Apologies needed...

[newtothegame]

Should someone apologize if they said what they meant to say?

I've been using political forums for around 6 years. One thing that I've noticed, on both conservative and liberal forums, is the immediate calls for an apology when someone from the other side offends you.

My question is WHY? Why does someone need to apologize if they meant what they said? Let's take the billboard that the idiot Tea Partiers put up in Iowa. If someone working for a sign company accidentally put up a picture of Hitler and Obama together (unlikely I know), THAT I could see apologizing for. "We accidentally made this mistake, we're fixing it."

But if you MEANT to do it, why apologize? And why are we wasting our breath demanding that they do so?

EDITED TO ADD: My point is that I think political dialogue would go alot further (and true motivations would be revealed) if we let people say what they thought without demanding apologies and retractions everytime we disagree with them. In fact, why demand an apology when someone says something offensive? Why not let the comment live and burn them in the end? All you do when you demand an apology is give them the chance to retract and disown a comment that they probably really meant.

[uncommon]

1. I don't think so. I might apologize for hurting someone's feelings by saying what I meant to say

but I wouldn't apologize as if I didn't mean to say it when indeed I did.

[stray cat]

2. You can mean to do something stupid or jerkish and still capable of realizing you're

ignorant or a jerk and regret being an ignorant jerk

[Ozymanithrax]

3. If the person lies, is wrong, says something that causes harm to someone else..

or said something in a vicious and cruel manner then, yes, that person should apologize.

A lot of people mean to say false things, or use their words in cruel ways.

The apology is the way a person who has some vestigial integrity admits they did something stupid and offensive. An apology is an admission of being wrong.

In the case of that Nazi picture, it is maclicious and devoid of fact. Damn skippy they should appologize for the harm cause by their actions.