In a hypothetical Venn diagram, one circle representing extremist Christians and the other fundamentalist capitalists, the lens-shaped overlap contains Sam Brownback, the newly re-elected governor of Kansas.
A few years ago, the question "can there be a soft dictatorship inside the EU?" would have been dismissed as an abstruse hypothetical for students of law and political theory.
Even as polls show the former secretary of state trouncing other Democratic contenders in a hypothetical primary, O'Malley has begun citing differences between him and Clinton on issues such as the minimum wage, social security benefits and a major trade deal brokered by the Obama administration that has irked progressives.
There is a long-running show on Italia 1 called Le lene and, a while back, three of its regulars, Trio Medusa, collared the Rome city official with responsibility for policing the stadium and took him through some hypothetical questions about what would happen if a female tourist was repeatedly struck in the face and the attackers took her camera.
The government used question time to pressure Labor to pass the carbon tax repeal package while Labor concentrated on picking apart the effect of the Abbott budget on the hypothetical family on $65,000.
"I would like to treat this as a hypothetical question because I don't think we have ever faced that situation," Bratza said.
At the same time, everyone knows which side Sweden would take in a hypothetical war: there has been a long tradition of collaboration in intelligence matters, and its armed forces snuggle as close to Nato as they can; Sweden is represented on more than 150 Nato committees, even if this figure represents only a fraction of Nato's formidable capacity to deploy committees.
Let's assume that Charlie, our hypothetical Ivy-bound high school senior, decides he's going to Yale and he's going to borrow to make up the shortfall.
Maybe all is fine at 32 pupils, but what about at 34, or 38, or 42? Which is not a hypothetical example, by the way, but the actual size of my own primary school class in the early 90s (complete with windowsill desks).
But even in places where Labour has an active local party, the advantage is hypothetical before the real campaign gets under way.
There is no need to leave that hanging as a hypothetical question, because after the polls closed on Thursday, we rapidly found out.
