…in your public speaking or memos or e-mails, or a prosecutor or plaintiffs’ attorney (not to mention a major newspaper) might try to persuade others to take you literally.
Don’t use sarcasm…
…in your public speaking or memos or e-mails, or a prosecutor or plaintiffs’ attorney (not to mention a major newspaper) might try to persuade others to take you literally.
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What makes you think that the comment had to be sarcasm? That is only how the defendant characterized his comment. Is there a possibility that it wasn’t sarcasm?
One can, with sufficient creativity, imagine a scenario by which an executive broke down and admitted criminal activity in front of seventeen executives in response to a critical analysts’ report and then only one of the people at the meeting remembered a statement with such dramatic ramifications, but sarcasm seems to be the much more likely explanation for the line “They’re on to us.”
Here’s a more permanent link.