Truth flies out the window

Reader question:

Please explain “truth flies out the window” in this sentence: Where emotions are high, truth flies out the window.

My comments:

When people get emotional, sometimes – make that often times, people are the way they are – they begin to throw tantrums and tell untruths, or half-truths or simply bare-faced lies. And if all people are like that in a room, truth has no place to go but go straight out of the window.

That’s speaking metaphorically, of course, meaning that if truth were a bird, it would flutter its wings and fly out of the room through the window. In other words, the room with its madding crowd is no place for truth to live.

Anyhow, when emotions are high, i.e. when people let emotions get the best of them, they may lose their cool along with all their sense of reason, logic and fair-mindedness. From that point on, they may begin to believe that if their voices were louder, then they would win the argument, or if their arms were bigger, they’d win the dispute.

In such an atmosphere, people no longer have use for adhering to truth and using persuasion to win the argument or settle the dispute.

Therefore, truth has to go, to get the heck out – from the window (all the doors are, needlessly to say, closed and locked).

Anyways, as a metaphor, if truth or something else good and treasurable, such as reason, morality, justice, etc. is said to go or fly out the window, it’s gone. It disappears. It ceases to exist. You don’t have it no more.

Well, no more ado. Here are recent media examples of various things going or flying out the window:

1. Anne Hathaway learned that messing with the Kardashian family could get you into trouble.

The Alice Through the Looking Glass star shared a meme of costar Helena Bonham Carter that read, “In a world of Kardashians, be Helena Bonham Carter.” Hathaway quickly deleted the post after she received some mean comments, but then posted an apology picture that had a message that said, “Post removed for unintended shade thrown.”

Hathaway further explained herself in the photo’s caption. “It never occurred to me I was pitting anyone against each other. Not my style. Peace x,” she wrote.

She didn’t harp on the social media faux pas for too long, though, as she had to attend the Hollywood premiere of her latest Disney film. The Oscar-winning actress and new mom looked stunning in a floral Christopher Kane dress. She’s also caught up being a new mom to son Jonathan Rosebanks Shulman, so she has plenty on her plate, but she’s learning to adapt.

“I’d say the biggest change is I’m really not sweating the small stuff,” she told E! News’ Catt Sadler at the premiere, “but my son’s at home and he’s fed and he’s happy so there’s nothing else that I’m worried about.”

Not even sleeping! That went out the window as soon as her baby boy was born.

“Honestly, I haven’t slept in eight weeks. I have no idea what I’m saying,” the actress previously told us exclusively. “This is probably going to go down as not the most normal interview on E! News.” Jokes aside, Hathaway shared that she is doing “very, very well” since giving birth. Like any person, however, she does have her regrets, but she has learned over time that you can’t change the past, so you might as well focus on the future.

“One of the things that I love about the movie is you can’t change the past. I think that it’s kind of easy to fixate on the past and what you could have done differently—the coulda, woulda, shouldas—and that just doesn’t really help you. The point of going through things—well, in many instances—is to fail upwards,” the 33-year-old star told us. “You can’t change the past but you can take the lesson with you, you know?”

The lesson learned this time: don’t mess with social media.

- Anne Hathaway Apologizes for Throwing “Unintended Shade” at the Kardashians, EOnline.com, May 24, 2016.

2. Hillary Clinton and her supporters went into election night feeling hopeful, confident even. A vast majority of pollsters, polling aggregates, and political pundits had the former secretary of state with a steady national lead throughout the campaign and a robust variety of possible paths to victory on the electoral map.

Yet as Clinton’s campaign staff, celebrity pitchpeople, and supporters rallied together at the Javits Center in New York City Tuesday night, which appropriately has a glass ceiling, all predictions quickly went out the window, and Trump’s oft-speculated “hidden voters” turned out en masse. By 11 p.m., Trump’s surge started to solidify and Clinton’s imminent defeat started to sink in.

- From hope to despair, Vice News, November 9, 2016.

3. It looks like Jay Cutler has used up all the goodwill he earned after leading the Bears to an upset win over the Vikings in Week 8.

Apparently, the goodwill went out the window after Chicago’s 36-10 loss to the Buccaneers on Sunday.

According to Bleacher Report's Mike Freeman, most of the Bears' locker room “has given up on Cutler.” Freeman also added that at least one player felt that Cutler’s preparation for the Tampa game was “truly embarrassing.”

The irony here for Bears fans is that they probably felt like Cutler didn't prepare at all for the game. In the 26-point loss, Cutler played one of the worst games of his 11-year career, which is saying a lot, because Cutler has played some bad games.

In the loss, Cutler threw for 182 yards and a touchdown, along with two interceptions, which is even worse than it sounds. Cutler's total would’ve been absolutely atrocious if he hadn’t connected on a 50-yard Hail Mary for a touchdown right before halftime. If you take that out, then Cutler threw for 132 yards with zero touchdowns and two interceptions.

Speaking of those picks, Cutler turned the ball over three times, all in the first 16 minutes of the game. On the Bears’ second possession, Cutler threw an interception, which was followed up by a pick-six on Chicago's next possession.

Cutler would also lose a fumble two possessions later, which means he turned the ball over three times on four possessions and gave the Bucs a free touchdown with the pick-six. Cutler also handed Tampa two more points in the third quarter when one of his fumbles turned into a safety.

- Most of the Bears’ locker room has reportedly given up on Jay Cutler, CBSSports.com, November 14, 2016.

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.