(06-06-2019, 05:04 PM)beechnut79 Wrote:(06-06-2019, 03:19 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Few ever said that Trump could not speak well. Not in an erudite or intelligent way, perhaps, but in a way that can connect and dramatize well. He IS a skilled demagogue and a TV star, and that requires show-biz talent. So he can give a good speech as president once in a while, and praise the heroes of the America he wants to "make great again" and espouse patriotism and all that boring stuff. Too bad that's about all he does well. It was enough to fool the American people, but that's not real hard to do.
Where fooling the people is concerned, he joins an impressive roster which includes the likes of Fidel Castro and Adolf Hitler. The former was originally considered a "good guy" who we helped attain power before his true colors surfaced; the latter was originally thought of as only a "minor nuisance".
Bingo -- both Hitler and Castro were self-righteous demagogues nearly devoid of moral compass. Both loved the limelight of making speeches that allegedly excited audiences. To be sure, Trump does his speaking before picked audiences that show signs of adulating him, and the audiences are getting smaller. Castro had children who knew no better bused in to cheer him.
All three addressed the viscera, so to speak. The difference is that Trump has not shut down his opposition. He may want to, but he can't. It took a while for people like Charlie Chaplin and the Three Stooges to mock Hitler... but not Trump.
In America, if Trump hurts one, one either laughs or cries. And this is as the greatest generation of comedians in history (the Silent, like the recently-departed Tim Conway) either die off or quit doing comedy.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.