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.