On Facebook it’s called the Humble Brag. It had a life before Facebook, but now it has a name.
We have all been taught, well, most of us have, that it is vulgar to praise yourself, and, as a result, we generally downplay our accomplishments and importance, even though we know other people are aware of them.
The Humble Brag is when we purposely downplay our accomplishments and greatness so that others will be compelled to point out to us how great we are.
It’s a game, and it is sometimes an obvious one, but at least we feel like we have done as we were taught, and did not toot our own horns.
And even though we play the game, people are all right with that.
Donald Trump either did not get the lesson, or has chosen to ignore it.
When he was asked on 60 Minutes recently about his not being all that humble, his response was,
“I think I am actually humble. I think I’m much more humble than you would understand.”
No humble, just brag.