Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Donald Trump Says The Truest Thing About Our Political Media


That you are likely to hear anywhere, from anyone.

I listened to part of this speech yesterday.  In between promising to restore Teutonic greatness and annex the Sudetenland (OK, I was only half listening) Trump also said a few very true things -- radically true things -- about how complicit our media has become and how completely money has warped the political process.  Obvious shit, which really does drive good people to despair, and which under normal circumstances would never, ever be talked about on nation teevee.  

In a sense Trump is running the campaign Rand Paul wanted to run -- say some sensible stuff before gobbling down a fistful of mescaline, dropping trou and letting your crazy off the leash.  But Trump is mixing the ingredients and proportions much more proficiently than anyone in the Paul family ever did. 

12 comments:

bowtiejack said...

Over at Charlie Pierce's place, he posted an article on Luntz's panic attack and the trolls came out of the woodwork! 500+ comments so far. A LOT of bad spelling and worse grammar (as well as general incoherence), some scatology, and EMOTION.

So this would be a good time to review the basic principles of propaganda [thank you, Adolph] and check off how many each troll comments reflects:

Avoid abstract ideas - appeal to the emotions.
Constantly repeat just a few ideas. Use stereotyped phrases.
Give only one side of the argument.
Continuously criticize your opponents.
Pick out one special "enemy" for special vilification.

https://www.physics.smu.edu/pseudo/Propaganda/goebbels.html

Unknown said...

I might think we have an unhealthy obsession with trump, but then I read the comments from his supporters and it's terrifying.

So far, I've heard "they stabbed us in the back" and "Trump is the only one who has the will," in addition to hopes for pillaging of the wealthy elites. When Fascism comes to America, it will be wearing in a baseball hat.

What's personally troubling to me is I find it hard to object to the political alienation people feel. Republicans are obviously worse than useless, but Democrats aren't obviously helpful. Sure, we'd be *more* helpful if we didn't need a super-majority to get things through the Senate. Lots of people complaining about Democrats being in the hands of big Healthcare; and as far as legislation goes, they're right. Can I sit down and explain we could have gotten single payer if we didn't lieberman, etc.? It's pointless to do so.

It's not about which party is better with these folks -- they're not deep thinkers; it's that the system is broken, and someone needs to fix it, apparently by smashing it with his big man balls.

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a37411/gop-pollster-frank-luntz-afraid-of-donald-trump-power/

Unknown said...

bowtiejack, my brother in fascism studies, I don't know that what we're seeing is propaganda and not merely the will of the volk. All of Goebbels' markers can be trivially produced by being stupid.

bowtiejack said...

Median N. Mean

Here's a comment I posted at that link yesterday:

". . .calling out senators that stabe us in the back. " [sic]

OMG! So soon the Dolchstoßlegende raises its head. A couple of hours ago I drew some comparisons between the Trump/GOP rhetoric and the 14 characteristics of fascism. And already we're up to the stab-in-the-back myth! This whole thing is just moving so fast. How soon will they issue the brown uniforms?

Yastreblyansky said...

Fascism students, the good news is we still don't have prime ministers, so no panicky Republican General von Hindenburg can come out and offer Trump the job, and he can't get elected president.

Unknown said...

Il Duce Trumpolini brings out the Republican inner fascist (though it has been barely hiding all along under a lot of bad bothsiderist fluff). White liberals and minorities represent a plurality in this country and if they vote, they'd vote for a squirrel over anything Republican. The Donor Class knows this, the Media knows this, and hence the pandemonium. They have a runaway freight Trump and no manner of Brooks and his Brothers is going to stop it. I am hopeful that Trump will take down both the Republicans and the Media before he sinks beneath waves "... and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago ...' and the Democrats win at least the Presidency in 2016.

bowtiejack said...


Sinclair Lewis said : "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."
Who knew it would be wearing a baseball cap?

Unknown said...

bowtiejack is stalking me on Esquire, Booman Tribune and Balloon Juice. Here's something I wrote on balloon juice that highlights some *differences* we have with Weimar Germany that are worth a read. Fascism is more than just one country's experience. http://www.balloon-juice.com/2015/08/26/updated-information-on-the-smith-mountain-lake-shooting/#comment-5455558

John MacCuish - I'll play the alarmist: if Trump could much more easily take over the Republican party, and thereby take over a lot of states. If they were really combative an nihilistic, they could choose to ignore a lot of what the federal government had to say. Imagine if Jeb Bush had spirited away Terri Schiavo with the state police and refused to obey a Federal judge's order to unplug her? The feds would have to go in shooting, maybe through an armed mob of pro-lifers. There are a lot of ways short of winning a national election that could usher in an era of ugly.

Cinesias said...

Trump can't get elected President, and if he is the nominee, he kills the GOP as a national party.

The best thing about Trump, is that the media is having a difficult time playing the BothSidesDoIt™ card.

Neo Tuxedo said...

All of Goebbels' markers can be trivially produced by being stupid.

"Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
-- Arthur C. Clarke, Profiles of the Future (revised edition, 1973)

"You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity." -- Robert A. Heinlein, "Logic of Empire" (1941)

"Any sufficiently advanced stupidity is indistinguishable from malice."
-- Austin Loomis, sometime during the Cheney adsinistration

Unknown said...

You REALLY nned to put time markers on this video for where the gist of your argument is. I can't sit through an hour of this asshole blathering about how he put one over on the Chinese buying the Bank of America building in San Francisco. It's a fucking toastmasters club jerkoffathon

driftglass said...

The video starts at 04:00 minutes and terminates at 04:30 minutes so I have no idea what you're talking about.