Fall for a fairy tale? 被骗

Reader question:

Please explain “fairy tale” in this sentence: He asked the jurors not to fall for a fairy tale.

My comments:

“He” is probably the lawyer for the accused, the defendant in a lawsuit who’s accused of some wrongdoing.

He asked the jurors not to fall for a fairy tale?

This means, in short, that he thinks the case against the defendant is false, fabricated (made up) and not real. Hence, he asks the jurors not to be taken in, not to be fooled.

Jurors, of course, are members of the jury who sit together to deliberate on the case and decide whether the accused is guilty or innocent. They do not decide the case, actually. The final decision or verdict resides with the judge who, well, makes the final judgment.

Seems we are getting into trouble with a lot of legal stuff around here.

We’d better stop. We’d better focus on “fairy tale”.

Fairy tale refers literally one of the fantasy stories we tell children, a fairy being one of the mythical creatures who are not humans but spirits, or supernatural beings.

Think about all the fairy tales from the Grimm Brothers and those written by Hans Christian Anderson, Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, etc and so forth.

The common thing about fairy tales is that they’re unreal and they almost always have a happy ending whatever the twists and turns along the way.

Anyways, fairy tale figuratively speaking represents anything that’s fantastical, illusionary and unreal.

In our example, he, the lawyer for the defendant, tries to convince jurors that accusations brought by the plaintiff (the person who brings the case to court in the first place) are nothing more than a fairy tale, i.e. a made up story.

He, hence, asks the jurors not to fall for it.

In other words, do not believe it.

Phew!

Let’s take a collective breath of relief and read a few media examples of “fairy tale”:

1. A senior social worker who shouted homophobic abuse at a cross-dressing teenager and threatened to have him put in care has become the fiftieth practitioner in England to be struck off the GSCC register.

Stan Lansdell, 52, who worked for Bradford Council at the time of the incident, also made inappropriate contact with a young female service user and repeatedly failed to follow child protection procedures in his casework. A General Social Care Council conduct committee removed Lansdell from the register after upholding more than 50 allegations of misconduct against him.

Lansdell was the allocated social worker for the boy known as Child F, who was aged between 12 and 13 at the time, in April 2007 when the verbal abuse took place.

On one occasion, Lansdell told him on the phone to “get lost you f*****g little gay b****d”, a reference to the fact that he believed he was confused about his gender and dressed in girls’ clothing.

He also told Child F’s 18-year-old cousin he was sexually attracted to her in a text message and made frequent phone calls, often at night.

Lansdell did not attend the hearing but wrote to the committee claiming this was a “fairy tale allegation” and he “never made contact with the family outside of working hours”.

However, after hearing from witnesses including services users and former colleagues the committee found these and more than 50 additional counts of misconduct proved.

- Social worker who shouted homophobic abuse at boy struck off, CommunityCare.co.uk, January 7, 2010.

2. There is certainly more to come.

But the Trump camp unleashed its first October surprise last week with a Rudy Giuliani-sourced story alleging yet again that former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, engaged in illegal activity while Hunter Biden was on the board of a Ukrainian utility.

The information behind Giuliani’s weak-tea bombshell came from a hard drive taken from a computer Hunter Biden ostensibly left at an East Coast computer repair shop.

The New York Post, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who also owns Fox News, among other holdings, did little to challenge Giuliani’s story, so suspect that even Post journalists wanted no part of it, refusing to allow their bylines to be used.

Subsequent reporting by more legitimate outlets has debunked the entire fairy tale. Reporter interviews with national security experts suggest the entire episode may be more Russian disinformation designed to affect the election. Giuliani told the New York Times over the weekend that he gave his story to the Post because he knew other news organizations “would spend all the time they could to try to contradict it before they put it out."

Substitute the phrase “fact check” for “contradict” and you have a much clearer explanation for Giuliani’s actions.

Will the Post story have any impact on an election that is just two weeks away?

- A new Trump fairy tale starring the New York Post, Hunter Biden and brain science, Inlander.com, October 19, 2020.

3. The world is broken and fragile more than ever before, now people are more at unrest, the souls soaring in wanderlust, in pang for powers, it’s all matter over mind. People today together, tomorrow alone, people are looking for a new partner & new life. All lead to believe love is a fairy tale.

Love crises are the subject gaining attention now as never before, healing and mending souls is now a concern more. Why relationships, brokenness, healing & well being are the major trending topic and are they on the discussion forum as never before?

People are high, in stress, in rage, anger & discrimination is on the rise. In the name of love, the world is falling apart as never before. In name of love people are distancing more, divorce happening more, mental illness, depression, violence, and secret life are on soar.

February is the month of romance and every aspect has its cause and reasons of existence. In this season everything grows new. As nature switch its complete stance, shedding off summers, ravishing rains and wrap up winters taking a new avatar of warmth, love ‘n romance to nurturing nature to weave new earth.

...

A great relationship begins with trust and honesty. It’s tempting to lie and smear the truth, but it never helps. It’s simply better, to be honest. The feeling of disappointment that comes with the realization that you are incompatible is much better than the feeling of pain and betrayal.

Forget love, create great friendship, all rooted deep in love. A great friendship is out of Faith and Divinity. The love of the highest order when being one you’re separate is all rooted in friendship. How that can be? When you learn to comprehend what is worshiping God. For love is god and god is love. This level of devotion protects partners from infidelity, the infuser of doubts, and the killer of romance.

Yes, romance does work at all ages but, the inclinations change & so the escalation points are different. It’s more of companionship based on shared values and common interests all soaked in humour and purpose.

Love is nay a fairy tale, but to turn it into rational it takes efforts and intentions. Every expression is a gesture that seeks love, love for self-worth. That is what human beings are, our every action aspires for the sake of love. A need that with time transforms with the development of our age into manifestations of various other emotions and affirmation.

- Is “Love” A Fairy Tale? By Renu Sharma, SoulConjunction.life, February 14, 2022.

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About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：张欣   编辑：丹妮）