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分享一个知识点： Reader question: Please explain “tone deaf” in “His decision is tone deaf, to say the least.” My comments: It’s a rough decision, perhaps it was not well thought out. At any rate he, the decision maker, can be accused of being careless or insensitive, insensitive to the consequences and effects “his decision” may have on different people. Whatever it is, it will not be far off to say he’s not being his most caring and sensitive self when he made the decision, or it would not have been accused of being tone deaf in the first place. Tone deaf, you see, is originally descriptive of people who cannot distinguish pitches and tones in music. In other words, they’re tune deaf, i.e. unable to recognize the high and lows and the lilts in a song. Metaphorically speaking, when people (or things, their decisions, comments, etc) are accused of being tone deaf, they’re said to be insensitive in one way or another, lacking empathy. Let me give you an example, as one ancient Chinese emperor immediately comes to mind. One year when the famine was particularly bad, someone reported to the emperor that tens of thousands of people in the country were starving because of it. To this, the emperor replied casually and apparently innocently too: “Why don’t they eat meat soup?” Why don’t they all eat meat soup, that is, like I do? | 
