calls it a disease (which needs treated, of course) and how Jesus will handle all this going forward. Invoking religion in these cases is so transparent.
 

EEReverent

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Oct 7, 2004
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Anyway, does anyone happen to know the specific circumstance(s) which ended up resulting in this torrential flood of public "apologies" which have apparently been defined as the solution to pretty much every possible human/corporate f****-up ??
I'm sorry, but I do not know the answer..........
 

WhiteTailEER

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The social justice warriors are further emboldened by their success to faux outrage. All you need to do is tell them to pound sand and they go away when they realize they won't get their moment of justice. Once more and more people push back, the tide will subside, but right now there is no end in sight.

I don't care for the apologies either, because these things aren't usually mistakes but deliberate acts of deception. (like the Volkswagen thing) They aren't sorry for what they've done, they are sorry it got exposed. I understand that accidents happen sometimes, but most of the time these things aren't accidents at all.

The social justice warriors can be an annoyance. This whole concept of micro-aggression is just ********. I said it before in another thread, but we have it too good and too easy and so the slightest little things get blown up. It's like somebody going apeshit at a waitress because their filet mignon is medium-well when they asked for medium ... if they were starving, they wouldn't care how it is cooked. These social issues, for the most part we aren't "starving" anymore so people make a big deal over medium and medium-well. (I hope that analogy is making sense, it does to me)

In some cases (they are in the minority), the social justice warriors actually help though. I don't know if you would put the engineer that found the VW thing in that category or not, but there are other incidents of people pointing out where water is being poisoned and things like that. Mostly it is just an annoyance though.
 
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The OP sounds like Andy Rooney, lol, no offense, not intended to be an insult. And I can apologize if you want me to.
The OP is exactly how I feel about Rupurt Murdock's BS apology.
 
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Mntneer

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I don't care for the apologies either, because these things aren't usually mistakes but deliberate acts of deception. (like the Volkswagen thing) They aren't sorry for what they've done, they are sorry it got exposed. I understand that accidents happen sometimes, but most of the time these things aren't accidents at all.

The social justice warriors can be an annoyance. This whole concept of micro-aggression is just ********. I said it before in another thread, but we have it too good and too easy and so the slightest little things get blown up. It's like somebody going apeshit at a waitress because their filet mignon is medium-well when they asked for medium ... if they were starving, they wouldn't care how it is cooked. These social issues, for the most part we aren't "starving" anymore so people make a big deal over medium and medium-well. (I hope that analogy is making sense, it does to me)

In some cases (they are in the minority), the social justice warriors actually help though. I don't know if you would put the engineer that found the VW thing in that category or not, but there are other incidents of people pointing out where water is being poisoned and things like that. Mostly it is just an annoyance though.

Was listening to Stern this week and he had some actor/comedian on who lied about being in the WTC on 9/11. He's on some TV show called The League and apparently told people about 10 years ago that he was in the tower. The truth finally came out so he went on Stern to explain and apologize for what he did. Fascinating interview.
 

WhiteTailEER

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Was listening to Stern this week and he had some actor/comedian on who lied about being in the WTC on 9/11. He's on some TV show called The League and apparently told people about 10 years ago that he was in the tower. The truth finally came out so he went on Stern to explain and apologize for what he did. Fascinating interview.

Yeah, I heard about all of that. The League is pretty funny, you should check it out. He lost his endorsement deal with BWW when that came out. He had been on some of their commercials recently.
 

Mntneer

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I don't care for the apologies either, because these things aren't usually mistakes but deliberate acts of deception. (like the Volkswagen thing) They aren't sorry for what they've done, they are sorry it got exposed. I understand that accidents happen sometimes, but most of the time these things aren't accidents at all.

The social justice warriors can be an annoyance. This whole concept of micro-aggression is just ********. I said it before in another thread, but we have it too good and too easy and so the slightest little things get blown up. It's like somebody going apeshit at a waitress because their filet mignon is medium-well when they asked for medium ... if they were starving, they wouldn't care how it is cooked. These social issues, for the most part we aren't "starving" anymore so people make a big deal over medium and medium-well. (I hope that analogy is making sense, it does to me)

In some cases (they are in the minority), the social justice warriors actually help though. I don't know if you would put the engineer that found the VW thing in that category or not, but there are other incidents of people pointing out where water is being poisoned and things like that. Mostly it is just an annoyance though.

Was listening to Stern this week and he had some actor/comedian on who lied about being in the WTC on 9/11. He's on some TV show called The League and apparently told people about 10 years ago that he was in the tower. The truth finally came out so he went on Stern to explain and apologize for what he did. Fascinating interview.
 

