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Twice as Cool? What's that?



The other day while I was listening to a radio show, an advertiser boasted their underwear would make me twice or three times as cool.  Sounds great BUT what does this mean?  Nada.  We have here a mix of the quantitative with the qualitative – seemingly a trend in the misconception of terms.  

The new (false) math applies multiples to qualitative objects.  Twice as cool.  Twice as hot. Double your happiness. Ten percent of your brain power.  Loving you three times as much…

Dress up your claim with math, and you convince the ignorant.  That so many use these false math claims are made indicates a profound ignorance or misunderstanding of the listening public. Google almost anything and you will get hits.  Google any multiples of anything and get hits again.  Some examples: Double your love life; Triple your risk; Quadruple your happiness – wow!  Can you really "double your pleasure, double your fun," by chewing Double Mint Gum?  Are our students given to doubling their love, their happiness, their acid reflux, or any other quality that has no basis in quantity.  Maybe so.

On the other hand there is the idea of “multiple x’s.”  Examples for x include “truths”, “options,” “values.”.  These have value in an obtuse sort of way.  They seem to indicate there is no such thing as a single x.  

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Selling sin is easy.  Selling hate is easier.
Sin and hate, brother and sister in the family of human affairs.
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It is a fact of economics.  If you want an economic viewpoint expressed, no matter what, there is a PhD economist that will support it.  And with that, they will provide evidence.  Such is the state of economics in this world.  There is no such thing as a consensus of opinion among this group beyond the obvious.
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The difference between Bill and Hillary.  Hillary prepares carefully before she speaks.  Bill also prepares carefully and continues the preparation while he speaks. 
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