For example, if you said that someone had been fooled by something, would they take offense and think you’re calling them a fool or foolish?

What if you say someone’s been “played for a fool”?

      • cynar@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        8 months ago

        Apparently that quote was where a scriptwriter almost screwed Bush over.

        The full phrase is “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Bush realised he was about to give the media a sound bite of him saying “Shame on me”.

        Given the context, it’s far more understandable why he flubbed it.

        • kambusha@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          8 months ago

          Kinda funny how its probably survived much longer because of the improvisation, but yeah, I get why you wouldn’t want to say that.

        • Smeagol666@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          8 months ago

          This was Dubyah trying to quote the old saying that starts “fool me once, shame on you…”. I used to think HE was dumb, now we have people in office that make him look like a Rhodes Scholar.