This phrase avoided my attention for a long time. Then at last someone pointed it out to me, and ever since I have found this to be not only one of the most annoying phrases, but also one of the strangest. As always, I will first use the phrase in a sentence so you can get a better idea of what I'm talking about.
Mark-"Hey Jimmy, Julie and I have become pretty close friends, I'm thinking of maybe asking her out, what do you think I should do?"
Jimmy-"Well, to be honest with you, I think Julie is a jerk."
I'm of course, talking about the "to be honest with you" phrase (I'm hoping you figured that out already from the bold text...). I think this is simply a phrase that everyone says, and well, to be honest, no one really notices it being used. But if you're like me and enjoy dissecting odd phrases that people say in your free time (Yes, I have much of it), this one makes very little sense. Whenever I hear this phrase, I'm very tempted to ask the person "Oh, so wait, all those other times I talked to you, you were lying to me?" I just simply do not understand the purpose of saying "to be honest", since all it does it make you look like you're a really big liar the rest of the time. But my theory is that it's used so that you can say something really bad, but the other person can't get mad at you since well, you're being honest, and who can get mad at honesty? It would be like tripping someone that's wearing one of those "Be kind to me, I donated blood today" buttons, it just seems unethical.
I find that honesty is a very good thing and that everyone should be honest all of the time (Unless it involves a girl, then you ALWAYS say she looks pretty, no matter what), but obviously everyone is not going to always be honest since it's always in us to lie in every way, shape and form. But honestly, just get rid of the phrase "to be honest", I don't need reassurance that you're being honest, if I thought you were going to lie, I wouldn't have come to you in the first place.
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