Are any of you wondering what Dilbert creator and Dunning-Kruger poster boy Scott Adams has to say about last night’s debate? No? Too bad, because I already went and looked at his post on the subject, and it’s too loopy not to share.
Given that Adams, like Trump, is a narcissistic buffoon who’s wrong about nearly everything, it may not come as a shock to learn that Adams thinks Trump won the debate. It’s the reasons he gives for this, er, victory that are a little strange.
Let’s go through them.
First, the self-styled master persuader thinks that Trump scored big persuasion points by responding to the question about his “p***y grabbing” comments by … talking about ISIS.
As Adams sees it:
The persuasion move was that he quickly contrasted that “small” issue with images of ISIS beheadings, and cage-drownings. It was a high ground maneuver, a powerful visual anchor (like the Rosie O’Donnell move from his first primary debate), and a contrast play. In this framing, Trump cares about saving your life while Clinton cares about your choice of words. I realize the issue is Trump’s alleged deeds, not his words. But in terms of debate persuasion, Trump nailed it hard.
I’m not sure what exactly a “contrast play” is, but I feel comfortable in saying that most of those watching the debate saw Trump’s move as a “completely transparent attempt to change the subject.”
Adams then suggested that Trump’s much-discussed habit of following Clinton around the stage and lurking behind her like some kind of movie monster was actually a brilliant persuasion technique:
Clinton’s body language was defensive. Trump is physically larger and prowled the stage. He won the optics.
Adams also seems to blame Clinton for the actions of a random insect:
It only got worse when a fly landed on Clinton’s face mid-answer.
Apparently, flies never land on true ALPHA DOGS like Trump.
Adams also thinks that Trump’s not-really-joking threat to toss Hillary in jail — which many people see as proof that Trump doesn’t understand how democracy works — was actually a super-smart “visual persuasion” move.
His comment about putting Clinton in jail has that marvelous visual persuasion quality about it, and it was the laugh of the night, which means it will be repeated endlessly. He also looked like he meant it.
Adams doesn’t care much about actual policy, and assumes no one else does either, and so he’s somehow convinced himself that Trump deserves more points for occasionally sounding like he almost knows what he’s talking about than Clinton does for actually understanding the issues inside and out.
For Adams, it’s enough that “Trump threw in enough random details about Syria to persuade viewers that he knows more than they thought he knew” — which was nothing.
As for the rest of the issues, well, all Trump needed to do to beat Clinton was to pretend he vaguely knew about some of them.
We don’t know how to fix Obamacare or what to do with TPP. But by acting competent on these and other policy issues, Trump gains more than Clinton in persuasion.
TOTALLY NOT A DOUBLE STANDARD GUYS.
Adams has a few other arguments, but I’m not going to write about them. Instead, I want you to imagine Scott Adams picking his nose and then eating his boogers.
You’ve got to admit that image has a “marvelous visual persuasion quality about it,” huh?
DEBATE WON. I AM THE WINNER. I AM THE MASTER PERSUADER.
@WWTH, just read that. I’m pretty sure that the polls aren’t lagging. Most men just want to laugh it off. They don’t want to define groping as sexual assault, and don’t want to believe stories of sexual assault. One more reason to not go outside.
Unrelated, the house is finally empty. I think I’ll be taking today off of work and just decompress. I’ve had enough humans until the Christmas holidays.
This kind of fundie stuff actually really upsets me because I was spiritually abused (yes, that is a real thing) by a sect in the UK for more than ten years. I know a great many people who used to be my friends (before I got shunned) who would find Pastor Anderson’s comments very reasonable.
@Scildfreja (an anyone else insights)
Not just men want to avoid the issue, though we are the predominant group. I’m still arguing this one on Facebook, in this example a post suggesting we should drop the subject because Trump “apologized”.
One of my Dad’s women friends is going the “Trump only owes the Lord an apology” route. This then segues into a bunch of stuff about Hillary being corrupt and Bill being ignored on this issue via a transition about Democrats and “holier than thou”.
I’ve got a response planned, but I was curious if you or anyone had any suggestions or insights?
Bill is not running and even if there were anything to his behavior it’s entirely possible that Hillary believes him*. That is not an uncommon problem and does nothing to make her look worse than Trump (and my parents have not engaged on that point at all). Pointing at even true examples of corruption is just changing the subject as if two wrongs make a right. And independently of deities the idea that any wrong doing does not require apologies to people is just wrong.
*Are there any resources related to the women who have accused Bill Clinton? I have wanted to read about it but it’s hard to find anything that is not a right-wing froth-fest.
I’d argue that all men, at least in the west, are part of rape culture. Even if we don’t act on it or even speak on it, those attitudes have been internalised at a very basic level and are still lurking. To use the metaphor of a disease, we are all carriers. We need to recognise it in ourselves so that we can avoid acting on it.
I am not a sociologist, but I think a large part of changing this is going to be changing our sons’ attitude towards power, especially power over other individuals. However, that touches on so many other parts of culture that I would have no idea how to go about it.
@IP (if you’re reading this): as someone who no longer identifies as male, what’s your take? Do you recognise this in yourself?
@Brony Bill settled the Arkansas sexual harassment case for $850,000. The case involved allegations of non-consensual assault, not the scandal everyone talked about. I don’t think Hillary is responsible for anything he did. There’s a YouTube video with Catharine MacKinnon discussing the case.
Snopes.com: http://www.snopes.com/bill-clinton-fined-and-disbarred-over-the-monica-lewinsky-scandal/ (all links are to reputable news sources)
@Brony
Bruh, the fuck!? “Even if.” The past tense. “Anything.” “His behavior.” Everything about this is wrong! ?
@Brony, of course you’re right, I’m sorry. It’s not just men that facilitate rape culture. Women do as well. That’s why it’s a *culture* – it touches everything. Thank you for the correction.
And yeah, Bill Clinton is gross. Maybe his attitudes have improved, but I’ve got no reason to believe that until I see it. Bill isn’t Hillary, though, and you’re very right that any mention of Bill during Hillary’s campaign is just a distraction.
@History Nerd
I should have thought of snopes. I’m used to google-fu. Thanks! The image macro my Dad is using has almost two dozen women on it but a start is a start.
@Axecalibur
I stand corrected. You are right. I know better than that and I’m not sure why I put it that way. I’ll think about that.
@Scildfreja
It was not intended as a correction but thank you anyway. There is too much moving of attention from men at the moment, and given my previous comment I’m not immune either.
I didn’t think you took it to be a correction! I try to look for corrections, though, so thank you for speaking up.
@Scildfreja
I hope decompressing goes well.
I did not think that you thought I took it as a correction. Did I word something badly?
I was feeling odd that you felt corrected by me because I was also sliding attention from men, though wrongly in this case I guess (I’m a little on guard for mistakes in general right now). I was hoping it was more of addition to the situation.
Too much convolution. I need decompress too.
@ Scildfreja and weirwoodtreehugger
This recent article from the Atlantic does a lot of good investigation into why men favor Trump by a much larger percentage than women.
The whole thing is worth reading, especially when the author discusses demographics like education levels.
Chilling. Worth watching.
https://twitter.com/adamcald11/status/785878268427644928
@Scildfreja
*nods solemnly*
Worth noting that – at least in the September polls- Trump was ahead of Hillary with white non college graduate women.
@Bryce White non-college women over the age of 45.