DvlDog4WVU

Well-known member
Feb 2, 2008
46,604
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I don't care for the apologies either, because these things aren't usually mistakes but deliberate acts of deception. (like the Volkswagen thing) They aren't sorry for what they've done, they are sorry it got exposed. I understand that accidents happen sometimes, but most of the time these things aren't accidents at all.

The social justice warriors can be an annoyance. This whole concept of micro-aggression is just ********. I said it before in another thread, but we have it too good and too easy and so the slightest little things get blown up. It's like somebody going apeshit at a waitress because their filet mignon is medium-well when they asked for medium ... if they were starving, they wouldn't care how it is cooked. These social issues, for the most part we aren't "starving" anymore so people make a big deal over medium and medium-well. (I hope that analogy is making sense, it does to me)

In some cases (they are in the minority), the social justice warriors actually help though. I don't know if you would put the engineer that found the VW thing in that category or not, but there are other incidents of people pointing out where water is being poisoned and things like that. Mostly it is just an annoyance though.
The social justice warriors are not like the VW thing in my mind. I am talking about the Cecil the Lion people.

My colleague was showing me something today about a 10-12 year old girl in Texas shooting a 15 foot gator with a crossbow from like 20 yards. I asked her to check the girl's facebook page. It was exactly as you would expect. People were going batshit on a 10 year old. Those are the morons I'm talking about.
 

WVUCOOPER

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Dec 10, 2002
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Was listening to Stern this week and he had some actor/comedian on who lied about being in the WTC on 9/11. He's on some TV show called The League and apparently told people about 10 years ago that he was in the tower. The truth finally came out so he went on Stern to explain and apologize for what he did. Fascinating interview.
You act like you don't watch the League.....bogus. Kevin's the worst part of that show anyway.
 

Mntneer

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You act like you don't watch the League.....bogus. Kevin's the worst part of that show anyway.
I really don't. After hearing the interview I thought about checking it out. Never even heard of the guy or that he lied about 9/11.
 

COOL MAN

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The OP sounds like Andy Rooney, lol, no offense, not intended to be an insult. And I can apologize if you want me to.
The OP is exactly how I feel about Rupurt Murdock's BS apology.

Actually, I think that's pretty funny.....and I'm not sure the fundamental comparison (in this particular case) is at all misguided. In fact, since I freely admit I was a fan of Rooney's act, I'll consider your comparison a compliment !!!

For the record, I'm currently 58 years of age......but by the time AR achieved his real critical mass on 60 Minutes, I'm pretty sure he was already approaching retirement age. I also seem to recall his run on the Show lasting until just in advance of his passing in his early 90's.

BTW, I'd bet a fair amount of my retirement that I won't come any closer than a few dozen light years of sniffing Rooney's longevity.
 

WhiteTailEER

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The social justice warriors are not like the VW thing in my mind. I am talking about the Cecil the Lion people.

My colleague was showing me something today about a 10-12 year old girl in Texas shooting a 15 foot gator with a crossbow from like 20 yards. I asked her to check the girl's facebook page. It was exactly as you would expect. People were going batshit on a 10 year old. Those are the morons I'm talking about.

Yeah, I agree there. I was pretty sure that's what you were talking about, but there is a minority that actually does some decent things. The rest I have no use for.
 

COOL MAN

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Jun 19, 2001
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Celebrities have their image to worry about and most actors realize they can be yesterday's news in the blink of an eye. Probably the weakest willed and lowest self esteem as group of individuals you will find. They will do or say anything to maintain their status.

My favorite is the politician (usually a right-wing whacko) who has some personal indiscretions, and then calls it a disease (which needs treated, of course) and how Jesus will handle all this going forward. Invoking religion in these cases is so transparent.

I think you'e probably identified the worst individual offenders as groups.......but some of these corporations are, IMO, every bit (if not even more so) as offensive.
 

COOL MAN

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Jun 19, 2001
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I'm sorry, but I do not know the answer..........

Obviously, I don't either; but there simply has to be a particular instance(s)/situation(s) where a public apology succeeded to such an earth-shattering extent that it morphed into these almost knee-jerk reactions to which we've all been exposed over the past few years.
 

bornaneer

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Jan 23, 2014
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I'm the only one who doesn't accept all these mea culpas at face value.

No you are not,I feel the same way. I almost burst out laughing every time I see some of the high level athletes who can hardly put a complete sentence together try to get thru their apologies. I put zero stock in any politicians apology.