It’s oxymoronic, not to mention confusing.
Did it ever not mean ‘mention’? It’s an idiomatic phrase that means the subsequent item is so obviously it hardly needs pointing out, but I’m going to do it anyway just to make sure we’re all on the same page. It’s the same sort of idea as let alone. I’ve never eaten a vegetable, let alone a cucumber! The denial of the first set implies a denial of the subset, but I say it anyway.
It adds emphasis to the first part of the sentence. In your OP, the “not to mention” clause emphasizes that “it’s oxymoronic” is enough reason to question the phrasing. You don’t even need to mention other reasons like “confusing”. It’s kind of a different way of saying “…and there are other reasons including [xxx].”
It’s understood as "this, that, and the other [and those are sufficient to make my point if I were] not to mention this also [which would make my point even more strongly].
What’s really fun is rhetorical preterition, where one flatly states he won’t say something, and in doing so says it: “I won’t even mention that my opponent buggers kittens.”
Needless to say, this will be an interesting thread!
Far be it from me to say otherwise.
It goes without saying that this will continue.
GaryT, I didn’t realize those were two different constructs.
Details are here: Apophasis
Who am I to wonder if we aren’t thinking alike here?
No disrespect, but I disagree.
Same way “begs the question” became “prompts the question”.
The answer should be all but obvious.
Hah! I could care less. Or maybe I couldn’t.
It’s sense is, “I’ve mentioned A, B, and C as examples, and didn’t even include D, which should be obvious, but I’ll list it to make sure.”
Our next poster needs no introduction.
I’m not sure I’d say that’s a good thing.
It would be oxymoronic, whether you mention confusing or not. So you did not need to mention confusing to validate your assertion that it is oxymoronic. You could mention confusing if you wised to but that would not negate the fact that it is oxymoronic without the mention of confusing, which you chose to do in order to further buttress your argument.
Not to be a stickler, Inner Stickler, but a cucumber is a fruit, not a vegetable.
It’s kinda similar to saying two positives in a row to mean a negative.
Yeah, right.
If we’re nitpicking, it’s both.