“I ‘Hate’ America,” and the Merit of Hyperbole
It’s been a rough century for the good old US of A. We’ve spent the entirety of it in an unwinnable pseudo-war we keep coming back for more of, all while our economy and infrastructure crumble. One would think that viable solutions would have been implemented by now, but, looking around, the country remains in metaphorical flames.
Most people recognize metaphors because they stand out from regular communication by being fantastical and obviously non-literal. The same used to be said about hyperboles. Hyperbole is defined by Google’s Oxford dictionary as, “exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.” Mirriam Webster adds that hyperbole is, “extravagant exaggeration.” It is easy to recognize Mirriam Webster’s example as hyperbole. After all, the conditions to create a “mile-high ice cream cone” would be impractical from many standpoints, though it could be done.
It is harder to recognize hyperbolic speech in everyday conversation, especially when much of that conversation takes place in text. Statements like, “burn it all down” are sometimes thrown around in non-centrist circles. Nowadays these elicit dogpiling, similar to mobbing, rather than just existing as part of productive discussion. These statements used to exist as shorthand for a shared sentiment in an in-group. Now, they are taken literally and shouted down, rather than examined for any nuance or used as any kind of fuel or call to action. The mere creation of a battle cry is enough to silence a movement.
Have people stopped recognizing hyperbole? Although self-diagnosis of autism has skyrocketed, it is unlikely that so many people have such difficulty recognizing figurative language. A more reasonable explanation, which may be just as hard to test, is that hyperbole has been ruined for Americans.
Think back to the evaluation of the events surrounding January 6th, 2021. Debates have raged about what counted as incitement and what should be taken as a joke or exaggeration. These same aspersions have been cast in the dark reaches of the internet since its inception. Lurking beneath the guise of “you can’t tell tone through text” and “sorry I wasn’t clear about my sarcasm,” have been people who really meant their abhorrent messages. Compound this with the people who have acted upon those messages and the media who have let everyone know those things happened, and what do you have? A country that jumps in fear every time anything remotely extreme is voiced. A country that, I daresay, has been psychologically abused and developed collective PTSD.
People fear extreme language now, and they have legitimate reason to. Platforms like Facebook remove “extremist” content and “hate” speech. While some of the removed content absolutely should be pushed back onto the dark web or 4chan, the algorithms still pick up hyperbole. After all, the saying goes, “‘Hate’ is a strong word.”
However, hate is only a strong word if someone takes it literally. The onus is as much on the delivery to be clear as on the listener or reader to know when to take it literally. In our current state, anything being said particularly publicly or by anyone in a position of power cannot afford room for misinterpretation. Politicians and leaders of movements no longer have the luxury of speaking hyperbolically.
But behind closed doors, with your intimate friends, when you all need to vent about how much you “hate” something? The point of those interactions is to validate and help each other process feelings, not police their language or encourage them to act. Don’t let the an-hyperbolic climate of politics govern the amount of emotional validation you give to your upset friends. That is the true toxicity that has torn us all apart.
