"Just saying"
Obnoxious and irritating.
I am not sure when it became popular or even added to the English language, though I find those words very annoying.
It does not make sense why you would say this after a statement, suggestion, or even after a rhetorical question. It's very passive-aggressive and really it doesn't even make you sound intelligent.
I am glad that the language gets enriched each year with new phrases. But "just saying" seems designed to allow to express sharply, and without conviction. It's a way of being colourful without consequences - all lip and no heart. Do we really need a new phrase to help be more snide, snarky and insincere?
Saying "just saying" puts a fire escape onto the end of a sentence. It lets you express stern - even rude - opinion, but not really. You're just saying.
It invites the listener/reader to discount what we just heard/read, even as we're reeling from it.
The Urban Dictionary website explains that the phrase makes it "possible to deliver a rude comment or burn and it have it bounce off simply as an opinion disguised as an objective opinion, and who can argue with you over an opinion that you don't apparently support."
Imagine what that phrase might have in earlier times.
What if Moses had told Pharaoh: "Let my people go! Just sayin'!"
What if Henny Youngman had said: "Take my wife - I'm just saying."
What if the FDR tried to rally Americans out of depression by decreeing. "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. I'm just saying!"
OR if Churchill had tried to rouse Britain in 1940 by declaring: "We shall fight them on the beaches, in the air, in the hills and we shall never surrender -I'm just saying!"
What if Romeo had seen Juliet and gushed:
"See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O that I were a glove upon that hand.
that I might touch that cheek! - just saying!"
She might have run off with Tybalt.
Omg, what if Stevie WONDERS had sung: "You are the sunshine of my life - just sayin'!" - Oh how some hit that would be.
I am not sure when it became popular or even added to the English language, though I find those words very annoying.
It does not make sense why you would say this after a statement, suggestion, or even after a rhetorical question. It's very passive-aggressive and really it doesn't even make you sound intelligent.
I am glad that the language gets enriched each year with new phrases. But "just saying" seems designed to allow to express sharply, and without conviction. It's a way of being colourful without consequences - all lip and no heart. Do we really need a new phrase to help be more snide, snarky and insincere?
Saying "just saying" puts a fire escape onto the end of a sentence. It lets you express stern - even rude - opinion, but not really. You're just saying.
It invites the listener/reader to discount what we just heard/read, even as we're reeling from it.
The Urban Dictionary website explains that the phrase makes it "possible to deliver a rude comment or burn and it have it bounce off simply as an opinion disguised as an objective opinion, and who can argue with you over an opinion that you don't apparently support."
Imagine what that phrase might have in earlier times.
What if Moses had told Pharaoh: "Let my people go! Just sayin'!"
What if Henny Youngman had said: "Take my wife - I'm just saying."
What if the FDR tried to rally Americans out of depression by decreeing. "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. I'm just saying!"
OR if Churchill had tried to rouse Britain in 1940 by declaring: "We shall fight them on the beaches, in the air, in the hills and we shall never surrender -I'm just saying!"
What if Romeo had seen Juliet and gushed:
"See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand!
O that I were a glove upon that hand.
that I might touch that cheek! - just saying!"
She might have run off with Tybalt.
Omg, what if Stevie WONDERS had sung: "You are the sunshine of my life - just sayin'!" - Oh how some hit that would be.