Let’s pretend for a moment that Alex Jones was more reputable than Rachel Maddow—which is to say that a greater percentage of the country found Jones trustworthy than found Maddow trustworthy. In this numerical accounting with our polarized society, is it possible that Jones would be far more reputable than Maddow?

No.

So what’s the point of using “far” as a modifier? It’s a flourish designed to evoke Trumpian rhetoric. And why did Donald Trump always use grandiose modifiers to describe the world around him? Because using a superlative to describe an assertion that is at best debatable and at worst patently untrue is the equivalent of issuing a dare.

If you say that you’re doing a good job, people can argue the merits. If you say you’re doing by far the best job of anyone ever, you’re daring people to come and contradict you.

Which brings us to why J.D. Vance is so very, very thirsty.