I’ll put it this way. If you’re the kind of person who says ‘No, totally,’ then I probably want to hit you. I don’t really care if you appreciate modern art or not. If it does something for you, that’s great. If it doesn’t, I’m not going to assume that you are a total moron. But if you go around saying the exact opposite of what you mean? I’ll find that irritating.
Still, I could make an exception to the rule here if what you’re really trying to do is say ‘nay’ instead of ‘no.’ In doing away with ‘aye’ and ‘nay,’ we lost the ability to say “I agree with you, no.” We lost a softer version of ‘no’ that carried no implication of contradiction.
But if you’re just going around saying ‘no’ when you mean ‘yes,’ that’s a hittable offense.
