back-fence

English edit

back-fence (not comparable)

(of discussion, etc.) Informal; armchair; carried out by people without direct knowledge or formal expertise.
- 1976 December 11, Thom Willenbecher, “Tilden Re-Crucified”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 24, page 14:
  Deford indulges in the worst sort of back-fence psychologizing about how Big Bill, this marvelous athlete and star, ever got that way. Possible causes are his Irving Bieber childhood, with a dominant close-binding mother and a recessive or absent father […] and his inability to sublimate his sex drive into tennis after his glory began to fade […] Throughout the text, Tilden is treated as a totally pathological fruitcake who walked funny, smelled funny and had the social grace of a six-year-old who had to get his way.
- 2002, David I. Lewin, editor, Informing Consumers About Health Care Quality, page 17:
  It is no surprise that the most trusted health "professional" is a friend or family member rather than a health care provider, as it is friends and family members who actually experience the health care system. The Internet can play a crucial role in expanding this "back-fence" discussion among friends and family members, as chat rooms and discussion groups can bring together many individuals facing similar problems.