this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2024
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I’m not sure I understand your issue with the term here. “Righteous indignation” word for word means “indignation that’s justified”, so I don’t want to jump to conclusions, and I’m thinking I may be having yet another of my English second language speaker moments.
Indignation implies that it's about being offended or upset.
The specific term you used usually carries an implication of pettiness, and of making a big deal out of nothing. The "righteous" part is normally meant in an ironic or sarcastic way.
I’m not the same person you were initially talking to. I’m not sure calling it indignation is necessarily dismissive - indignation can perfectly be justified. I’m really surprised it carries this subtext. I can’t seem to find any reference or definifion supporting neither this nor the expression itself though, but I may be looking in the wrong place…
I think it's another one of those things where words and phrases change meaning over time.
Righteous is equal to justifiable. Indignant is equal to showing anger.
Logically, it should mean justifiably angry. Often times, people will just ignore and skip over the first word and will only properly read "indignant".
I think it's similar to when people say words like "irregardless". They use it to mean "regardless". If you break the word down, the double negative makes it a positive. It looks like it should read as being the same as "regarding", but people had other ideas lol
Another fun one: "eggcorn" has been added to some dictionaries as a synonym for "acorn".
That’s what I meant. I’m perfectly open to believe it, but it’s also the very first time I hear « righteous indignation » carries this particular pejorative subtext, and I can’t seem to find a source substantiating the idea that it means petty anger.