Well said. I do wonder that if one is suffering from cognitive decline, stupidity, narcissism, and/or other severe mental health issues, should we assume that they are still capable of deliberately creating a nonsensical weaponized communication strategy? If so, then this is certainly worth studying what the brain looks like and how it is wired. Then, add in members of his cabinet. I, for one, could not even figure out how to lie and speak with such authoritarian nonsense as they do every time they open their mouths. I can't imagine people like this sitting around and plotting all of their next communication moves.
At first I thought same, but we have to remember that this has all been evolved from and is being executed by a bunch of rich and powerful white dudes who are smart enough to stay out of the spotlight.
This is fascinating—my ex definitely used the loudest/longest speaker tactic, volume squared—volume of noise, volume of words. And he had a lot of narcissistic traits too….
Brilliantly understood and expressed. I'm so glad I support/subscribe to your site/platform.
What you describe as Trump's intentional, reason-dissolving gibberish is, I think, a modern variation of the ceaseless patter that used to issue from the mouths of snake-oil salesmen, carnival barkers, and three-card-monte operators.
What is different and cooperatively deadly in Trump's case--as you point out--is that the media, like CNN or The NY Times, takes this non-stop bullshit dazzle and, with performative gravity, recruits "experts" to analyze it--to give it endless hours of serious recognition. These media organizations--especially the 24 hour a day TV channels--thrive off Trump's bullshit. Thank God for Heather Cox Richardson...
Media conglomerates are perpetually trying to get us as high as they are on their own supply. That's why every, last little piece of regurgitated nonsense is BREAKING NEWS!! Everything is BREAKING! until our rational minds are also broken--unable to distinguish between reality and fantasy...
The TV "news" channel celebrity's salaries and the corporate profits depend on them packaging this nonsense and having "senior" analysts sell it to you, between drug company, phone and car ads... They are as responsible for our failing reason as Trump and his non-stop, narcissistic blather.
Also, something to remember--BREAKING NEWS! is only successful if millions of users suck this shit into their systems every day...
Thank you for this. I have been saying the same for years (anyone remember his blathering Elton John organ speech?)
He speaks alternately in a sing-songy fire hose of free association, stream of consciousness bullshit, a memorized litany of invective, insults and grievances that play out to his followers like a damned stand-up routine, or deploys a listless monotone, droning on as if dissociating himself from any meaning of the words he's saying.
Whether premeditated of intuitive, Trump has taken an ax to the very notion of a shared reality! It's Orwell on methamphetamines!
Nailed and Named. Look back over decades and watch Trump perfecting his anarchic spiel. Too much wishful thinking in diagnosing Alzheimer's etc, while this master of grievance, large and petty, goes his destructive way.
And here I was thinking he was Bipolar. You certainly present a reason to go Hmmm and make it make some kind of sense. It could very well be a damn trap. For example, the whole rambling off with the flagpole when he said he knew what he was doing my thought was that he probably did when it came to playing with the the stock markets. The whole if or when to work with Israel against Iran. Keep them guessing. Only time will tell. Is it Fake News or is he really losing it?
Well said. I do wonder that if one is suffering from cognitive decline, stupidity, narcissism, and/or other severe mental health issues, should we assume that they are still capable of deliberately creating a nonsensical weaponized communication strategy? If so, then this is certainly worth studying what the brain looks like and how it is wired. Then, add in members of his cabinet. I, for one, could not even figure out how to lie and speak with such authoritarian nonsense as they do every time they open their mouths. I can't imagine people like this sitting around and plotting all of their next communication moves.
At first I thought same, but we have to remember that this has all been evolved from and is being executed by a bunch of rich and powerful white dudes who are smart enough to stay out of the spotlight.
I’m all . . . Schrödinger’s Cat on this question
This is fascinating—my ex definitely used the loudest/longest speaker tactic, volume squared—volume of noise, volume of words. And he had a lot of narcissistic traits too….
Brilliantly understood and expressed. I'm so glad I support/subscribe to your site/platform.
What you describe as Trump's intentional, reason-dissolving gibberish is, I think, a modern variation of the ceaseless patter that used to issue from the mouths of snake-oil salesmen, carnival barkers, and three-card-monte operators.
What is different and cooperatively deadly in Trump's case--as you point out--is that the media, like CNN or The NY Times, takes this non-stop bullshit dazzle and, with performative gravity, recruits "experts" to analyze it--to give it endless hours of serious recognition. These media organizations--especially the 24 hour a day TV channels--thrive off Trump's bullshit. Thank God for Heather Cox Richardson...
Media conglomerates are perpetually trying to get us as high as they are on their own supply. That's why every, last little piece of regurgitated nonsense is BREAKING NEWS!! Everything is BREAKING! until our rational minds are also broken--unable to distinguish between reality and fantasy...
The TV "news" channel celebrity's salaries and the corporate profits depend on them packaging this nonsense and having "senior" analysts sell it to you, between drug company, phone and car ads... They are as responsible for our failing reason as Trump and his non-stop, narcissistic blather.
Also, something to remember--BREAKING NEWS! is only successful if millions of users suck this shit into their systems every day...
Again, a beautiful piece... Thanks.
Best analysis I’ve read! Explains so much!
This IS Trump Derangement Syndrome. He's the #1 carrier of the 'disease' :: NLP --> Neuro Linguistic Programming.
There is something very familiar about Trump's torrents of falsehoods that deliberately erode belief in shared reality.
"The Russian "Firehose of Falsehood" Propaganda Model"
https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PE198.html
"The 4 pillars of propaganda: Russian disinfo techniques and how to be more discerning"
https://www.authentic8.com/blog/4-pillars-propaganda-russian-disinfo-techniques-and-how-be-more-discerning
"The Postmodern Hell Of Russian Propaganda"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j6Vg7yLx54
And this is why he loves the uneducated - anything they can’t understand must be a mark of genius.
so what we really need is a thirty-thousand pound bullshit-buster ?
This is EXACTLY why any imbecile is preferable to a thinking head for Project 2025.
Bannon's flood the zone strategy only needs pipelines, not filters.
The idiocy is the strategy.
Melting brains is best done by brains already liquified.
Brilliant analysis
Best description of Trump's stupor-power I've read yet.
Thank you for this. I have been saying the same for years (anyone remember his blathering Elton John organ speech?)
He speaks alternately in a sing-songy fire hose of free association, stream of consciousness bullshit, a memorized litany of invective, insults and grievances that play out to his followers like a damned stand-up routine, or deploys a listless monotone, droning on as if dissociating himself from any meaning of the words he's saying.
Whether premeditated of intuitive, Trump has taken an ax to the very notion of a shared reality! It's Orwell on methamphetamines!
Brilliant
Nailed and Named. Look back over decades and watch Trump perfecting his anarchic spiel. Too much wishful thinking in diagnosing Alzheimer's etc, while this master of grievance, large and petty, goes his destructive way.
“All I know is this: nobody's very big in the first place, and it looks to me like everybody spends their whole life tearing everybody else down.”
― Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
And here I was thinking he was Bipolar. You certainly present a reason to go Hmmm and make it make some kind of sense. It could very well be a damn trap. For example, the whole rambling off with the flagpole when he said he knew what he was doing my thought was that he probably did when it came to playing with the the stock markets. The whole if or when to work with Israel against Iran. Keep them guessing. Only time will tell. Is it Fake News or is he really losing it?