[FRIAM] Great Communicator or NLP unto TDS

[Prof David West]

DaveW did not claim Trump was a great communicator — he did (attempt to) cite Scott Adams' book, *Win Bigly,* where Adams, who considers himself a great communicator, argued that Trump was the same and that was why he was going to win the election against Hillary — which he did.

Steve adds: *"I believe it is duplicitous and divisive to claim he is "a great communicator"  That implies both depth and breadth, that he is listening to a broad swath of the country and he is speaking to a broad swath."*

Adams argues, and I completely agree, that this is exactly what Trump did in 2016, does today, and will continue to do in the future. A broad enough swath to win in 2016 and attract 40 million votes in 2020.

I said in 2016 (when I was also predicting Trump's win) that it was a huge mistake for Democrats and the Media then, to focus on the 1-10 percent of Trump supporters who were certifiably wacko and card carrying members of the "Basket of Deplorables," and pretending the 90-99% did not exist and did not have legitimate and perhaps even reasonable reasons for supporting someone — for policy and philosophical reasons — that they found to be despicable as a person.

In this post, I believe SteveS is perpetuating that mistake.

While ranting, may I remark that the social media and tech platforms essentially removed themselves from rule 230 protection (when it gets to the courts) by banning Trump and Parler. Modifying 230 is a bipartisan objective, but it will be real interesting to watch the rhetorical contortions the Dems will have to perform when considering actual legislation.

davew



On Sun, Jan 10, 2021, at 10:57 AM, Steve Smith wrote:
> I didn't take the bait on Friday's vFriam when DaveW (as I remember)
> claimed that Donald J Trump was "a great communicator".   (same as
> Reagan was credited by his fans and perhaps more reluctantly his
> detractors?)
> 
> I suppose Trump is very effective at one mode of transmission of his
> ugliest sentiments, which I find to be at best a very degenerate form of
> CO mmunication.
> 
> Whatever skills he has for "reading a crowd" and reflecting back that
> which serves his purposes feels more like Neurolinguistic Programming
> (NLP) than "communication".
> 
> I believe it is duplicitous and divisive to claim he is "a great
> communicator"  That implies both depth and breadth, that he is listening
> to a broad swath of the country and he is speaking to a broad swath.  
> Perhaps by a twist of interpretation, you *can* claim that he has his
> finger on the pulse of those he whips into a seditious and
> insurrectional frenzy as well as those he cannot so instead whips into
> what has been called "Trump Derangement Syndrome" (TDS).  His apparent
> ability to instigate TDS in virtually everyone (type A or type B) is
> somewhat unique...  though authoritarian figures around the world have
> done it for millennia? 
> 
> One (DaveW?) could also argue his sublime ability to give clear
> direction/orders to his underlings (e.g. Michael Cohen, et al) without
> ever actually saying anything indictable.  This is the stuff of Crime
> bosses, right?   Very effective communicators within a very narrow (and
> useful to them) context.
> 
> DaveW's assertion on Friday provided me the perspective and motivation
> to look a little deeper into the question of just what makes Trump's
> style of communication so dangerous.  The previous post with the
> Politico article about Sedition vs Insurrection came to me from that
> unconsciously I think.
> 
> - SteveS
> 
> 
> 
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