It is the season of hyperbole. Conservative columnists are finding parallels for Dan Andrews’ pandemic policy in Mao’s Great Leap Forward; CNN anchors have seen precedents for Donald Trump’s speeches in the posturing of Mussolini. Best of all, the septuagenarian American cellar-dweller has accused his opponent of killing 200 million of his countrymen; a butcher’s bill which dwarfs the combined efforts of every despot in recorded history.