Whatever!

The fact that a single word has the capacity to annoy me, annoys me.

Whatever!

As I don't subscribe to most of what is now regarded as popular culture, I've no idea where the roots of this word's Modern English Usage lie.

Suffice to say - and at the risk of being accused of using 'more' with a comparative adverb - it is more fouler than Fowler.

But the thing that really annoys me is that it smacks of apathy.

I think you're a tosspot.

Whatever!

You stole my girlfriend.

Whatever!

I hereby charge you with murder. Have you anything to say in your defence?

Whatever!

It has become the ubiquitous response among those who can't engage their brains for long enough to at least try to articulate a coherent riposte.

And what makes it even worse is that they don't seem to care.

Perhaps we should think about editing the final scene from Gone with the Wind.

Whatever!