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Escalation of evil

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Post by oftenwrong Sun Jul 28, 2013 10:18 pm

The English language provides various aids to comprehension by the use of comparatives, e.g. Dark as night, clear as a bell, pure as the driven snow.
 
In lively dialogue on an internet chat facility, there will be tempation to use hyperbole or over-emphasis to make a point, particularly on degrees of bad behaviour - of which the favourites are Nazi or Hitler.  On the web there is even a (somebody's) Law that says an arguer will use Hitler as an example of ultimate evil within three exchanges of viewpoint.
 
In 2013 Britain, Hitler has been superseded.  The Business Minister, Vince Cable, invoked "Taliban Capital" to describe the edict of The Bank of England requiring commercial banks to double their capital reserves.
 
Poor old Mervyn King has eclipsed Adolf as a metaphor.  Does he deserve comparison with The Taliban?
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Post by boatlady Tue Sep 03, 2013 8:26 pm

There does seem to be a tendency for metaphors to get a bit hyperbolic.
In the search for a striking way of expressing something, I suspect Vince Cable just totally lost his bearings.
I'm not sure in what way Mervyn King resembles the Taliban, or indeed Hitler.
I always thought bankers of whatever stripe were just all about greed, whereas both the Taliban currently and the Nazis in the past were at least mostly about strongly held beliefs taken to a violent extreme.
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Post by stuart torr Tue Jul 08, 2014 6:21 pm

Well oftenwrong I do believe that at this moment in time, IMO I suspect from what I have seen on other forums also, is that Hitler has taken his rightful place again as the most evil person ever to have lived.
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Post by boatlady Tue Jul 08, 2014 7:49 pm

Or at least, certainly a very good example of extremely wicked behaviour based on extreme views
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Post by oftenwrong Tue Jul 08, 2014 11:31 pm

All British administrations have liked to maintain a "bogey-man" concept to justify things like Defence expenditure or restriction of Civil liberties. Certainly, since Napoleon, we have been taxed to present a defence against many foes from the Boer through various fuzzy-wuzzies and Kaiser Wilhelm to Hitler, then on to Russkies, the IRA, Arabs and home-grown insurgents.

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Post by stuart torr Wed Jul 09, 2014 10:31 am

The wise man speaks again, oftenwrong IMO you must do a lot of thinking in your spare time.
As every time you post it shows thought and intellect, are you well read? IE do you read a lot in your spare time?
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Post by oftenwrong Wed Jul 09, 2014 11:06 pm

Too kind. I look everything up first on Google. Too much thinking can induce headaches, Stuart.
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Post by stuart torr Thu Jul 10, 2014 10:52 am

A very truthful answer oftenwrong, also shows what a honest person you are, thank-you.
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