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How Big Words Can Blow Up in Your Face...
Leave it to Robert Reich to toss around phrases like “hoisted on his own petard” as if we’re all sitting in a tenured seminar sipping Earl Grey and not scrolling Instagram while microwaving leftover chow mein.

Reich—former Labor Secretary, Harvard man, and live human thesaurus—was recently caught describing someone (probably Trump, let’s be real) as having been “hoisted on his own petard.” And while that sounds like a fancy way of saying “got what was coming,” let’s unpack it for those of us who didn’t major in Shakespearean Fart Jokes.

What in the Actual Petard?
First off, a petard is not a fancy cheese or a borderline word for dogs, cats, and turtles on the spectrum.  It’s a medieval bomb. Yeah—like, an actual explosive people used to blow holes in castle walls. “Hoisted,” in this context, means “blown sky-high.” So, when Bobby R. says someone was “hoisted on their own petard,” what he’s actually saying is:

“This guy just got launched into the air by his own homemade grenade.”

When Ivy League Smarts Meet Colonial Gas

Now don’t get me wrong—Robert Reich is a smart guy. But there’s a kind of elite intellectualism that insists on cloaking every simple thought in triple-layered metaphor and a touch of 17th-century pageantry.

A normal person would say: “He shot himself in the foot.”

Reich says: “He was hoisted on his own petard.”
It’s like calling a spilled coffee a “thermally accelerated brown liquid misallocation.” Bro, it’s a sizzlin' dunks daak roast. Settle it down, Shakespeare. 

There’s something delightful about the fact that one of the highest-functioning minds in American political commentary is out here casually referencing medieval explosive metaphors in a 21st-century 'tweet war'. Meanwhile, the rest of us are just trying to remember if we locked the front door or not.

The Real Lesson?
When someone like Reich drops a line like that, it’s not just a turn of phrase—it’s a flex. It’s a way of saying, “I went to Oxford and I want you to know it."

What your friend from Southie would have said was: "Dude played himself. Boom.”
It’s quicker. Cleaner. And doesn’t require a glossary or a Google search. Or, freakin' AI. 

Final Thought from the Boston American Bench
So here’s to you, Robert Reich: King of the Witty Word Bomb. We may not all carry around a thesaurus in our arse pockets, but thanks to you, we now know that even the fanciest insult has roots medieval warfare.

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Want to sound smarter and still be funny?
Stick with The Boston American.
We'll keep translating elite intellect into everyday sarcasm, one petard at a time in our rolling glossary.

​(BTW, did you know the french word for fart is 'pet'? See, it just keeps coming.)

A Boston American Gut Check on What's Happening to Our Politics and Our Way of Life.

Let’s not sugarcoat it.
We’ve gotten really good at tuning things out. Headlines. Tweets. Soundbites. Sirens. Conspiracy threads. Breaking news. Breaking us.
Every day feels like an avalanche of noise. And somewhere along the way, a lot of people decided it’s just easier to shrug it all off with a “Meh, it’ll pass.”
But I’m here to tell you:
This is real.
Not cable-news real.
Not social-media outrage real.
Not performative-panic real.

Actual real. Like historical moment real.

We live in a society so tech-wired, so endlessly distracted, so bloated with data, dopamine, and disinfo, that it’s become second nature to brush off the serious stuff. We scroll by threats to democracy like they’re bad Yelp reviews.

• “Just wait three years. It'll correct itself.”
• “It’s all performative politics.”
• “Relax, the system works.”

That’s the lullaby of complacency.
It worked for a while.
Hell, two decades ago you’d be hard-pressed to argue with it.
But not now.
Now, something’s shifted.


What’s Different This Time?
Authoritarianism isn’t kicking in the door with a uniform and a tank anymore.
It’s slinking in, smiling.
It’s cloaked in suits, slogans, and “just doing what you asked.”
It’s powered by likes, algorithms, and billion-dollar media echo chambers.

In a (new) word, it's "Bullytics".
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Glossary Check in:
"Echo Chambers"
Webster: An environment in which a person only encounters information or opinions that reflect and reinforce their own. Often created by social media algorithms, curated news feeds, and selective exposure.
Boston American: It’s like sitting in a bar watching a Yankees/Sox game where everyone sounds like you, drinks the same beer, and boos at the same time—and you start thinking this is happening everywhere else except in New York. You're caught up in the echo and camaraderie, and it feels so-good, so-good.

"Bullytics"
Webster: A blend of bullying and politics, describing the use of threats, public shaming, coercion, and humiliation as tools for political power.
Boston American: When the loudmouth who should be working for you runs the country like a schoolyard. Mocking the press, trashing opponents, and turning every GD disagreement into a loyalty test. Less public service, more performance punishment. It’s not politics. It’s domination dressed up with a lapel pin.
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But, most times, it’s not loud. It’s lulling. And while we’re waiting for the big dramatic moment—the coup in the rotunda, the dictator on the balcony—we’re missing the real erosion happening right under our noses:

• Courts packed with loyalists.
• Cruelty disguised as Patriotism.
• Institutions and free speech pushed into a corner. 
• Truth treated as optional.

And most dangerously?
A citizenry half asleep, half disgusted, and mostly disconnected from what’s actually going on. You'd almost think the US flag lapel pins every politician has turns everything out of their mouths into candy canes.   



Why the Old Wisdom Doesn’t Cut It Anymore
Your grandpa’s version of “ride it out” doesn’t apply here.
Back then, politics moved slower. There were more gatekeepers. Less weaponized information. Less tech.
When democracy got threatened, people didn’t wait for an online poll to decide what side they were on. They showed up.
Even without the internet, TV, or radio, they found each other.
They linked arms around their allegiance to democracy itself.
They knew the cost of silence.

They knew “it can’t happen here” was exactly what people thought before... right before it did.


So Let’s Say It Plain:

• If you think fascism only shows up with a swastika and a salute, you’ve already missed the new uniform.
• If you think we’re “too advanced” for dictatorship, remember: most of history’s worst regimes came after periods of high art, high learning, and high comfort.
• If you think it’s “just noise,” ask yourself why the noisemakers are spending so much money to keep you numb.

What We Still Have—And Must Use
We still have tools.
We still have time.
We still have each other.
But we need to snap out of it.
Not just vote.

GET INFORMED. Speak out. Call bullshit. Protect each other.
Be one of those people who actually gives a damn before it’s trendy again.
This isn’t about one candidate, or one party.

This is about "Being American" and fighting for what that means while everyone else is pulling the covers up. 

'F' "Freedom". It’s about whether truth, law, trust, and civic strength will survive if nobody takes anything seriously anymore - until it’s too late.


Final Thought...
Look, maybe you think this is all dramatic.
But here’s what’s more dramatic:
Waking up one day in a country, or a coffee shop you don’t feel comfortable in,
with no one around you who can relate,
and realizing the collapse wasn’t an explosion…
It was a slow leak you and your friends ignored.

THIS IS REAL.
So, get your shit together. 

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LERN Module: Seeing Through the Noise
Title: Recognizing Real-World Consequences in a Distracted Democracy
Audience: Middle & High School Students, Educators, and Parents
Key Concepts: Echo Chambers, Civic Erosion, Algorithmic Influence, Authoritarian Drift
Includes: Group Discussion Prompts, Sample Lesson Plan, Suggested Media Literacy Exercises
Goal: Help students recognize when something actually matters and how to distinguish genuine threats from distraction theatre.

None of us need more screen time. What we need is a passion and capacity to become critical thinkers... American citizens who believe strongly that clarity and consciousness is a must if we wish to maintain the American way of life.