Stacked
Two for the price of one today. We’re going to talk about what it means for a process to be stacked in favor of you, and stacked against you. These twin expressions start from the world of playing cards. If you’re playing a game like poker or blackjack, you want the cards in the deck to be randomly distributed, and nobody should know what cards come next.
However, if you wanted to cheat in some way, you might try to arrange the cards in the deck in a certain way. If you know how the cards are arranged, then you know what cards other people might have. If you know that, then you have an unfair advantage. A deck of cards that is arranged in a specific order is a stacked deck. And that is the origin of these twin phrases, stacked against or stacked in favor of.
When a process is unfair, we say that process is stacked either against you or in favor of you. You can also just say the deck is stacked against or in favor of someone; either one works. Let’s start with a relatively easy example to understand. It is often said that the deck is stacked in favor of public officials who are seeking re-election. Imagine your representative in your country’s legislature. That person wants to run for a new term. In general, that person has a lot of advantages. He or she gets free media attention. He or she already has high name recognition, power and influence. The person can often direct some government funds to certain places to buy a little influence here and there. Those are all advantages that are not open to the representative’s opponent. Let’s say two people both have equally good ideas and draw equal amounts of support. If one of those people is already in office, that person has a significant advantage. The opponent might say, “The deck is stacked against me!” The opponent might say, this whole thing is unfair! The other person has too many unfair advantages. You can decide whether you believe that or not.
Here’s another example. Here in the US, we often have cell phone contracts. They are long, densely-packed contracts full of legal language. If you ever have a dispute with your cell phone provider—for example, if you think you’re overcharged—the deck is stacked against you, I’m sorry to say. Why is the deck stacked in favor of the big company and why is the deck stacked against you? Well, who wrote the contract? The company. Who can understand the contract? The company’s lawyers, not you. Who has the time and resources to argue or even go to court if necessary? The company, not you. They stack the deck in their favor by writing complicated contracts and forcing you to agree, if you want service.
We all sort of accept this because we want the service, but we also recognize the deck is stacked against us. The same thing goes for buying a plane ticket or downloading apps on the app store. How many times do you just press “Agree” to continue? If you ever have a dispute with the app maker, or with Apple or Google, well…again, I’m sorry to say, the deck is stacked in their favor and the deck is stacked against you.
If you are an app developer, then you know your whole business depends on Apple and Google. If you can’t get access to Apple and Google app stores, then you have no business at all. Apple and Google both maintain strict requirements for app developers. They are not always clear-cut. There are sometimes disagreements about what is allowed to be in a mobile app. Picture in your mind a dispute between Apple and a small app developer. Do you think this would be an evenly-matched dispute? Do you think the dispute-resolution process would be equally fair to both sides? Or do you think the process is stacked in favor of one side and against another side? If you said the process was stacked in favor of Apple and the process was stacked against the small app developer, you would be right. The small app developer has to accept the rules of Apple and has no real recourse if there is a disagreement.
That brings us to the topic of today’s main lesson—the concerns about Hong Kong’s new security law. The new law will criminalize things like subversion against the government. That may seem reasonable enough on its face. But on mainland China, laws like this are used to punish people for criticizing the government—things that are widely accepted elsewhere. And if you are charged with subversion, the trials are often behind closed doors; you may not have the opportunity to see the evidence against you; and your chances for succeeding at trial are fairly low. The deck is stacked against you and in favor of the government. That is what the people of Hong Kong are worried about with this Beijing-proposed security law.
Just one more example. There doesn’t always have to be another side. If you are in an unfair or unfortunate situation, you can say the deck is stacked against you—even if there is no other side. In these times of quarantine, the students who will do the best are the ones with quiet and safe places to study, good internet connections at home, and a parent (or two) who can help out with homework and supervision. Many American kids don’t have that. They may not have access to a computer; they may not have stable internet connections; and their parents may not be able to help them study—for a wide variety of reasons. The deck is stacked against kids in those situations. There’s nobody on the other side that is purposely trying to gain an advantage, but they nonetheless are at a big disadvantage. The deck is still stacked against them.
Quote of the Week
I’ll leave you with a quote of the week; it’s by a Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön. She says, “You are the sky. Everything else—it’s just the weather.”
See you next time!
On that note, we’ll close out today’s lesson.
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Use realistic expressions like a native speaker
