Sort-of memes that are cracking you up at the moment

I assumed tester was making the (ever so slightly hair-splitting) point that Machiavelli was a Renaissance SPAD, not a political leader, and that it's more appropriate to call Cummings Machiavellian than Bojo.

ever so slightly hair-splitting

Moi?

Why?

Machiavelli is not the prince any more than Frankenstein is the creature. It's not a perfect analogy, since calling the behaviour "princely" is pretty vague unless you specify that you're talking about the kind of Prince described by Machiavelli.

I don't think there's any strategy to Boris

That's one possibility, and I'm usually the first to point out that one should not ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity, but it is also possible that letting people think he lacks strategy is a convenient cover for an extremely cynical strategy.

So the trick is to be the right amount of stupid (maybe with a sprinkle of cunning)?

Or have cunning cronies.

the trick is to be the right amount of stupid

The trick in a democracy is correctly to gauge the amount of stupid in the electorate.

I’m still not sure I follow, as Machiavellian used as an adjective has rarely, if ever, been used to convey that the subject is literally a prince or has a royal title. Given that Machiavelli was an author and philosopher, it would be expected that his surname be used as an adjective in the same way other authors’ and philosophers’ names are used: Orwellian, Hobbesian, Socratic, Kantian... In Machiavelli’s specific case, it denotes a particular philosophy for political leaders.

On the other hand, Dr. Viktor Frankenstein’s creature has become popularly known as Frankenstein but that is technically wrong as it’s not given that name in the book. However, legally, a case could be made that it is a correct usage, insofar as a living being would be expected to have its proprietor/discoverer/creator’s surname, much like pets at the vet or bacteria in a lab. Most people believe the creation’s given name is Frankenstein, and they are wrong, but they might accidentally be right about its family name, we’d have to consult a local legal historian.

Tldr- you might be using Machiavellian wrong. Or at least in an unusual way*

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirrors_for_princes

I agree that the term Machiavellian is totally appropriate, there’s no parallel with the Frankenstein confusion. The theories on statecraft in The Prince are Machiavelli’s and the convention is to name his ideas in that way.
The Prince is not the one who holds the views expounded in the book.

Pron: Fronkensteen.

Noted.
*wait, do you mean your own or the creature’s?

FFS: It's pronounced Frakensteen!

Cue Oliver

Machiavellian used as an adjective has rarely, if ever, been used to convey that the subject is literally a prince or has a royal title

That's not the point. The adjective, as commonly used, means "behaving as Machiavelli's Prince would". As a construction, though, it's natural meaning would seem to be "behaving as Machiavelli did"

you might be using Machiavellian wrong

Nah, I use it the same way everybody else does, despite feeling weird about it.
I know what people will take from that usage, and to the extent that I want to convey that I will follow the herd. In contradistinction to Humpty Dumpty, I accept that words mean what you want them to mean, not what I want them to mean 🙂

Enough not memes

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Fronkensteen pls

Yanni

Hate to say it, but you’ve hit the nail on the head there.

That’s an interesting point of view. Will DM.

interesting point of view. Will DM

Not that interesting 🙂

No, but it is interesting. ;)

Only if you agree that most people have an inkling of what Machiavelli set out in The Prince vs. his other works. The man spent +10 years advising political leaders before writing The Prince, and his ideas were pretty consistent (at least until his later very impactful Discourses which have a few possible contradictions).

I have no idea what you are all on about, bit it makes kinda sense.

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How can I get my iPhone to stop auto-correcting English words into Spanish when my keyboard is in English?

Apparently the autocorrect dictionary is all the languages for which you have keyboards installed, regardless of which keyboard you're using. Do you have a Spanish keyboard installed? If you do and you don't need it, uninstalling it should fix the problem. Otherwise, you'll just have to learn to spell in English 🙂

I'm guessing this would also be a thing on Android, but all my alternative keyboard layouts use different alphabets, so it doesn't come up.

How can I get it to stop auto-correction ‘Escocia’ (Scotland) to ‘Escocía’ (stung)?

Capitalisation should help it to know the difference, as should context. On the other hand, for all the cleverness underlying the autocorrect algorithms, I think they sometimes just want to duck with our heads

Do you have a Spanish keyboard installed?

Yes, but it doesn’t happen with any other keyboard languages 🤔

Otherwise, you'll just have to learn to spell in English 🙂

Lufguss fact check is much quicker and less effort. 👍

Thanks for the answer, guess I’ll keep angering my amigos from Escocía.