Opus 2026-081: Hiding Behind Hyperbole

In case you weren’t paying attention in high school English, hyperbole is a literary device where you use extreme exaggeration to make a point.  It’s fairly common and I think most of us have used it sometime in the last 24 hours.  It involves words like “never” and “always”.

Sometimes I think hyperbole is used to hide our feelings or our opinions.  In a sense it’s an out-and-out lie, but the person can’t accuse you of that because you will just say, “I was joking”, or “you don’t recognize hyperbole?”

We also need to acknowledge it when we see, or hear, it.  A good example that I find irritating is the way President Trump always declare things are “huge” or “the best in history”.  It is irritating but I have learned to live with it.  One way I deal with it is to not listen to his speeches unless it is necessary.  Why would it be necessary?  Because the media will try to tell me what he said and in their case it isn’t “extreme exaggeration to make a point” it is just plain lies.

There is a difference. They don’t seem to know it, but we do.

homo unius libri