pushmi-pullyu

plural pushmi-pullyus · alternative pushme-pullyou

1. A person who behaves in a conflicting or contradictory manner.

   This is the age of the Cry-Bully, a hideous hybrid of victim and victor, weeper and walloper. They are everywhere, these duplicit Pushmi-Pullyus of the personal and the political

   2015 April 21, Julie Burchill, “Meet the Cry-Bully: a hideous hybrid of victim and victor”, in The Spectator

alternative pushme-pullyou

1. not comparableConflicting or contradictory.

   It's one of the most characteristic behavior patterns of human beings, this pushmepullyou approach to life. We say one thing and do another […]

   1998, B. J. Wylie, Enough: Lifestyle and Financial Planning for Simpler Living, Northstone Publishing

   1 more example

   They don't want some sort of hopeless compromise, some perpetual pushme-pullyou arrangement in which we stay half-in and half-out in a political no man's land - with no more ministers round the table in Brussels and yet forced to obey EU laws.

   2018 June 20, The Independent

2. not comparablein teleosemantics, being a representation with both indicative and imperative content.

   What […] are the steps from […] the sort of inarticulate pushmi-pullyu comprehensions the bee has and the dim sort of pushmi-pullyu comprehension that mediates responses to behavior releasers, to articulate, well-differentiated, and uncommitted human beliefs and desires […]?

   2004, R. G. Millikan, “On Reading Signs: Some Differences Between Us and Others”, in D.K. Oller, U. Griebel, editors, Evolution of Communication Systems, MIT Press, page 22