A Lot Of People Are Saying That Trump Says "A Lot Of People Are Saying X" When He Wants To Get A Lot Of People To Say X
This really isn't a Trumpian innovation.
I usually notice this in the following slightly variant form: "I think the American people realize x." Which really means: "I want the American people to believe x."
The Trumpian form seems very slightly less objectionable to me because it's slightly more transparently bullshitty. Somehow that other form almost never gets ridiculed.
Jesus.
Are we really this stupid? How can this dime-store P. T. Barnum count as a serious candidate? For freaking PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES???
Tangentially-related sidebar rant:
I continue to think that there's good news in that some of his appeal is reasonable.* People are fed up with the kabuki of American politics. They crave straight-talk. There are many little versions of the emperor in our public discussions, and it is reasonable to rebel against a public "narrative" (terminological shudder) that insists that the potentates are decked out in finery when anyone can see with their own eyes that they're not wearing a stitch. People are fed up with being told that black is white and night is day...and being ridiculed as backward bigots for believing the evidence before them rather than the obviously false story being shrieked at them by the cultural powers that be. And that's all good... (Of course they/we are wrong about some of it all...but they/we are right about some of it too...)
Of course then there's the bad news, which I suppose there's no need to talk about. It's too bad that the only person who seems willing to point out the emperors' nakedness is a loony jackass of a con man who, on top of everything else, isn't really the brightest bulb on the marquee... Best case scenario: he goes down in flames, and the true things he's saying get lumped together with the false things, thus making it all worse. (That's why supporting Trump to combat PC is a losing strategy.) Worst case scenario, this bullshit artist somehow manages to win. That, of course, is the nightmare scenario... (That's the very best thing that could possibly happen to PC, incidentally...)
I'm going to go hide under my bed now.
* Anybody who thinks that there is nothing good about Trump, that he's wrong about everything, and that he is popular solely because so many people are stupid and evil is delusional. If you find yourself believing something like that, you need to step way back and reassess long and hard. IMO we're in this mess in part because liberals have that attitude.
I usually notice this in the following slightly variant form: "I think the American people realize x." Which really means: "I want the American people to believe x."
The Trumpian form seems very slightly less objectionable to me because it's slightly more transparently bullshitty. Somehow that other form almost never gets ridiculed.
Jesus.
Are we really this stupid? How can this dime-store P. T. Barnum count as a serious candidate? For freaking PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES???
Tangentially-related sidebar rant:
I continue to think that there's good news in that some of his appeal is reasonable.* People are fed up with the kabuki of American politics. They crave straight-talk. There are many little versions of the emperor in our public discussions, and it is reasonable to rebel against a public "narrative" (terminological shudder) that insists that the potentates are decked out in finery when anyone can see with their own eyes that they're not wearing a stitch. People are fed up with being told that black is white and night is day...and being ridiculed as backward bigots for believing the evidence before them rather than the obviously false story being shrieked at them by the cultural powers that be. And that's all good... (Of course they/we are wrong about some of it all...but they/we are right about some of it too...)
Of course then there's the bad news, which I suppose there's no need to talk about. It's too bad that the only person who seems willing to point out the emperors' nakedness is a loony jackass of a con man who, on top of everything else, isn't really the brightest bulb on the marquee... Best case scenario: he goes down in flames, and the true things he's saying get lumped together with the false things, thus making it all worse. (That's why supporting Trump to combat PC is a losing strategy.) Worst case scenario, this bullshit artist somehow manages to win. That, of course, is the nightmare scenario... (That's the very best thing that could possibly happen to PC, incidentally...)
I'm going to go hide under my bed now.
* Anybody who thinks that there is nothing good about Trump, that he's wrong about everything, and that he is popular solely because so many people are stupid and evil is delusional. If you find yourself believing something like that, you need to step way back and reassess long and hard. IMO we're in this mess in part because liberals have that attitude.
posted by Winston Smith at
7:27 AM
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