"IT IS WHAT IT IS"!
The latest catch phrase. This one has just worn on me because "what exactly is what what is"?? I hear so many guys say this, and of course we understand generally what they mean, but give an answer already. Like the Baltimore players explaining away their complete and total crumble in the last few minutes of that game when referring to the penalties and supposed 'bad calls'. Give an answer fellas. Explain without copping out and taking the easy road. "It is what it is". Someone wash it away, please.
Read Paul Grice's "Logic and Conversation."
"It is what it is" LOGICALLY has no content, which I'm guessing is what bothers you. However, CONVERSATIONALLY, it communicates some interesting things.
One rule of conversation is be relevant, another rule of conversation is be appropriate. When those two rules conflict, at least one has got to give.
So, at your grandmother's birthday dinner, one cousin loudly asks another cousin about how he contracted genital warts. The conversation instantly dies. You feel the need to say something, but if you say something relevant, it will surely be inappropriate, so you say, "I can't believe the Pats are undefeated!"
Likewise, a reporter asks a question that invites Belichick to whine about a ruling from the competition committee. Anything relevant that he says will be inappropriate, so Belichick says, you guessed it, "It is what it is."
It does a few other things as well, such as keeping focus on reality as opposed to fantasy. You can come up with explanations for those.
