• Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org
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    2 days ago

    Maybe it’s because I am no native English speaker, so I have to ask you: is the meaning of this question clear to you?

    “Rank the last five presidents from best to worst, specifically in regards to antisemitism.”

    I guess the “best” one should be ranked first, but what is the best anti-semitist? The strongest or the weakest of them?

    • LettyWhiterock@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      It’s vague still as a native speaker, I imagine most people’s first instinct would be that “best” would be least antisemitic and “worst” would be most. The meaning in wording like this comes from whether or not what you are ranking people on is good or bad. To most people, antisemitism is bad. (or at least I’d hope) So “best” would mean “least”.

      A better way of phrasing the question would just be to ask to rank them most to least antisemitic. That would be much less vague.