I could care less

[Mark A. Mandel]

Larry writes:

>>>>>
I think it is a lot like "So don't/can't I" (which, for those not
familiar with the New Englandism, means "So do I").  This too is most
plausibly reconstructed as a sarcasm that became conventionalized,
although here we end up with an "extra" negative instead of a missing
one.
<<<<<

I wonder, with no evidence, whether one stage in the development could have
been a rhetorical question:

     A: I like Blatz Beer.
     B: So don't we all?

-- Mark