[chipsy]

You're right that it's poor rhetoric. "Oh Woe" flagellation doesn't fit well in self help writing.

The ancient way of fitting a potentially offensive statement in is to write it esoterically, so that only the people who really want to analyze get the message. The modern way is to call everything a positive, I think.

[JadeNB]

> The ancient way of fitting a potentially offensive statement in is to write it esoterically, so that only the people who really want to analyze get the message.

I'm not sure that I understand this. Are you referring to some older equivalent of dog-whistle rhetoric (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-whistle_politics)?