The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #153592   Message #3597734
Posted By: JohnInKansas
02-Feb-14 - 09:45 PM
Thread Name: BS: Me, myself, and I
Subject: RE: BS: Me, myself, and I
The effect of bad grammar is frequently annoying, but when the bad grammer is an affect of a social or cultural bias it is truly offensive.

***

The most universal LIE in English is the use of the comparative "times more than."

If an original quantity is 5, then two times the original is 10.
Two times more than the original quantity is 15. Since the expression is used both ways (although rarely correctly) it is impossible to tell what is meant by it.

The usage was apparently "invented" by advertising LIARS who urged "use strong terms even if they're meaningless" but has crept into usage even by otherwise competent persons whose use shows them to be:

a. ILLITERATE IDIOTS whose entire arguments should be IGNORED, or

b. DELIBERATE LIARS whose entire piches should be IGNORED.

c. Persons lacking the most fundamental competence in basic arithmetic (i.e. a majority of the population) for whom the only appropriate response is sympathetic pity - while they are ignored.

John