Donald Trump’s bizarre image must be a liberating thing. If your hair has its own webpage dedicated to its history 1976 -2015, your dignity will realise it has nothing left to lose.
This absence of self-doubt, freedom from inhibition, or whatever psychological condition Trump enjoys enables him to exult in that ‘anything goes’ abandon that people find so intriguing.
At least it has enabled Trump to say what many people are thinking, but couldn’t possibly take the risk of saying out loud.
So when they quoted ”Donald J Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”, and left out “until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on" they were being deliberately mischievous. They knew what they were doing alright.
The media has its own special way of leaving out the qualification, i.e., failing to quote the vital part of the sentence, phrase or paragraph, which puts the contentious soundbite in a less explosive context. Cherry picking with malice.
They’ve done it with Jeremy Corbyn to such an extent that I actually felt sorry for him at one stage - in particular when he was quoted as saying that Osama Bin Laden’s demise was ‘a tragedy’. Nice sound-bite, but not exactly the whole shebang.
The Telegraph has really gone to town with this. It’s beginning to look as if the Telegraph doth protest too muchio.
They’ve reproduced all those high profile persons’ Tweets and topped the whole thing off with one of those “Who said it:” quizzes like the one they set up yesterday, where the entities pitted against one another were ISIS and Stop The War coalition. (It was impossible to tell).
This quiz pits Trump against Adolph Hitler. I haven’t taken it; I got 5/10 on yesterday’s quiz by attributing most of them to StWC. They were interchangeable, obvs., and no doubt these are too.
Not that I’m defending Trump. He’s far too ridiculous to be defended, but 'reprehensible, prejudiced and divisive' is too crude a response. Crude responses are all we get from people these days. That’s what so depressing. Political correctness is stifling genuine discussion. We are frightened of Islam and we fear that what we’ve been seeing is only the tip of the iceberg.
Many an ordinary person is NOT thinking Trump’s plan to put the brakes on Muslim immigration is reprehensible prejudiced and divisive, but rather that Hillary’s Tweet would be much more appropriate if directed at Islam.
Classic BBC from Nick Bryant on the BBC 1 10 O'clock news.
ReplyDelete"...but many people would say this isn't the road to the White House, this is the gutter".
I am tempted to ask the BBC via the medium of the FOI, just how many of their 'impartial' (my one on 'quote' use just exempted, by amazing coincidence, and now off to ICO) correspondents' 'reports' start with '..but many people would say', but my current batting rate on anything to do with BBC Guidelines and their questionable professional use is not good. In fact all have foundered on the BBC being exempt from the FOI Act because the BBC just is.
DeleteUsually it's for 'the purposes of', but here is another falling foul of that mystery time sheet that coincidentally also falls under 'purposes of' in ways that would make even Douglas Adams (RIP) frown:
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/content_request
Donald Trump’s bizarre image must be a liberating thing.
ReplyDeleteNah, it's his wealth and celebrity status. Our celebrity culture is just as pathetic and possibly a bit more dangerous than the ancients worshiping their kings as gods among them. Our ultra-wealthy celebrities today get a pass on everything they do or say (short of the proverbial dead woman/live boy scenario), and have a constant public platform from which to pontificate to the unwashed masses, who as often as not actually listen to them seriously. Some are even selected to run and then get elected based solely on their celebrity status: e.g. Al Franken, Jesse Ventura, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hillary Clinton.
Trump is part of this, and has the added confidence of having achieved celebrity due to wealth and business accomplishments rather than light entertainment, sleaze, or politics. He knows it, and has used it to his own benefit for years. He also knows that celebrities are always forgiven eventually (again save for the proverbial scenario), so can say and do whatever he pleases. One giveaway is that the occasional actual policy statements written out on his website are generally not half as outlandish as what he says in public.
Now the Trump brand is skyrocketing. He will come out of this with an even greater potential for his business empire. Most important of all, he will have helped get Hillary Clinton elected President, which is the real goal of this whole charade.
He may be temporarily reviled by the bien pensants, but that will quickly fade a couple years from now and will have zero effect on his wealth and business dealings.