Share the room and like it
But sir…
“You are a man.” “Disagree.”
You can’t “disagree.” It’s not an opinion or a guess, it’s a fact. It’s a very very basic fact that everyone knows pretty much from birth. You can’t just wave it away with “I disagree” because it’s not subject to “agreement.”
The “Are you comparing [this thing] to [bad thing]” trope is annoying; likewise, the “You can’t compare [this thing] to [bad thing]” one. It’s moral browbeating.
Is Upton being compared to Orwell’s O’Brien? Bite the bullet! Yes, he is. It’s in the nature of a comparison that you’re saying that A is like B in this or that respect; that’s wholly compatible with saying that A is unlike B in other respects. Comparison does not imply identity. It does not imply that everything that one says about A maps on precisely to what one might say about B. What it does mean is that there’re elements of B that might productively cast light on how we should think about A.
I accept that in a courtroom context, there’s not always a place for this kind of nuance to be made easily; but still: it’s there to be had.
@Enzyme
Yes – it’s exasperating.
“My love is like a red, red rose.”
“You mean she has the lifespan of about a week?”
And is covered with thorns?
“Your Majesty is like stream of bat’s piss.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxXW6tfl2Y0