The Blame Game – Everyone Can Play!
While perusing the news feed on facebook – yes, I admit it, I partake it that sordid activity once in a while, I read a bizarre post. “They said they had a plan. They didn't. They said there'd be enough vaccine. There isn't. They said they were ready. They aren't.” This was posted by a known Liberal which is all that needs to be said as my comments are not really about the person who posted this.
My first thought was, who are they? The Media? Those in the health profession? The Surgeon General (kidding!)? The Provincial Government? The Federal Government? The Politicians? If so, which ones? Who? Who said these things and who is being accused of not being prepared or saying “they” were when “they” were not?
See how easy The Blame Game is. You do not even have to have a specific target. You can just make random statements about anyone or anything and there it is. In this case, I am not really sure who is being blamed? I have a pretty good idea, but that is only because I know who the writer likes to write about.
It is so much more fun to play the blame game in politics than to have to go and do real research and use actual facts. No one really cares about statistics or real numbers anyway. They want to see some good old fashioned mud slinging.
Some good rules to follow when playing The Blame Game:
1) Never get too specific – you might get caught and end up in a law suit
2) Say enough to get the conversation going and then let others make the really libelous statements. This is a great rule as it really works. After the example I gave was posted, there were lots of people willing to add their two cents in and give it the extra zing to boot! All the initiator had to do was post the first arbitrary statement to get everyone riled up.
3) Target your audience – write, post or voice accusing statements where you know others will react in the manner in which you are trying to achieve. Making anti-Conservative statements at a Conservative function does not really make much sense when trying to win at The Blame Game.
4) As the initiator, always attempt to create a group think mentality as quickly as possible to distract yourself as the initiator. This way once your false, without merit, fact less or slanderous statements grow some legs there will be so many people repeating it, it will be extremely difficult to trace the origins of the statement.
5) Go big or go home. If you really want to discredit someone or an opposition party for your own gain, make sure you come up with something big. These small time rumors and innuendoes are really amateurish and a waste of everyone’s time. Fear tactics are a fantastic foundation of any smear campaign.
Good luck to all participants! I suspect I will be seeing many more players join in the coming weeks and months ahead.
