This post is for future reference, mainly.

bauernschlau

adjective, pronounced: bowernshlow

During the research for this, I found out, that German dictionaries define this word differently than I do. It is possible, that the following is only my interpretation of it.

Literally translated it means farmer-smart (Bauer = farmer, schlau = smart).
Google translates it as cunning.

To get this out of the way:
I have worked on a few farms and I have contact to some professional farmers, who do serious cropping. Most farmers I have met, are in fact smart and educated.
Back in the day, it was a stereotype that farmers are uneducated, can't read and are at a disadvantage, when doing business with people from the city.
Today, I'd say city-people are the ones being stupid... but enough of that...
Farmer's aren't stupid, at all.

How I use it

When I call someone bauernschlau, I am referring to it as a strategy;
Someone acts stupid and uneducated on a topic, to lure their opponent into a trap.

It usually involves deliberately misunderstanding the other person, until they lose patience and slip in a mistake.
At this point the bauernschlau person puts on their 'gotcha' grin and reveals how they have been understanding the other person from the beginning and points out the mistake they made.
They then use that mistake to invalidate anything the other person has to say and feel like they won a debate.

It is a cheap tactic. It is disrespectful.

In Poker, it is a very powerful strategy, actually; They act like they don't understand the game well, to trap the other person. To add insult to injury, they sometimes even finish with a 'Wow, did I just win?', knowing fully well that they just used a disgusting variant of slow-play.
I have lost a few games to that type of player, and it is a legit strategy. Just don't expect me to ever play a hand with you again...

On Hive, it happens to me under every controversial post.
People, who I know to be smart and in many cases much smarter than myself, act like they don't understand what I wrote and ask me to explain. When I then try to explain myself further, I have already lost.
Basically they keep 'throwing the ball back', forcing me into an endless loop of explanations.
Since I know that they have understood my first statement, it frustrates me so much, I usually end up directly insulting them and they then consider the debate won.

It is infuriating.

This is probably how you ended up on this post, because I referred you here for being bauernschlau with me.

If I sent you here, consider yourself a cunt.

Sincerely,

fuck you.