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”?
As is all social interactions, context is key
Only if they do it twice.
Fool me… you can’t get fooled again.
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.
Kinda funny how its probably survived much longer because of the improvisation, but yeah, I get why you wouldn’t want to say that.
The expressions “being fooled” and “being made a fool” have coexisted for a very long time.
Fool is a spectrum. E.g. take the saying “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”. It’s possible to fool anyone. Sometimes it’s because they are a fool, but sometimes it’s not.
at some point you have to trust something
I trust the floor of my bedroom to be there when I get up in the dark.
I trust my wife not to change the locks on the house when I’m out or not to murder me in my sleep
I trust my friends not to falsely accuse me of horrible crimes to the police
I trust the starbucks drive through is real and not a fake starbucks pretending to be starbucks
any one of these things could “fool” me at any time, doesn’t mean I’m stupid.
however, what I never trust is that there is a secret to get ahead quickly. Whatever it is, it’s always slow, expensive, with a lot of paperwork, requires practice and expertise, and will go wrong several times.
so if someone gave a hundred grand to someone who wasn’t a known financial institution expecting a massive return on their investment with no paperwork, I would say they were foolish. If they were a close friend / relative, I’d commiserate and use kinder language to their face, something along the lines of they’ve got to take better care of themselves and their finances.- because I am a kind person. Some people believe in tough love. I believe such a concept is to be used very sparingly.
IF you learn, THEN only temporarily.
IF you don’t/won’t learn, THEN you ARE a fool.
