Saturday 14 January 2017

when literally doesn't mean literally

The other day they were talking about Donald Trump making things up and they cited a statement he made that "President Obama literally founded ISIS" as being a misstatement.  I wholeheartedly disagree!

This is only a misstatement  if he meant literally , Literally , in a literal sense.  If he meant literally in a metaphorical sense, as just a word that means literally nothing really but is used to emphasize a point he wasn't lieing.  If used in this way then the statement is entirely true.  This is because this use of literally is becoming common usage.  This is appropriate because after all Donald, although an educated man, is communicating with ordinary people not linguistic scholars.

I therefore take the statement to mean that he thought that Obama in his actions caused ISIS to come into being.  Pretty much in the same way historians say that the internment policy may have acted a recruitment  drive for the IRA in the 1970s.  
If you miss this point you literally must be barking up the wrong tree.  

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