“Fundamentally” and all of its near-synonyms: “really”, “essentially”, “at bottom”, “actually”, etc.
Usually, these mean “not”. (“How was that party you went to last night?” “Oh, it was all right really.”) (“Yes, I kidnapped you and chained you in my basement, but fundamentally, underneath it all, I’m essentially a nice guy.”)
On a related note, I often find myself starting a sentence with “The fundamental issue”—and when I catch myself and ask if what I’m talking about is the single issue that in fact underlies all others, and answer myself “no”—then I revise the sentence so something line “One important issue”… Here the lullaby is in two parts, a) everything is less important than this thing and b) there is only this one thing to care about. It’s rarely the case that either is true, let alone both.
“Fundamentally” and all of its near-synonyms: “really”, “essentially”, “at bottom”, “actually”, etc.
Usually, these mean “not”. (“How was that party you went to last night?” “Oh, it was all right really.”) (“Yes, I kidnapped you and chained you in my basement, but fundamentally, underneath it all, I’m essentially a nice guy.”)
Good one.
On a related note, I often find myself starting a sentence with “The fundamental issue”—and when I catch myself and ask if what I’m talking about is the single issue that in fact underlies all others, and answer myself “no”—then I revise the sentence so something line “One important issue”… Here the lullaby is in two parts, a) everything is less important than this thing and b) there is only this one thing to care about. It’s rarely the case that either is true, let alone both.