11 Sep
2007
11 Sep
'07
3:04 p.m.
Oh, FFS!
Hint: the word "you" in colloquial English usage does not always refer
directly to an individual or to the person being addressed.
For example: "If you want to learn to fly a plane, you have to
demonstrate good vision and a degree of numeracy". This would be a
perfectly reasonable statement in a magazine or newspaper article,
without any implication that every reader of that journal is an
aspiring pilot.
When you use the "impersonal YOU", you run a risk of offending those who
take it personally.