Confronting Bluster 😡💢🗯🗯


 So, what is bluster?

By definition:

-to speak or act in a noisy, angry, or threatening way without saying anything important

As good enough an explanation as any I guess, but it really doesn't say it all.

Back when I was a kid, there was always that kid on the teams that would lose at whatever game it was and get mad while blaming someone else for the loss, even though they'd been a major part in the loss.

So I naively assumed that bluster was only a sore loser thing. As I got older and worked I found out that it was also a tactic to try and scare others from fighting back.

So a poker reference here, it's very similar to someone going "all in" right away to discourage anyone from calling the bet.

Now, we see it quite often in politics, usually with doubling down if it's confronted.

In politics as a tactic, it's meant to scare the politician's opponents, but also to distract from the other things the politician has failed to deliver and/or actually wants to do.

The politician is in fact gambling and quite often with peoples lives or livelihood in the balance and it's always for their personal gain one way or the other.

So what do you do?

1. Call the bluff immediately?  ie. Call BS on what they said and go right back to the topic?

2. Go off and fact check what they said and come back later to prove them wrong?

3. Do nothing and just hope they were joking?

4. Anything else that you think you should do (everyone has their own way of dealing with things)

Note: There's only one wrong answer in the multiple choice above.

(At least from my point of view)


Thunder


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

That Uplifting Tweet You Just Shared? A Russian Troll Sent It

Image
Here’s what Russia’s 2020 disinformation operations look like, according to two experts on social media and propaganda. By   DARREN LINVILL   &   PATRICK WARREN Internet trolls don’t troll. Not the professionals at least. Professional trolls don’t go on social media to antagonize liberals or belittle conservatives. They are not narrow minded, drunk or angry. They don’t lack basic English language skills. They certainly aren’t  “somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds,”  as the president once put it. Your stereotypical trolls do exist on social media, but the amateurs aren’t a threat to Western democracy. Professional trolls, on the other hand, are the tip of the spear in the new digital, ideological battleground. To combat the threat they pose, we must first understand them — and take them seriously. MORE: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/russia-troll-2020-election-interference-twitter-916482/ P...
Read more

The Nightmare Scenario That Keeps Election Lawyers Up At Night -- And Could Hand Trump A Second Term

Image
The Nightmare Scenario That Keeps Election Lawyers Up At Night -- And Could Hand Trump A Second Term   (Photo: Photos: Getty Images) Americans will almost certainly go to bed on Nov. 3 without knowing who won the presidential election. Since millions of people will vote by mail, constraints on time and resources will slow ballot counting into potentially a weeks-long process. Voting patterns suggest it’s likely that President  Donald Trump  could end Election Day in the lead in certain key states, only to be overtaken by Democratic opponent  Joe Biden  when more votes are tallied.  This could create a nightmare scenario during the three months stretching from Election Day to the Jan. 20 inauguration: a battle on the state and congressional level over who is the legitimate winner. This could include Congress reconvening on Jan. 6, presided over by Vice President  Mike Pence , with no consensus over its potential role in choosing the next president. This...
Read more

Philosophical Question #14 – Lifestyle Choices

Image
Here is an interesting question in my list of philosophical questions: 1.) Should governments have penalties for those who live unhealthy lifestyles? A list of unhealthy lifestyles would include things like smoking, drinking, illegal drugs, prostitution, and other “vice” type activities. I guess the “government penalties” would be referring to monetary punishments, withholding medical treatments (insurance companies would love that), possibly imposing/regulating very high (exorbitant) prices on things considered unhealthy in order to cut down on their use, and other possibilities. 2.) Or, would you say that living an unhealthy lifestyle, likely resulting in a LOT of eventual personal pain and suffering, should be punishment enough for unhealthy lifestyles? When people make bad choices in life, often in their youth where ignorance and immediate gratification takes them over,  3.) Should a society be obligated to help "fix" them, by way of tax money?   Is that part of...
Read more