From time to time, someone compares Donald Trump to another thing or person--a rat, a pig, a hyena, the coronavirus, whatever--it doesn't matter what they compare him to, you can count on the subsequent appearance in the comment thread or conversation of someone who will leap to their metaphoric feet to defend whatever they compared him to.
I call this "Kip's Law of Odious Comparisons" at work. The law could be stated thusly: No matter what you compare prominent Republicans to in order to belittle them, the object of comparison will be promptly and hotly defended in the forum you're in.
"Hey! Pigs are intelligent, and they only live in filth because it's how people raise them!"
"Hey! Rats are cute and funny, and their fingers are proportionately long in comparison to Trump's!"
"Hey! That shiny crud that forms in old lead water pipes serves a useful purpose!"
Kip's Law of Odious Comparisons strikes again!
Liken DFT to whom or whatm you will, from slime mold to Hitler, and that will instill in someone's breast the desire to defend that other thing against the comparison. I still feel the impulse myself, but since putting my name on a sort of law that could be considered critical of the practice, or at least of its inevitability, I can resist it most of the time.
If I had a nickel for each time it's invoked, I'd have a pile of folding money by now, as well as the sneaking feeling I should have demanded more than a nickel. What was I thinking?
Anyway, since I sometimes invoke it by name without explaining, and since a search for it turns up nothing at all, I'm posting this to see if it will at least function as an explanation to others who are perplexed by my usage. Obscurity may be the soul of wit, but it's only sporting to leave a clue out now and then.
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