Leo

Well-known member
he's also the most easily manipulated president we've ever had, rogue foreign leaders know all they have to do is flatter him and he'll fall for anything.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
he's also the most easily manipulated president we've ever had, rogue foreign leaders know all they have to do is flatter him and he'll fall for anything.
Which makes a mockery of the idea that he can be filed with those leaders that get called 'strongmen' - Putin, Duterte, Bolsanaro etc.
 

Leo

Well-known member
it's almost as if trump doesn't necessarily crave power, like Putin et al. he craves adoration, or at least attention.
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
I tend to think an electoral system that deemphasizes the individual in favor of policy - like the UK compared to the US - is better

tamps down on the potential for demagoguery, even if it doesn't quite get rid of it

I would say what's happened in the last few years in the UK has been the beginnings of a slide to the individual - a populist turn. Could see it really with Corbyn where it was really a case of empathy and trust over policy (for his fans anyway) and Johnson has an enormous amount of that about him. His whole career is based on basically being Bertie Wooster without Jeeves. Apparently this is turning a lot of people inside the party against him, but it's not exactly like they didn't know.
 

version

Well-known member
I can't stand Trump, but I sometimes feel sorry for him. He was a child once and whatever happened to him throughout his life turned him into a monster.
 

yyaldrin

in je ogen waait de wind
every bad person was a baby once right. the weird thing with trump tho is that you can still very much recognize a child in him.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
every bad person was a baby once right. the weird thing with trump tho is that you can still very much recognize a child in him.
I don't know a huge amount about him before he decided to run for the Republic nomination and then the presidency, but I've seen footage of him from maybe 20 years ago and he was far more articulate then, even fairly intelligent-sounding. So I think it's possible he's actually regressed somewhat.
 

version

Well-known member
Jaron Lanier thinks he's addicted to Twitter and it's scrambled his brain. He now thinks and speaks in tweets.
 
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pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
His speech is that of a man permanently stuck on the cliff edge of a breakdown but by force of his hateful strength, manages to hold it together just enough to keep who he needs to go along with him (even this has been pushed over the limit several hundred times) you see it when he's in a board meeting, constantly talking, filling any voids where doubt could seep in. Like the worst desperate comedian grasping at the air with words, all the while trying to appear calm. A never ending juggling act.

Those facial expressions are someone trying to appear like they're fine. In control. They're him imagining what it feels like to be confident, and trying to project that out. Unaware of or at least blocking out how it looks from an honest perspective. Seeing that it works on enough people in front of him, he keeps at it. It's like an emperors new clothes fake it til you make it. Except he never makes it. The plates need to keep spinning.
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
Thing is, I think a lot of powerful businessmen are pulling this exact same balancing act, just much much more adeptly.
 

Leo

Well-known member
trump was always a spoiled loudmouth con man, but so is nearly every real estate developer in New York. but not every real estate developer is a narcissistic racist with authoritarian impulses and no cares about wreaking havoc around the world. unable to feel sorry for him. almost worse are the people who enable him.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Jaron Lanier thinks he's addicted to Twitter and it's scrambled his brain. He now thinks and speaks in tweets.
There's got to be an analysis somewhere of what social media addiction does to people (individuals/society) in terms of the Sapir-Worf hypothesis, I'd have thought.
 

version

Well-known member
There's got to be an analysis somewhere of what social media addiction does to people (individuals/society) in terms of the Sapir-Worf hypothesis, I'd have thought.

This is the interview where he talks about Trump and Twitter,

 
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