[PaulDavisThe1st]

and then I'd show him a news broadcast from last week, where the president of the United States of America literally said "War is peace".

[wavemode]

Is the use of "literally" here, and the use of quotes, meant to be taken literally (as in, he literally said this)?

Or is this the sense of "literally" which actually means "figuratively"?

[asdfasvea]

I love that we ruined our escape character in language.

We now need a new way to convey to listeners that our words need to be taken literally. Perhaps the VBA method and just double the 'literally's:

I took a flaming shot of tequila and my mouth is literally literally on fire

[PaulDavisThe1st]

The escape term is "actually". "My mouth is actually on fire".

[yakz]

A post to the Truth Social account for Donald Trump included: "The heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, will continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!"

That's the closest thing I'm finding. Not seeing reporting that he literally said "war is peace".

[rl1987]

That sounds more like "peace through superior firepower" rather than "war is peace".

[pphysch]

There's a vast gulf between "having" superior firepower as a deterrent and "using" superior firepower for mass murder, particularly against elementary schools and desalination plants. The latter is war, at its worst.

[nyeah]

Can we be literal? It means peace through using superior firepower to kill people.

[randallsquared]

Sure, but it's not equating the states of war and peace, but asserting that war is a method for achieving peace, presumably when everyone on the other side is incapable or undesirous of attacking or threatening same.

[tovej]

Are we forgetting the context of who started the war?

[xorcist]

Beatings will continue until morale improves?

You can't make this up.