Meet Maia: 19 years old, resident of Orkney. Describes herself as “very politically aware”. We’d agree.
Mike Galsworthy first drew our attention to her wise insights into the dirty tactics being exploited by Johnson and his gang.
She has made an exclusive follow up video for us…hopefully the first of many! She’s amazed, dismayed, frustrated by how easily people have been taken in by the Johnson schtick and she wants to help to drag the scales from people’s eyes.
We also enjoyed this thread from a mum on her very young magician’s mastery of the fake fail technique:
Boris Johnson has refined his act, meticulously portraying himself as the bumbling fool, the lovable rogue, ‘it was not me! How could I possibly have been so sadistic when I am so foolish, bluster bluster.’
An act he learned at school, one that diffuses and diverts trouble.
It isn’t obvious to most, but I knew it the second I saw it, here’s why:
When in primary school my youngest son (8 years old at the time) was putting together a performance for the school’s talent show. He was sharp as whip, highly intelligent and very, very funny.
It came naturally to him, inherited from his Liverpudlian grandmother, he could turn a joke quicker than we could process them. My little blond-haired, blue-eyed comedian who always presented with angelic looks and a cheeky grin.
He chose to perform magic tricks at the talent show, spending hours in his bedroom practising, refusing offers of help. Naturally I was worried, would he get it right? Would he be upset if it went wrong? Would he be nervous? Then the day came, he was confident and smiling with an air of assuredness that elevated my worry.
‘Don’t worry if it goes wrong son, it’s about taking part’ I said, my stomach churning.
Then they called his name and up he went onto the stage, setting out his table of tricks.Then he began, suddenly he was flushed and nervous, fluffing his words and presenting his tricks with trepidation and a forced smile. The audience clapped, cheered with encouragement. Then he performed his final trick, a card trick; he brought another child up to choose a card, then, to his horror, he got it wrong.
The crowd said ‘awww’ sympathetically and clapped harder, shouting out words of support but he looked so lost and tiny on that stage, mortified, on the brink of tears. He asked his assistant to go back to her seat and said thank you to the audience. I was immensely proud of him.
He looks down, lifts his face and a smile slowly appears on his little face, a cheeky glint in his eye, he holds up a card, presenting it just as the teacher begins to thank him for trying.
Yes, it’s THE card, the right card, and it takes a few seconds for us all to realise..
…that we had been duped The trick was more complicated than we had been lead to believe and he had performed it with meticulous precision.
There was an eruption of laughter and applause, relief washing over me, my son’s chest puffing with pride.There it was, my little, cheeky angel had pulled off a monumental bluff, and played us all by pulling on our heartstrings, by playing stupid.
He never stopped playing that trick, it was his ‘get out of trouble’ card. Playing the fool, playing stupid, and he played it well.
My 8 year old son taught me a valuable lesson in school that day. Haplessly getting it wrong garners far more attention than getting right, and playing the fool is the most effective way to hide true intention.
Boris Johnson is a magician who has mastered the art of deception.
Originally tweeted by JessicaΚαθ@Killer ClownsAren’tFunny!!😡 (@JessicaCheshi15) on 15/07/2021.
In short, when Johnson plays dumb, look for the dirty trick or hidden agenda covered up by his act…
