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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is lesson 157. Today we're going to look

  • at the difference between backfire and backlash. Students sometimes get confused

  • between these two. Let's look at the definitions first. If we talk about

  • backfire , backfire if a plan or task backfires it has the opposite result of

  • the one that was originally intended. But the one that was originally planned. Now

  • both of these actually come from like a weapon.. Backfire is the idea of somebody

  • shoots a gun but instead of the bullet going at the target the bullet went and

  • actually shot the person so the one, you ended up getting hurt yourself as

  • opposed to the target the one that you're aiming at. All right let's take a

  • look at backlash quick. Backlash a sudden strong angry response, especially a

  • delayed one usually to a political or social change. All right now remember

  • backlash also comes from the idea of like a whip , you know like a lash is in a

  • whip like when you whip someone. Each time you hit them that's a lash like in

  • the old movies or especially old pirate movies or something on the boats the

  • punishment that they gave somebody for doing something wrong . Every time you got

  • hit was a lash, so you got a punishment of 10 lashes. Each time you do it and

  • what's backlash? Backlash is the idea that when you try to hit somebody and you

  • pull it back, if you pull it back too and you get hit with your whip. So you also get

  • affected. Although generally there is a little bit of a delay because you hit

  • the person first. It's only on the way back that you actually end up hurting

  • yourself. All right let's continue a little bit more. The note here backlash

  • is more about an emotional response either to a new law or change in

  • society usually a response the general public did not at first realize the

  • severity of possible adverse , adverse you know very

  • negative effects. Yeah so that's that's it's a backlash is usually sometime

  • later. It probably would not be until after the

  • law is passed and then they see how bad it is and sometimes it even takes a

  • while for after its passed for you you really feel the effects of it. So the

  • backlash is often more delayed. It's a little bit later and it's more about

  • feelings it's more about response. Where you know backfire is more like the focus

  • is more on the opposite result. Okay so let's continue here. Therefore the

  • response tends to be more delayed because it is not fully, fully means

  • completely realized until the law or change goes into effect. Yeah so again

  • you don't realize it until later and that's you you don't really get angry

  • until you really feel it until it really affects you. Okay let's continue. Backlash

  • although negative is not exactly an opposite result of what was planned like

  • backfire.Backfire is like the total opposite. But rather angry emotional

  • feelings and criticism. A lot of people you know complaining. That's supposed to

  • be the noise of complaining. All right let's just look at some examples then. Number one that company's investment in this project completely backfired.

  • Instead of a boon, you know something good they thought they were going to

  • make a lot of profit from it for the company it nearly caused it to go

  • bankrupt. So it had almost the complete opposite effect so it completely backfired. Okay , let's look at number two.

  • After Obamacare went into effect there was a great backlash by the public. After

  • they discovered the Affordable Health Care Act was anything but affordable. So

  • it ended up being a lot more expensive and it just continued to get more

  • expensive and more expensive each year. that it was going further and

  • further into effect. Yeah he kind of delayed a lot of the things about the

  • law until really the worst part is almost until he was out of office so he

  • didn't get to get a lot of the criticism until later and so of course that is

  • what we mean by a backlash so a lot of people are that are complaining about it

  • and you know over the years as they felt it you know when this law went into

  • effect a lot of the Democrats in the US had a wide majority and both in the

  • Congress and they kept losing and losing and losing where it was almost the

  • opposite when he finally left office. Okay well I hope you got it. I hope you

  • enjoyed it thank you for your time. Bye-bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is lesson 157. Today we're going to look

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