'Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer, And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer...'


Teaching us to sneer...


Damn with faint praise, assent with civil leer,
And without sneering, teach the rest to sneer;
Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike,
Just hint a fault, and hesitate dislike.

— "Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot" by Alexander Pope (1688–1744)

As TOP 09 implodes, Andrej Babis damns with faint praise, a master schooled by masters before him in the poisonous art of character assassination.

What better way to turn TOP 09 against itself than for its arch enemy to insinuate that the party’s very own leader in Prague was working for you all along.

Here is Babis reacting to the news that Hudecek had resigned his membership in TOP 09:

“I am not against working with him. He has the right experience. I don’t know of any monkey business he’s involved in. He must decide for himself. He certainly knows why he did it and what he must do now.” (see here)

Without openly sneering himself, Babis teaches the rest of us to sneer at Hudecek and his motives. Babis is ‘willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike’, knowing that half-hearted praise is much more damning than abuse.

If you want my advice, Mr Hudecek, you should now compliment Babis on his destructive powers, and invite him, impolitely, to go to hell. Or you may send your voters to hell, grab the 'lifeline' that Babis is offering you and hang yourself with it.