265 Objective Truth: Richard Rorty vs Orwell, Liberalism vs Populism and Donald O’Brien Trump
UPDATE: to what extent does the premise that Trump is iliterate give a new track to understand his Orewllian speak? Both he and millions of his voters are functionaly illiterate. It’s easy to persuade someone 2+2=5 if they never knew how to add in the first place
UPDATE: Quote Anne Applebaum on how effective political slander is
The fallacy of “we can’t react to every outrage”
These is a canard that many of our Democratic electeds even now. Like they’ll say things like “Trump is not going to take over the Panama canal or Canada, nor is he going to take over Gaza…”
This is a very misguided way to look at it. Like when Trump started the “we’re taking Greenland, taking back the Panama Canal, and annexing Canada” the “savvy” a la Jay Rosen response was to treat it like a joke. But right away it became clear that wether this were to ever happen or not-and you have seen Trump officials like Little Marco Rubio already send official letters with US letterhead on them calling to take back the PC or buy Greenland-it already changes all the pieces on the chessboard. This is the fallacy of those who say not to “overreact to Trump’s rhetoric” when you’re the President your words ARE POLICY. For a historical comparison-Henry the VIII who once he said ANYTHING was the force of law so much that it’s said even he couldn’t rescind it after.
Obviously it’s well known that the Fed Chairman-whose power Trump now says he wants to curtail-must say nothing casually as world markets could be roiled over the most innocuous sounding, glib comment. As I had argued in Chapter Lex Fridman once Trump started talking about invading NATO ALLIES it almost made the question of wether Trump was likely to leave it or not-as Lex Fridman seemed strangely confident of in his interview with Zelensky-academic as he was already destroying it from within. After this how could you be terribly surprised when he completely kneecapped Ukraine and prostrated himself before Putin? Of course many were terribly surprised even Ukraine supporters like Jake Broe as they hadn’t read these signs-again this is the fallacy of “we can’t react to every outrage” and Trump’s “frothy rhetoric is just words.”
The old children’s saying “sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me” has the inconvenience of being quite false. there’s a case to make that nothing has more destructive power than human words and with a powerful executive of an entire nation they have truly deadly potential around the world. And this brings us to: Orwell.
FN: When you think about it, there’s a good argument it’s less long term harmful to be punched in the stomach-as long as it’s not so hard it leads to long term debilitation-than being insulted or laughed at-the second will likely lead to far more years of therapy than the former. Indeed the more you think about it human words are lethal anyone who tells you “what are you so upset about it’s just words” is gaslighting you and pretty viscously
Since the travesty that is November 5 the two great historical books I keep going back to is Marxi’s 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte and Orwell’s 1984
18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. Marx 1852
see chapter sometimes the bad guys win
One thing that’s more clear than ever now post Novembrer is that Donald Trump IS O’Brien. This has aways been his superpower to assert 2+2=5 with utter confidence and lead 40% of the country believe him. Even those with advanced mathetmatics degrees…
If Trump IS O’Brien then within the pages of this-ahem-marathon book clearly I, your personable, vigilant author am Winston.
Stephen Colbert Roasts Bush at 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner
The fallacy that Trump “has no ideology”
I am MAGA Man: Trump’s version of the ideal American is pro-Putin and anti-truth | Opinion
Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett putting on an absolute clinic going full on ANTI ORWELLIAN DISCOURSE on the idea that maybe GOP should try engaging in actual truthful discourse sometime-Russia invaded Ukraine. Trump lost 1/6. The Covid lies are killing people.