I was thinking.
You know what I hate? When a person is just minding their own business, and some bored instigator comes along and starts antagonizing them. Person One ignores the instigator for a while and eventually loses his or her patience and asks the annoying little goose what their problem is? But before anything can become of the question, some third interloper wanders onto the scene, looks them both over (likely just barely), and throws their arms up in some dramatic gesture and says something like, “Both of you, stop it!”
I hate that.
Is there a word or phrase for it?
I feel like this happened on Survivor once. Brandon was harassing Phillip and eventually threw a tantrum and destroyed the whole tribe’s food supply, just because he was having a meltdown. He had been up to this for a while before Phillip called him out on it, if memory serves. Anyway, when asked about Brandon’s violent outburst, one of the other tribemates said, “They’re awful to each other,” as if Phillip’s behavior was equal to Brandon’s, as if Phillip was the instigator?!
Anyway, I hate that, and if there’s not a word or phrase to describe it, there should be. That is all.
