12-20-2020, 07:25 PM
(07-19-2020, 04:25 PM)TnT Wrote: My concern is that Trump is only the symptom. I have some conservative friends who, when I ask them why they like (or liked) Trump, say, "I like that he tells it like it is."
However, like many conservatives, they are not much interested in drilling into issues or figuring out what makes something make sense or not. Bumper stickers. Black and white.
Update (aside from "Trump lost"): Bumper stickers, thirty-second ads, slogans, yard signs, and banners don't inform. They largely consolidate positions that people already have or attempt to befuddle or dispirit the other side.
Trump does not tell it like it is; he tells people what they want to believe with words whose purpose may have some other meaning. That, folks, is lying.
Quote:Thus, when I ask, "What is IT that he tells it like, that you like?" Blank stares. Then, some will bring up "political correctness." One friend of mine used the example of janitors being wanted to be called "Custodial Engineers," or some such thing. Then of course I ask them to give me an example of Political Correctness that does NOT consist of someone criticizing someone else for being too sensitive.
I dislike euphemisms except for sex (children must be shielded from it). I know that many people are superstitious about death, but "passed away" for "died" is often inappropriate. Violent death (and this includes deaths from vehicle collisions, fires, falls, industrial accidents, trees falling upon them, or being killed in military action, strictly speaking is not "passing away". "Grandma passed away from cancer" does not mean the same as "Cousin Suzie was thrown by a horse".
Euphemisms hide stuff. Maybe at best people think that others can't quite accept hearing certain things. Why should we hide crime, drug addiction, alcoholism, poverty, disability, madness, and stupidity?
President Trump made one of the most unfortunate statements in American politics when he said after someone in a protest was run over and killed (Heather Heyer did not "pass away"!) that there are good people on both sides. Just tell some fire chief that "there are good people on both sides"... on arson.
Quote:Here's how I diagnose this. Trump's idiot savant talent is his ability to bullshit. He's really good at it. His overt and covert statements about the underclass that he needs to have, appeal to probably 30-40% of our population. They're not dumb. They can hear the occult and not-so-occult racism in his rants. They can hear that they have been vicitmized by the "Other." This is not even controversial - it can be demonstrated just by listening to and quoting what the man says, over and over again.
Consider his only means of making a reliable income: leasing overpriced apartments. Once one starts renting in some place, one tends to stay. Moving is tricky, and Trump can raise rents practically at will at the end of any term. If anyone thinks he is getting fleeced, then someone else will pay the price that Trump Properties demands. He has people right by the (part of anatomy withheld, as it has different names for male and female versions). So long as the economy is doing well, a renter has no meaningful choice. Pay up or leave. A renter may have more of a choice in some dying Ohio city (basically just about anything but Columbus).Donald Trump is a salesman above all else, which most businessmen really are until they make the deal.
Trump does something called puffing, which is to laud something and say how great something is. If you are a car salesman you do not want to get someone to buy some bare-bones econobox car; you want to sell "luxury". Thus "that car is a fashion statement" and "think of all the great places you can go in that car". You want to sell pricey options that give you a bigger commission... and that is the only reason to be a car salesperson. It's all money, but you must pretend that the customer is getting more than the object sold or leased.
Most of our Presidents are either attorneys or soldiers by training. One cannot shade words when discussing law, as practically every word in civil or criminal law has a distinct meaning, as in Black's Dictionary of Law. Ambiguity is not good for legal practice or jurisprudence. Military officers have their honor codes from the academies -- all basically "Do not lie, cheat or steal; do not tolerate lying, cheating, or stealing by others". Trump has been exposed to neither. If he can shade a word to get a desired result, then he so does.
Quote:So what do we do as a country? How can we continue to live together? The know-nothings, the anti-science, the anti-education, the evangelistic "christians," the folks who believe in angels, a flat earth, global conspiracies, and the Protocols of the Zion. These folks are our fellow citizens. They're not going away. We have to live with them. They have to live with us.
If you can't win them over, then try for their children. Their children deserve better than that!
Quote:Finally, once the game of Lose-Lose begins, there's no choice any more. Folks who are inclined to play Win-Win, or even Win-Lose don't get to do that. Base survival means that once we're playing Lose-Lose, it's either fight until it's over - that's where everyone is basically a Loser - or roll over and die.
People whose good habits go into hiatus can return to them when the possibility returns -- if they personally survive. Crises do not last forever.
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We are a tragically weakened country. Trump and his corrupt lickspittles have cut many of the ties that bind together legitimate institutions and have discredited most civilized values. We are not immune to natural law. Weakened enough, we will become easy pickings.
We will soon discover that the social fabric that Trump and his minions has degraded is much more resilient than many think. It has existed for a very long time and for very good reason. Once Trump is off the scene, then what excuse do we have for failing to rectify America?
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.