Quote:
Originally Posted by Undertoad
It's fine. Trump doesn't parse the word "entitlements" like vox.com does; and in the context of the conversation, he doesn't parse it at all, before he's on to his answer.
Everybody who was watching understood that, too.
See, the game where Trump's words are carefully parsed for the least charitable take is a LOSING game. Here's the secret, if you want to know how Trump's supporters listen to the interview:
Stop parsing words and just listen for the emotional appeal.
I know how much you enjoy parsing, and how much the media enjoys it. You get to read vox.com articles and get your dopamine fix. The media gets their "Trump bump" of clicks and ratings. It seems like winning. But the words are not the important part. Pay attention to the emotions. The emotions of vox.com are negative, loser emotions. The emotions of Donald Trump are winner emotions.
Furthermore, you should parse a conversation like a conversation, and a joke like a joke, if you want to understand. That's the part of Trump that is immediately appealing; that's how he expects to be parsed. Old-school politicians speak slowly, carefully, measured, studied, stiff and teleprompted, facts at the ready, so that nothing they can say can be parsed incorrectly. The problem is, nobody in our everyday world talks like that. If they did, we wouldn't trust them!
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Hey UT, I just want to say this at the outset.
Parsing is reading for comprehension, for understanding. It's not a bad thing, despite Trump's epic badness at doing it. Words do matter, and he murders them on the daily.
Now, having parried your attack on the value of "parsing", let's talk about his most recent failures to communicate.
How about President Trump's recent, teleprompted address from the Oval Office. (The urge to start this next sentence with "how do you explain..." is strong but horribly unfair. You obviously have opinions, which I respect, but I know you can't explain him. I won't ask you to.) I'll just point out that (*again*) he said things that were just plain wrong. His wrong statements caused immediate trouble, not like "Covfeve". It is ABSURD of him to say the things he says.
I have opinions too about why he talks like this. He's out of his depth in this role. There are aspects about it that he likes, the power, there's a lot of power, the trappings and the attention, craptons of that too. But there is also responsibility to do the work--ALL THE WORK. And he just can't do it. And his other character flaws, like valuing loyalty over everything else, including competence, prevent--no, cripple--him in his attempts to delegate important responsibilities he won't/can't/is oblivious to execute himself.
And the words, jfc, the words just won't stop. He's absurd, he's a clown.
Did you see his performance at the CDC earlier this week? What was the "emotional appeal" of “As of right now and yesterday, anybody that needs a test [can have one], that’s the important thing, and the tests are all perfect, like the letter was perfect, the transcription was perfect.” The emotional impact I feel is one being in the presence of someone who's relentless self-promotion shines a spotlight on his insecurity. I feel like we should be talking about medical facts and wtf does his letter his call, have to do with fuckall?
He also talked about how his uncle was a super genius and that that's probably why all the doctors at the CDC asked him in surprise about how he knows so much about this?!?!? Here's a quote, so I'm not just putting words in his mouth. “I like this stuff. I really get it. People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors say, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should’ve done that instead of running for president.” Emotional impact: shock, fear, jesus take the wheel, this is the sound of someone who can't stop boasting.
His comments are absurd on their face. This is not the time for absurdity, he already rsvp'ed "no" to the White House Correspondents' Dinner. That's where he should be clowning and self deprecating. Right now, he's on the fucking job. But he's not working.