Quote:
"Bush is the worst thing for this country since Adolf Hitler."
Let's break this down. Adolf Hitler was a bad thing for the US. He was a bad thing in the 40s. Since the 40s, Bush has been the worst thing for the US.
Again, Hitler was a chronological marker.
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It's a semantic game you can play to justify yourself, but it doesn't change the effect it's going to have on someone.
Technically speaking, you're right - we have is a collection of "things", all of which are "since Hitler", and we are saying that Bush is the worst of them.
So basically we are just saying that Bush is the worst thing to have happened since Hitler - but we say nothing about whether it is better or worse than Hitler itself! Nothing can be said about the quality of Bush with respect to the quality of Hitler.
Nonetheless, a "reasonable observer" is going to take it in the simplest sense - a direct comparison between Bush and Hilter. I hate Bush and he's definitely the worst President in my lifetime, but I'm not niave enough to think Bush is gassing Jews. It's called Godwin's Law for a reason - it's a lame comparison.
Just like the policitian who was recently asked to resign for using "niggardly" when describing low-income families, people took it for what they
thought it meant, not what it ACTUALLY means. If you're going to say "worst thing since Hitler" about anything or anyone, you'd better be prepared to have it heard as a direct comparsion.
Your biggest
faux pas was discussing politics at a bar. Have you never seen a bar fight?