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Yeah but the "I couldn't care less" is missing the sentence "because I don't care at all". It's kinda how idioms work, they require you to know the meaning of the phrase before someone hears it.
Someone doesn't just say these phrases on their own. There's always a context in which they get used. If someone ends a conversation with "whatever, I could care less" it makes more sense to someone not familiar with these idioms. Having a conversation about anything indicates some level of caring about the subject. "I could care less" inidicates you don't want to care about it anymore, ie. you don't care enough to discuss it further. "I couldn't care less" might indicate to someone not familiar with the idiom that you want to continue caring about the subject at the same level, ie. you with to continue discussing it further.
So "I couldn't care less" is an idiom on the level of "it's raining cats and dogs" something that only makes sense if you're familiar with it. It really doesn't make sense without the familiarity with the idiom to understand it really means "I couldn't care less because I don't care about it at all". You drop the "because I don't care about it at all" (which is how is it's common usages) it doesn't actually make any sense.
I disagree in that people mean different things when they say "i could care less" and "i couldnt care less"
"I couldnt care less" is pretty self contained and unambiguous when i hear people use it but "i could care less" not so much.
My experience being my own, i could very well be mistaken though.
So i think "its raining cats and dogs" is not a fair comparison. Perhaps its simply too soon and it will become as settled in the future...when enough people just give up on using it. Will wait and see
!remind me 10 years