Don't Like - Negative Compliments

People have a bad habit of giving negative compliments when they could be giving out positive ones. What’s a negative compliment? It’s the backhanded compliment’s first cousin. Whereas the regular backhanded compliment is just a poorly disguised insult, a negative compliment is a compliment that takes an antagonistic position to deliver a genuine compliment. For instance, let’s imagine you made some tasty ribs on your bbq and a friend comes over to eat them. So you make them a plate, they take a bite, and then with an obviously sarcastic air they say, “well these aren’t the worst ribs I’ve ever had.” And it’s true, they’re not because they’re actually pretty damn tasty. The right thing to say here is “damn, these are tasty ribs.” But for some reason, that is usually is rationalized as playing it cool, they decide to take a dig. Admittedly, I’m guilty of this behavior but I’m working on it because isn’t it so much nicer to be genuinely positive about something? Plus, it’s also very important to reserve the phrase, “they aren’t the worst ribs that I’ve had” for the moment when you need to let someone down gently, as you eat some truly terrible ribs.