Talk:Kick the cat

is this article about the idiom or about abusing subordinates?

There's no clear topic to the article Bhny (talk) 23:37, 5 February 2015 (UTC)

They are one and the same. The idiom refers to abusing persons (or animals) with less power than oneself. Softlavender (talk) 00:49, 6 February 2015 (UTC)

No, I mean a use–mention distinction. Either the topic is "the idiom kick the cat" or the topic is "displaced aggression" Bhny (talk) 01:50, 6 February 2015 (UTC)

It's not a Wiktionary entry (it's a Wikipedia entry), if that answers your question; although at one point someone briefly tried to make a Wiktionary entry out of a stub article on the subject. Softlavender (talk) 02:16, 6 February 2015 (UTC)

It half reads like a Wiktionary article on an idiom and half like an encyclopedia article on "displaced aggression". You seem to keep missing my point. Bhny (talk) 04:48, 6 February 2015 (UTC)

Article isnt perfect but essentially its about an idiom which has in recent times been considered to have academic value.--Penbat (talk) 08:31, 6 February 2015 (UTC)

It's about a psychological and cultural concept which has come to be described by a catchy idiom. Why is that a problem? I looked at the article "use-mention distinction" which you linked, and while I think I understand the distinction it makes (between talking about a thing and talking about the word for the thing) I don't see why a Wikipedia article can't do both. --MelanieN (talk) 15:58, 6 February 2015 (UTC)

this is not what 'kick at the cat' means.

'kick at the cat' means to give an attempt at something 35.142.184.68 (talk) 13:04, 15 August 2023 (UTC)

Is there a name for a harsher variation like "shoot the cat" or "shoot the dog"?

Kicking the cat/dog is kind of a "chain of harm" thing where you take things out on subordinates whereas this variation I'm calling "shoot the cat" is where someone snaps and does something particularly heinous and cruel that goes well above and beyond normal "taking it out on your subordinates". For example, the company president chews out the vice president who chews out the CEO who chews out other board members who chew out middle management who chew out lower management and one boss instead of chewing out his underlings, attacks one of them and delivers an absolutely brutal, savage beating that leaves onlookers horrified and gets him most assuredly fired and likely sent to jail. Or a literal version, boss yells at man, man yells at wife, wife yells at child, child doesn't kick or yell at cat but takes daddy's revolver and shoots cat. 72.72.205.77 (talk) 03:24, 20 September 2023 (UTC)