251
submitted 5 days ago by Vanth@reddthat.com to c/til@lemmy.world

"dead cat strategy" or "deadcatting" is when a shocking statement is made to divert media attention away from problems or failures in other areas.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] artwork@lemmy.world 21 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Thank you for the reference!
At some military task, I recall someone shared a thought from a TV show they watched, the one I do still remember. I am not very experienced in Russian language, though I've been into it for at least a decade, mostly for art, and the job assignments around the globe.

That is, the TV show was/is called "Что? Где? Когда?", which if I am not mistaken, may be translated to "What? Where? When?".
Generally, the show is about teams who compete in answering various challenging questions sharing experience, erudition, and dedication in subjects.

Back then, I invested quite of time to actually find the excerpt... and I still have the page in bookmarks! It is still online! It was long ago indeed...

The excerpt the colleague mentioned was the following found (translated from Russian, and its verbatim below):

# Question

We fuss about. As we start fussing in the morning, so we fuss until the evening, and tomorrow as well, and thus a whole life passes in great fuss. One philosopher realized this circumstance, and he also realized that it is not within human power to diminish this great fuss. Having realized this circumstance too, he fell into thought. And while thinking, this philosopher drew a line and called this line the Great Fuss. As we know, it is not within human power to reduce fuss, to diminish it. And yet, how, without diminishing the Great Fuss, can one reduce it? Or, how, without reducing it, can one diminish it?

# Answer...

This great philosopher understood. And having understood, he drew next to this line another fuss, greater in scale... And then, in the eyes of a person, the former fuss turned out to be small. The moral is that only human activity greater in scale, dedicated to greater ideas and tasks, can diminish our fuss. And nothing more! Your point, thank you.

Source: 12.12.1998 The fourth game of the winter series

Verbatim/Original

# Вопрос

Суетимся. Как с утра начинаем суетиться, так до вечера суетимся, и назавтра тоже, и так вся жизнь проходит в большой суете. Один философ понял это обстоятельство, и понял так же то, что не в силах человека уменьшить эту большую суету. Поняв и это обстоятельство, он задумался. А задумавшись, этот философ провёл черту, и назвал эту черту Большой суетой. Как мы знаем, не в силах человека сокращать суету, уменьшать её. И всё-таки, как, не уменьшая Большую суету, сократить её? Или, как, не сокращая, уменьшить?

# Ответ...

Этот великий философ понял. А поняв, он провёл рядом с этой чертой другую суету, бóльшую по масштабам... И тогда в глазах человека прежняя суета оказалась маленькой. Мораль такова, что только бóльшая по масштабам деятельность человека, посвящённая бóльшим идеям и задачам, может уменьшить нашу суету. И более ничего! Ваше очко, спасибо.

Source: 12.12.1998 Четвёртая игра зимней серии

The thing is I haven't found the name of the actual philosopher still...
Do you have any idea who he is?

[-] sukhmel@programming.dev 4 points 5 days ago

I wonder if there was no known philosopher with that idea and the question author speaks of themselves in third person 🌚

this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2026
251 points (98.8% liked)

Today I Learned

31562 readers
466 users here now

What did you learn today? Share it with us!

We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must begin with TIL. Linking to a source of info is optional, but highly recommended as it helps to spark discussion.

** Posts must be about an actual fact that you have learned, but it doesn't matter if you learned it today. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.**



Rule 2- Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding non-TIL posts.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-TIL posts using the [META] tag on your post title.



Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.

If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.

For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.

Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.



Partnered Communities

You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.

Community Moderation

For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS