Heterogenium (he’-ter-o-gen-i-um): Avoiding an issue by changing the subject to something different. Sometimes considered a vice.
Teddy: “I like a good salsa made with fresh ingredients. You should try some of mine.”
Ronald: “Let’s go to the track today and play the ponies.”
Teddy: “What about my salsa?”
Ronald: “I’m betting on the long shots.”
Teddy: “Ok ok, forget about the salsa. What time do we leave for the track?”
Ronald: “Three. I’m driving.“
Teddy: “Ok.“
See how Ronald successfully averted a conflict by changing the subject. Ronald hated salsa and had hundreds of reasons for doing so. His most pointed reason circled around his chronic xenophobia. He secretly worked for DHS as an “Illegal Immigrant Snagger” (IMS). He had recently been issued a pair of electric-shock gloves and as was itching to try them out on some unsuspecting Mexican working in one of the burrito vans parked down by the city park.
He believed that, just like Jesus, it was his divine duty to inflict as much pain on people in the U.S. illegally. He was a part of a cult that bent the Bible to their baseless prejudiced views. They argued that “illegals” were only neighbors when they stayed in their own countries, as in our “Canadian neighbors” to the North, or “Mexican neighbors” to the South. Once they “crossed the line” they were no longer neighbors and should not be treated as such. They should be captured and deported back to being neighbors, beloved so long as they stayed on their side of the line and didn’t trespass on the U.S.A.’s sacred soil.
Of course, this was insane and genuinely evil, but so was the President who issued a flurry of executive orders every day outlining different ways of inflicting hardships on the “interloping, seditious, disease-carrying illegals who are eating dogs and cats—their pets—in Michigan and are to be choked with electrical bully gloves until they leave our shiny city on a hill.”
These are unconstitutional fighting words and the executive orders are consequently blocked by the courts, and the so-called dog- and cat-eating aliens are allowed to stay on the “sacred soil” and appeal their deportations.
Ronald was a racist bigoted pig and proud of it. His immigrant deportation “tally” was the highest of any DHS goon, and he was proud of it. Nevertheless, he concealed his DHS affiliation from his friend Teddy who was a Democratic Socialist hell bent on bringing Trump down. Ronald had befriended Teddy to gather intelligence, hoping to get a promotion. He was going to put “likes Salsa” on the list he was compiling that would implicate Teddy in treason, and hopefully lead to him being hanged.
So, the lesson here: beware of people who change the subject. They may be aspiring spies like Ronald, taking notes on your unpatriotic foibles and preferences, and renegade intention to contribute to the overthrow of the U.S. government.
Do not trust subject-changers. They are your enemy, like Ronald was Teddy’s enemy.
The Daily Trope 