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.