This is the kind of paradox that leads us (I mean humans more generally) to look for some fundamental assumption we're making about time that will turn out to be wrong. I assume that's true although I wonder whether it's literally impossible for us to even imagine how time "truly" works, let alone measure it.
Thank you for the example. Indeed, the context did not make that clear.
That makes me wonder what he thought he was saying. I infer something like "very few". Or he genuinely though he had no bullets left and was wrong. I'd say that second case seems highly unlikely, but it wouldn't totally shock me.
I wonder whether the word is the issue or the speaker's intent: if the speaker insists in exaggerating, then no word they use is going to convey that they aren't exaggerating. I wouldn't think them likely to use any word to convey that they aren't exaggerating, because they are. I think of it like a person bent on sarcasm: you simply need to detect it somehow, then filter every word accordingly.
That wouldn't make the word "literally" literally ruined, but might instead merely indicate that we can't rely on it as a safeword against exaggeration. 🤷
I don't remember the last time someone used the word "literally" and I couldn't tell whether they meant it in the classic sense or in the modern sense, either as an intensifier or as filler. If you do, then I'd genuinely like to learn about that, because I don't think I could imagine such a scenario. I might lack imagination or I might not be around people who use the word often enough to judge.
I genuinely believe you overstate the matter, especially in claiming that the word had been robbed of its previous meaning. I still use the word exclusively with its classic meaning and I never see confused faces when I do. 🤷 (That's not any kind of proof, but merely a reason for my current position on this.)
Dumb question: do you have a key on your keyboard that disables the microphone? I don't have my laptop in front of me, but I know there's a key that disables the trackpad and another that disables the camera. I realized that I'd accidentally hit those by going through something similar to this.
Les Oulhamr fuyaient dans la nuit épouvantable. Fous
de souffrance et de fatigue, tout leur semblait vain devant la calamité suprême: le Feu était mort.
It's possible that when I slam my hand on the table, it will go through the table, but it's not plausible. We can't imagine it actually happening, even though we know it can.
If you have social anxiety, then why are you blaming women for being difficult to talk to or flirt with?
Women didn't get me until I grew into my 20s. For some of us, it takes longer, and it feels terrible in the meantime. Peace.