Thursday, May 10, 2018

Negging

When Donald Trump was running for the President of the United States, Nick Gillespie wrote in the Newsweek Magazine that Trump’s modus operandi is negging.
 
I have heard of leggings. I have heard of begging. Even heard of kegging. But never heard of the word “negging”. Have you?
 
According to New Statesman:
 
Negging, as it is called, is in essence a trick. The idea is to undermine a woman's confidence by making backhanded or snide remarks—give a compliment with one hand, and take away with the other. It is about control, putting the man in charge of the interaction by pushing the woman to earn his approval....
 
It gives a few examples. Here are a few of them.
 
“You look amazing. What have you done?”
 
“If your face was as good as your legs I'd have to marry you.”
 
“Nice eyes, even though one is bigger than the others.”
 
According to Mr. Gillespie, Mr. Trump was using this tactic against his opponents to make them vulnerable. He used this tactic against Mexicans (They bring drugs, they bring crime, but some of them are good people) and against his opponents (So and so is a good man but…..). Hillary Clinton was the worst Secretary of State but her husband was the best President.
 
Negging is an insult to undermine the self confidence of a woman so she might become more vulnerable to a guy’s advances. It is used as a pick up technique. Interject an insult during the initial conversation.
 
I understand it is being practiced around the world as a seduction technique.
 
Women use negging tactics against men? Sure they do. But I have read it is not that effective on men. If women have to get the attention of a man, they have other effective strategies.
 
PS: I heard this morning President Trump and Kim Jong Un will be meeting in Singapore on June 12. This is the first time a sitting US President will be meeting a leader of North Korea. I think Trump is using this “negging” tactics very well against Kim. Kim is falling for that, in my opinion. Trump called him a “rocket man” and at the same time called him a “smart cookie”. Trump said “North Korea will be met with fire and fury and frankly power, the likes of which this world has never seen before." Today Trump said it is nice of Kim to let the 3 prisoners go and we want to thank Kim who really was excellent.

18 comments:

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    1. Thanks for your comments Dee. Appreciate it.

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    2. Now that this got me thinking...i think it works on women because women are very harsh self critics and always find themselves lacking in things while comparing themselves with others...

      Btw one more word Jeggings....the word is a portmanteau of the words jeans and leggings...

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    3. Never heard of this before. Nice coinage.

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  2. Woah! Those examples makes it easy to understand the meaning now. Even I got to know about this word from you. It works on women because they are vulnerable or they undermine themselves?

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    1. Thanks for your comments Shesha. I don't know why it works on women. I have read that it is because some women are vulnerable.

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  3. No, I haven't heard of this word. You have explained it and its usage very well.

    Trump is indeed using various tactics to get deals closed. But I think he often goes overboard with his tactics. If you look at the churn rate among his staff, I don't know if his tactics are working always.

    Regarding the Kim summit, it's not Trump's tactics alone that are at work. That would be too simplistic. I am sure, the US too would have tacitly made concessions, though Trump is vociferously denying it.

    From the moment Kim extended the invitation and Trump surprisingly accepted it, it looked like this has been following a script. And, Trump is already saying that the summit would be success, though he is also saying in the same breath that he would walk out if the summit is not a success.

    So, there won't be any surprises -- if Trump sealed a deal, or his negging boomeranged.

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    1. Thanks Pradeep for your excellent observation regarding Trump-Kim summit. What we read in the papers are not the real stuff. There are many secret deals that are made between countries. If the summit is successful, Trump cannot claim sole credit. There are lot of other factors including South Korea and China. 18 House Republicans have nominated Trump for Nobel Peace Prize (even before the start of the summit meeting). This is ridiculous.

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    2. It won't be surprising, if Trump wins the Nobel. And, if that comes after he indeed does something substantial for world peace, that would be fine.
      Remember Obama won it within a year of becoming the President, and for doing practically nothing for world peace.

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    3. HaHaHa. You are correct. Obama got the Nobel Prize for doing nothing. He was awarded Nobel within 9 months of taking office. If I want to write about Obama, it will take a blog post. He was an accidental President. Mike Ditka refused to contest the Senate election from Illinois. If only Ditka contested the senate election Obama would have lost his deposit (Indian parlance) and nobody would have heard of Obama after that. Ditka (head coach of Chicago Bears) is more popular in Illinois than Tendulkar in Maharashtra.

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  4. Learnt a new word.It can be used to make left handed compliments not only to the womenfolk but to anyone.
    The bewildering variety of subjects dealt with is the hallmark of your blog!

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    1. Thanks for your comments Mr. KP. Bewildering variety of subjects? HaHaHa. I take this as a compliment.

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  5. The issue with manipulation is - manipulators subconsciously place huge faith in manipulation and hence are more vulnerable to better manipulation techniques (if not this negging, then something else).

    Nixon, for all his prowess and might, still failed to achieve what he wanted. Trump better be careful.

    Destination Infinity

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    1. Thanks for your comments Rajesh. Nixon thought the President of USA is very powerful, which is not. Nixon belonged to the Republican Party. Unfortunately for Nixon, during his time, Democrats controlled both the Senate and the House. So he could not get any help from them. Trump belongs to the Republican Party. And the Republicans control both the Senate and the House, so far. In that sense, Trump is lucky to have friends in the Senate and the House.

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  6. Interesting SG. I learnt something new. It works on women because they try hard to be accepted and treated on par and are vulnerable.

    W.r.t Kim Jong Un; he is not foolish to fall for negging. When Trump called Kim rocket man; Kim was quick to respond calling Trump a dotard. Kim will not buy Trump's false praises; he is after something big.

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  7. You bring forth such interesting topics. Negging is indeed a new word that I had not heard of. Like many people have commented above, I think it works well with women since they are more critical about themselves to begin with.

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  8. While the term negging is new to me, but I know a couple of people who use this pretty often.

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    1. Thanks for your comments Shilpa. Are they men using it against women?

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