A deflection specialist is a person with extensive experience in diverting attention away from a trajectory presented by the outside world due to a build-up of resistance between that particular trajectory and their personal narrative. Otherwise, any weaknesses in their narrative would be easily discovered, attracting attention from those on the other side, encouraging them to exploit those weaknesses and potentially undermine the personal narrative altogether.
How one meets questions or statements in life, either on the spot or built-up over conversation or debate, solely depends on the charge that those things deliver. If I feel resistance from your remark, or if I don’t like where the line of thinking is heading, here is what goes on in the background:
I evaluate the strength of your position and adjust my response accordingly.
For instance, if your position is weak, I’ll tackle it head-on, thereby reinforcing my position by putting you in your proper place.
Alternatively, if your message is strong and I still don’t want to accept it, I’ll take larger measures:
In a typical scenario, I might use humour or another emotionally-charged effort to create the space I need by steering the conversation slightly off-topic. This move gives me ample time to prepare for my defence in the far background before resuming where we left off. Otherwise, I might place my attention on the messenger or the messenger’s approach to achieve a deflection from the more sensitive issue that is causing resistance.
In an extreme example of me losing to you in one-upmanship, I become an attack dog because ‘Offence is the greatest Defence’. Admittedly, it was that way in my previous life. I’ll hijack the topic with force and replace it with another one while slowly appealing to your emotion in a twist.
Once I feel that you are succumbing to a cascade of negative sensation, I will reverse the situation with counteracting positive emotion and act as a saviour towards you instead. In other words, I create ‘uncertainty’ for you, and then I offer the solution or a sense of ‘certainty’ that you will forever be grateful for. (You’re welcome.)
Deep down, if I’m able to briefly guide our attention away from a volatile trajectory that is about to devastate my personal narrative with a fact bomb (the ultimate F-bomb), it’s a win for me. This gives me even more time to run all the background checks needed so that I gather the right tools to defuse this impending threat once and for all.
My objective upon your strong message is to devalue it, or at least shift its explosive impact off my path and onto someone else’s. Usually, I would step back in time to paint a bigger picture of something worse off, as a way to rationalise my weakness while also planning a two-way emotional attack in the moments to come (to put you right off).
Overall, if I can show you a bigger, more threatening target along another route by discreetly shifting gears, this ‘convincing you’ creates enough sensationalism to take the blow off my exposed weaker narrative. Therefore, by essentially revealing something even weaker than my own weakness, while also taking you up and down in emotion, I gain the upper hand needed for a successful deflection.
This is the nature of a Deflection Specialist.