Thought-Terminating Cliché

Slow_Hand

Recently someone referred to Trump as "playing 4D chess", which in the context of our conversation felt like hand waving to absolve anyone of having to come up with a coherent explanation for Trump's policies. It has since gone into my lexicon of thought-terminating cliches. It's not that Trump doesn't have a coherent reason for some of his policies, but it very much felt like a dismissal of thinking along the lines of "His strategy is too advanced for us to know what games he's playing, so I don't have to explain it."

zug_zug

I mean interesting article, but I think I would consider them more "conversation -terminating" than "thought-terminating." Like if somebody says "It is what it is" I take that to mean mean "I'm done hearing you complain about this."

in-silico

I've noticed the existence of something like "thought promoting cliches" in my life that when said, usually half-jokingly, cause me to think more about something than I otherwise would. The prime example is "this says a lot about society"