Index of social blow under the proverbial belt: The social counterpart of the physical combat index This Index Fights Dirty.
Tropes:
- Abomination Accusation Attack— Accusing someone of being some kind of monster.
- The Baby Trap— Someone in a relationship deliberately causes a pregnancy without their partner's consent, in an attempt to bind their partner to them.
- Bad Review Threat— Threatening to give someone's business a terribly negative review.
- Bavarian Fire Drill— Act like you're in charge and people will obey you.
- Bed Trick— X sleeps with Y by pretending to be Z.
- Blackmail— Pay up or someone finds out something you want kept quiet.
- Fabricated Blackmail: Just because the "secret" isn't real doesn't mean that someone can't do damage with it.
- Blatant Lies— Lies so obvious they lack even a shred of plausibility.
- Briar Patching— Deliberately using Reverse Psychology to gain a desired result.
- Bride and Switch— The bride isn't who the groom thinks she is.
- The Cake Is a Lie— Someone lies about the reward that will be given for completing a task.
- Calling the Cops on the FBI— Hindering covert law enforcement by making them suspicious to regular cops.
- Chewbacca Defense— "Winning" a debate through failing at logic.
- The Compliance Game— Someone tries to get someone else (usually a kid) to do something by passing it off as a game.
- Confession Deferred— Lying until it benefits you to tell the truth.
- Consummation Counterfeit— Falsifying Bloodstained Defloration
- Contraception Deception— Lying to a sexual partner about one's fertility or use of contraceptives.
- Contrived Clumsiness— Publicly doing something nasty to someone else and pretending it was an accident.
- Crocodile Tears— Pretending to cry in order to gain others' sympathy.
- Divide and Conquer: Keeping people divided and disunited, and therefore easier to control.
- Extended Greetings— Someone introduces themselves in a lengthy fashion.
- Faked Food Contaminant: Faking something disgusting in one's food to get a free meal/damage the restaurant's reputation.
- Fake Pregnancy— A woman lies about being pregnant.
- False Rape Accusation— Someone accuses someone else of rape, even though that person is innocent.
- Frameup— Framing an innocent person.
- This Bear Was Framed— Making a murder look like an animal attack.
- Gaslighting— Changing things around behind someone's back to make them doubt their own sanity.
- Intentional Mess Making— Dirtying or breaking something on purpose.
- It's a Costume Party, I Swear!— Someone is invited to a party, being told it is a costume party, and shows up wearing an elaborate costume, only to find out the party wasn't a costume party.
- Insidious Rumor Mill — Using lies and manipulation to turn everyone against someone else within the same social circle out of spite and vengeance.
- Join or Die— Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
- Lending a Backhand— A character gives "help" they know is harmful.
- Leonine Contract— A bargain in which one side has no choice.
- Loophole Abuse— Blatant cheating through semantics.
- Malicious Slander— Lies and rumours spread to discredit someone.
- Marrying the Mark— Entering a relationship with someone to con or commit a crime against them.
- Model Scam— Pretending to be a person of taste and/or influence in order to take titillating pictures of another.
- Motivational Lie— Lies used to motivate someone so they can more effectively deal with a hardship.
- Moving the Goalposts— Continually changing your standards so people will never be able to meet them.
- "Not If They Enjoyed It" Rationalization— A rapist claims their victim enjoyed it, and therefore it was fine.
- Obfuscating Disability— Pretending to be disabled or embellishing one's preexisting disability, often to their own personal gain, specifically for sympathy and/or money.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse— An offer where the choices are "Accept or die".
- On the Rebound— After going through a bad breakup, someone very quickly jumps into a new relationship.
- Painless Death for a Price— Someone on death's doorstep is offered a Mercy Kill in exchange for something valuable.
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat— Social situation presented as a battle.
- Personal Dictionary— Forcing your opponent to accept your strawman as valid in order to debate you at all.
- Playing the Family Card— A character manipulates someone by using family ties to guilt-trip them.
- Playing the Victim Card— A character uses their victimhood to resist taking responsibility for their actions.
- Police Brutality Gambit— Employing a Wounded Gazelle Gambit against authority figures to avoid punishment.
- Politeness Judo— A character gets their way simply by being polite.
- Post-Rape Taunt— A rapist taunts the hero by gloating (and lying) about how the victim "loved it", or commenting that the victim "was disappointing".
- Propping Up Their Patsy— A culprit proclaims the innocence of another suspect to conceal their own culpability or further their own agenda.
- Quote Mine— Certain parts of a quote are omitted to make it sound like the author meant something different from what they actually said.
- Recorded Spliced Conversation— Passing off a modified recording of an individual as a live statement.
- Revenge Porn Blackmail: Threatening someone via indecent material of them.
- Restricted Rescue Operation— A rescue operation is hindered by outside forces.
- Sadistic Choice— Someone is forced to choose one of two terrible choices, mainly resulting in Morton's Fork.
- Suicidal Sadistic Choice— ...or in death.
- Scarpia Ultimatum— "Have sex with me, or else your loved one gets it."
- Self-Defense Ruse: Falsely claiming self-defense to justify a murder.
- Sexual Extortion— Withholding something from a target until they agree to sex.
- Slipping a Mickey— Putting a knockout chemical into someone's drink.
- Sudden Contest Format Change—Changing the entire format of a contest or competition in the middle of it.
- Suddenly Significant Rule— When a rule or law that is usually not given much thought is suddenly invoked.
- Threatening to Cut Ties: Threatening to cut ties with someone as an intimidation tactic.
- Unsuspectingly Soused: Someone drinks a beverage unaware there is alcohol in the drink and become intoxicated. May or may not be the result of someone planning a Date Rape.
- Why Did You Make Me Hit You?— Someone resorts to violence to end an argument, but manages to make the other person feel guilty about it.
- Withholding the Cure— The cure really works and it is what people really need, but someone is keeping it from people for their own selfish reasons.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit— Pretending to be a victim to manipulate others.
- Wounded Gazelle Warcry— The weakest combatant rushes into harm's way to motivate the others into action.
