r/AskReddit • u/AuthorConfident9386 • 13h ago

Men, what’s one small, seemingly insignificant thing you’ve noticed that can be a telltale sign of the difference between a genuinely good man and a bad one?

3.1k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

88% Upvoted

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

87

u/EMRaunikar 12h ago

It's a weird consistency that I keep wanting to disprove, but when someone says the words 'blah blah blah' when recounting an interaction, they end up behaving in a dishonorable way down the line. Don't know why, but it's become a quiet red flag that makes me watch more closely what I say and what I hear.

32

u/Bonch_and_Clyde 12h ago

This was kind of a Seinfeld episode. George is dating a woman who used "yada, yada, yada" to gloss over stories, and when he investigates it ends up that she's using it to hide actual criminal behavior.

4

u/flamedarkfire 8h ago

I was reminded of a quote I remember from that episode! “You can’t yadda yadda the best part!”

1

u/Funandgeeky 4h ago

"No, I mentioned the bisque."

1

u/thething827 1h ago

Kind of like how Jerry "yada yada yada'ed" a 17 year old

16

u/elciteeve 12h ago

I think there are two ways to use this. The first is not caring about the other person so they can't be bothered to account their words or events. The other is a goal of brevity.

She was talking about her mom and blah blah blah so here we are

Vs

Sorry I'm late boss, the kids are sick and of course today the dog gets out of the house, then because I was late i got stuck at a train and blah blah blah so yeah, I'm here finally.

27

u/palmchill 11h ago

“Blah blah blah” can be a mild and humorous self awareness - like I am rambling on and poking fun at myself.

On the other hand, it can be because someone is lying and they’re wishing to skip over things that do not add up or expose inconsistency

7

u/Sullyville 10h ago

Yeah, I think if you do it to yourself, it's self-deprecation, not wanting to waste someone else's time. It's only when you say blah blah blah about something someone else said that it becomes dismissive.

1

u/GingerSkwatch 1h ago

I replied before I read your reply. I’ll just return to lurking, now. “Blah, blah, blah, that’s what I was gonna say….”😂😂😂

2

u/BelonyInMyLeftPocket 9h ago

What if my memory is just awful?

1

u/GingerSkwatch 1h ago

“Blah, blah, blah” about yourself is self deprecating (which is a good sign), but about others is often a sign that one doesn’t entertain thoughts or ideas outside of their own.

34

u/SteadfastEnd 12h ago edited 11h ago

I think its because saying "blah blah blah" is often a sign of a dismissive or contemptuous personality.

2

u/MattieShoes 10h ago edited 9h ago

For me at least, it's a sign that "I know way too much about this niche subject and you don't GAF so I'mma cut it short."

Like for funzies this weekend, I wrote a program to give Elo scores to American football teams. I could talk for an hour about how I initialize the ratings, what an appropriate K factor for the Elo algorithm for American football is, how much is home field advantage worth, should K factor vary in different parts of the season, should home field advantage vary in different parts of the season, should we weight blowouts as "more" of a win than close games, what root mean square is for discovering the right values, what simulated annealing is.... blah blah blah.

3

u/LionFishTamer 11h ago

My best friend from childhood does this and I think you nailed it. Im going to be hyper aware of it now but often he is being dismissive and trying to keep the details of the story in his favor. I sometimes just let him rant but when i ask questions it often ends in me saying he sounds like the asshole in the situation. He never really changes but I still call him on his bs. I just never realized its often when “blah blah blah” gets used. It may just be a dismissive personality entirely.

3

u/Morichalion 11h ago

I'd generalize that to include being dismissive of relevant details on important interactions. I agree with you, though.

4

u/milky_pichael 12h ago

this is such an interesting one. makes sense to me, 'blah blah blah' is dismissive at best and deceptive at worst.

3

u/AuthorConfident9386 12h ago

This is the most interesting one ive read!

3

u/Iamhethatbe 12h ago

I was watching a true crime interrogation and the teenager who did the killing said "blah blah blah" like three times so you may be on to something.

1

u/honeybunnylegs 8h ago

have you ever watched someone say blah blah blah who isnt a murderer?

2

u/Morichalion 11h ago

I'd generalize that to include being dismissive of relevant details on important interactions. I agree with you, though.

2

u/robotlasagna 10h ago

What about “yada yada yada”?

2

u/Kind-Individual-9679 9h ago

Just the opposite if they say “dang”

1

u/WinterLawfulness3165 9h ago

Seinfeld did an entire episode on this general concept with the Yadda Yadda Yadda episode.

1

u/RichardBonham 9h ago

I have a feeling that short answers are often (though not always) a sign of falsehood or a lack of intelligence.

1

u/FarFarSector 5h ago

Similarly, using passive voice to remove accountability or responsibility. There was a dude who I used to be friends with who worked as a mailman. He said one day "My mailtruck ran over a mailbox." Take a guess who was driving the mail truck?

1

u/Fancy_Elk565 4h ago

I agree with this, but it only applies when bla bla bla is used to replace something important or meaningful that they are glazing over and probably shouldn’t be 

1

u/thething827 1h ago

omg this is so funny to me.

-1

u/DukeRedWulf 12h ago

".. a quiet red flag.."

Assuming you're not an AI, just a heads-up: this kind of usage of "quiet" is a classic red flag for LLM "writing"..

10

u/BucolicsAnonymous 12h ago

wut. we really can't describe things as 'quiet' anymore? would 'subtle' be less LLM-y?

2

u/Morichalion 11h ago

No. The AI's I use tend to have 'subtle' all the time.

You're boned.

If it's any consolation... I'm sure the Duke here is a bot, too. We're all bots. I'm a bot. You're a bot. He's a bot....

1

u/DukeRedWulf 11h ago

You can (over-)use it, but don't be surprised if people suspect LLM writing.. It's just one of those weird "ticks" that LLMs seem to have got stuck on, so it pops up pretty often in AI gen text..

Yeah, 'subtle' would work in context - LLMs don't seem to use 'quiet''s synonyms as often..

3

u/EMRaunikar 10h ago

Would an AI call you a FAS-riddled puddle-sucking slack-jawed son of a bitch's bastard?

3

u/DukeRedWulf 9h ago

It might, if it had its guard-rails removed, and it wasn't able to parse the negative in the first clause of my response.. XD

2

u/Beencho 10h ago

Idk this entire thread and its responses seem very AI like. One of the reasons I reached out to lower comments to see if anyone else picked up on it