diversionary tactics
Feints and decoys
Diversionary tactics are actions designed to draw attention away from something else—typically a main objective, sensitive topic, or uncomfortable truth.
The term comes from military strategy, where feints and decoy operations distract the enemy while the real attack unfolds elsewhere.
In everyday use, it describes rhetorical or behavioral misdirection: Bringing up her past mistakes was just diversionary tactics to avoid discussing his own.
Politicians, debaters, and children caught misbehaving all employ them.
- decoyFalse target for misdirection
- false flagOperation disguised as enemy's
- feintDeceptive mock attack
- misdirectionIntentional focus manipulation
- red herringIntentional misleading distraction
shiny object · stalling · distraction · changing the subject · shell game · sleight of hand · hide · rope-a-dope · playing possum · scapegoating · wag the dog · reframing · bait and switch · head fake · smoke screen · avoidance behavior · media manipulation · camouflage
- military tacticsflanking, maneuver, ambush, battle formations, combat maneuvers
- Special Opsspecial forces, special operations, black ops, covert ops, Navy SEALs
diversionary tacticsstraight talk
Honest, direct communication
candor · transparency · directness · laying cards on the table · getting to the point