Hyperbole

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You are going to approve one of the biggest tax cuts in history. You are going to approve one of the biggest tax increases in history. You are going to drive business out. Your regulations are a disaster, and you're going to increase regulations all over the place. And by the way, my tax cut is the biggest since Ronald Reagan.
Donald Trump, 2016 presidential debate[1]

Hyperbole is the use of exaggeration to make a point. It is completely and utterly unlike any other rhetorical technique, the single most powerful way to communicate any concept ever conceived.

Fallacy[edit]

Hyperbolic fallacy (also known as "'inductive hyperbole") occurs when something is stated much more strongly than the observations behind it support.

Hyperbolic fallacy is common in science reporting. Science reporters try to make science interesting to the general public, and all too often do this by exaggerating the importance of certain findings, "hyping" them as "breakthroughs" that "entirely upset" our previous assumptions, etc.

In fact, it is in the nature of inductive sampling that no conclusion is guaranteed to be true. There is always a degree of uncertainty, and always a possibility that the entire study might prove wanting.

This constant emphasis on breakthroughs in science may prime some listeners to accepting more wild claims of pseudoscience — because if science can do it, why can't the nice man with a website find a cancer cure?

The "truthful hyperbole", which is an oxymoron, according to Trump (or his pseudo-autobiographer[note 1]) never hurts (in real estate).[3] People who know Trump seem to think he doesn't understand the difference between the truth and a lie.[4]

Examples[edit]

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. Tony Schwartz[2]

References[edit]