It can be awkward if you are hanging out with someone, and they start bad mouthing some of your mutual friends. You know the old saying, “If someone gossips to you, they will gossip about you.”
Try not engage in conversations that tear other people down. You may not feel comfortable saying something back, but at some point, you have to stand up for your friends who aren’t there. If you don’t say something, you will become known as someone who gossips as well.
Don’t tell me what was said about me. Tell me why they were so comfortable to say it to you. – Jay Z
Mandy, who was in high school, had a nasty side, loved to badmouth others, and stir up drama. There was a teacher at her high school that she didn’t like because he called her on her bad behaviour in class. She started spreading rumours about her teacher and the other students, saying that he hit on girls and had flirted with her even though it wasn’t true. An evaluation of student safety was sent around to the classes, and she wrote down that this particular teacher made her feel unsafe even though he had never done anything to her.
The school principal talked to the teacher because of Mandy’s badmouthing. Luckily, the principal knew that Mandy was a troublemaker and didn’t take it any further. If the principal hadn’t been switched on, the badmouthing could have negatively affected the teacher’s career.
Use our clever comebacks and leave the person who badmouths others speechless. Let them know it is not OK to talk about people negatively.
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Top ten comebacks for people who badmouth others
- A lot of problems would disappear if people would talk to each other instead of about each other.
- Maybe if you quit talking about other people behind their backs you would quit worrying about what other people think of you.
- If you go around bad-mouthing people behind their back, the risk you run is at some point that they are going to talk to each other.
- There are two sides to every story. There’s the person complaining and the person that thinks the other is an idiot.
- Too bad you can’t count jumping to conclusions and running your mouth as exercise.
- Sometimes God has to cut down the grass so you can see all the snakes
- If you ran like your mouth you’d be in great shape.
- I believe in freedom of speech but some people need to know when to be quiet.
- There are two sides to every story and usually they are both wrong.
- I never judge someone by the opinion of another.
4 Responses
What if they keep laughing or just don’t care of the comeback that I said?
As the saying goes: Laugh with them. Say: I’m sorry you feel that way. Walk away. Walking away works for me since I’ve just taken control away from them. I have a downstairs neighbor who insists on badmouthing me to my neighbor next door because I won’t let her use my driveway. She called them up while they were on vacation in Florida crying that we won’t share our driveway with her so she got permission from them to use theirs. I heard that when they come back they are going to punish me and my husband for not being neighborly. The minute she moved in she caused problems and continues the drama. She thrives on drama and bad mouthing people and stirring up trouble.
Just get a smart aleck look on your face and walk away proudly.
If you just walk away they are the ones looking stupid because you didn’t have a reaction. All they want is a reaction out of you, but if you don’t give it to them and walk away, who’s looking dumb now.