by carmen April 1, 2005
Get the stakem mug.by I, Wreckerrr November 20, 2016
Get the stake me to an anthill mug.A Barnum Statement is a phrase used by conmen (for example a psychic) to try and make people think they have some deep insight into their psychology or life.
They are also commonly used in horoscopes
Barnum Statements are statements which most people will agree with, regarding themselves, while not realizing that almost every other person will also agree with them regarding their own lives
examples are:
"you have a good sense of humor, but not everyone sees it"
"you tend to think about things before taking action"
"You have had some major challenges in your life"
"you recently had a disagreement with someone you care for"
They are also commonly used in horoscopes
Barnum Statements are statements which most people will agree with, regarding themselves, while not realizing that almost every other person will also agree with them regarding their own lives
examples are:
"you have a good sense of humor, but not everyone sees it"
"you tend to think about things before taking action"
"You have had some major challenges in your life"
"you recently had a disagreement with someone you care for"
"The psychic told me that I was quite intelligent, but other people dont always see it"
"Sounds like she was just feeding you a Barnum Statement"
"Sounds like she was just feeding you a Barnum Statement"
by DutchCappedCrusader June 12, 2014
Get the Barnum Statement mug.Meaningless term used in meetings by powerful bureaucrats to subdue dissenters while gaining respect, cooperation, and sympathy from sheeple. The word performs multiple functions at once: 1) it conveys a farcical title upon attendant sheeple, giving them a false sense of self-importance for which they feel thankful to the bureaucrat; 2) it conveys a false sense of empathy, causing attendant sheeple to view the bureaucrat favorably; 3) it gives the bureaucrat the appearance of magnanimity, which in turn makes the bureaucrat seem reasonable and dissenters unreasonable.
Example: School Board Meeting:
Dissenter: Mr. Bureaucrat, how is it possible that our children remain illiterate despite their having attended our district schools for 13 years?
Bureaucrat: Mr. Dissenter, all of us in this room are stakeholders in our wonderful district that is filled with hardworking, selfless teachers and administrators; your undue criticism is damaging all of us.
Dissenter: Mr. Bureaucrat, how is it possible that our children remain illiterate despite their having attended our district schools for 13 years?
Bureaucrat: Mr. Dissenter, all of us in this room are stakeholders in our wonderful district that is filled with hardworking, selfless teachers and administrators; your undue criticism is damaging all of us.
by TwinCityBoy February 20, 2021
Get the Stakeholder mug.The real new year’s excitement is from this thing being updated and having a new urban dictionary definition so that bored people can be distracted for the amount of time it takes for the definition to load before they realize it’s some stupid unfunny “meta” joke that’s been done 99 times before or another generic “Omg you must be so bored to have searched/copy and pasted this!!!!”
Bored person: *copy pastes* © 1999-2023 Urban Dictionary ® adshelpprivacyterms of servicedmcaaccessibility statementreport a buginformation collection noticedata subject access request
Bored person: omg I distracted myself from boredom and the fact that I am not doing anything productive and the slow crawl of time for a few seconds by searching this.
Bored person: omg I distracted myself from boredom and the fact that I am not doing anything productive and the slow crawl of time for a few seconds by searching this.
by TheDumbestMostUnfunnyPerson January 6, 2023
Get the © 1999-2023 Urban Dictionary ® adshelpprivacyterms of servicedmcaaccessibility statementreport a buginformation collection noticedata subject access request mug.The vague and unobtainable goals of a company or organization used by management to explain what the company or organization and they themselves do.
After months of meetings and repeated drafts they thought their new Mission Statement was perfectly clear, only problem was it really had nothing to do with what they did.
by bullshitzer June 2, 2010
Get the Mission Statement mug.Answers to Unanswerable Questions Through Countless Arguments and Stupid Statements by Stupid People
A future Nobel-prize winning, best selling book. With over 10 authors, including Matsuda, Richard, Lucy, Seymour, Alli, and TRK, this crazy group of debators takes on the task of answering such unanswerable questions as: "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?""Why did that chicken cross the road in the first place?", and "What is the plural of butter?" This crazy group of intelligent beings go head to head in this back and forth book of debates. The debators combine fact, personal opinion, and senseless rambling to prove their cases. This book WILL be published by 2011. And it WILL become a best-seller by 2013. People will love this book, and this is a first hand-sneak preview of what the future holds. This will be talked about on Oprah. They will make a movie out of it. Answers to Unanswerable Questions Through Countless Arguments and Stupid Statements by Stupid People is the product of evolution/creation debates in Lab Biology, other stupid arguments in Geometry, and exreme boredom.
Oprah Winfrey: Ok, folks, now I would like to welcome the main authors of the best-selling book Answers to Unanswerable Questions Through Countless Arguments and Stupid Statements by Stupid People: Mike, Randy, and JJ!!!
Crowd: Wooooo!!!
Crowd: Wooooo!!!
by TRK, Author April 25, 2008
Get the Answers to Unanswerable Questions Through Countless Arguments and Stupid Statements by Stupid People mug.