When you take the time to write a detailed, clear and concise message, and they reply with, "what?"

That's not even close to making sense, when you think about it. It was a written message. I don't know what they were expecting to hear, so I never know what I'm supposed to say back.

I know it wasn't written with disappearing ink, so I'm sure the message is still available for them to reread if they missed something. If any of it was unclear, it's up to them to explain which part. Dont expect me to rewrite the whole message in a different way if only part of it was unclear.

I know that one word reply is usually not meant literally when it's a response to a written message. It's usually meant to express outrage. When it's a reply to a spoken message, there are usually two possibilities; outrage or to prepare a lie.

People try to use it to prepare a lie when responding to a written message, and that's the "what" that pisses me off. To that "what," I tend to get snarky.

A typical response of mine would be something like, "it'll take me much longer to rewrite it than it would take you to reread it. Reread it." ..or, "if you couldn't hear what i wrote, try reading it out loud. Idkwetty..."

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RogueLodyte · M

OR when they say "I'm not sure what you mean by..." ... and make you explain all over again and again.
It's called gaslighting. They keep you busy explaining, while avoiding the issue at hand and eventually hope the issue will go away.
And then you wonder what YOU are doing wrong to not be able to get through to them.

"I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you."

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Jayciedubb · 56-60, M

@RogueLodyte i just noticed the quotation marks in your last sentence/paragraph. Is that a typical reply from you to them? ..Awesome reply! Its going into my snarky reply quiver. 👍

Im drifting off topic here, but I'd like to know your thoughts on the term, "thinking to myself?"

It turns out to be a controversial pet peeve just because its such a common term, used by people from all over the spectrum who dont like being part of a pet peeve thats based in so much logic.

I just dont like the waste of time and effort. It just goes against my natural grain.

My point being that to say "I think," already strongly implies to whom they were thinking. I mean, for 99.9998% of the world's population, probably 100% but if i say 100%, that leaves room for the psychics to chime in looking for a beef with logic ☺

..i post this reply knowing there's written and audio proof out there somewhere of me violating my own pet peeve in a goofy what I'll call punk rap song I wrote way back in 1984. In my defense, it was written way before it became a pet peeve of mine, and the extra syllables were needed for beat and flow.

Anyway, this is way more than i was planning on saying but sometimes it all comes out in a tangled clump.