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.
Happy birthday, Countess Lovelace! May your horse-racing-gambling habit find succour in the afterlife.
I’ve read that in the Early Modern period, “computer” was used to refer to a person who did the maths to calculate log tables. These were often monks, interestingly.
I guess they had to do something to earn money after printing presses made hand-copying obsolete.
@Weird Eddie:
Go that girl! She sounds awesome. I hope she never loses her love for her subject.
@Podkayne Lives
Thanksgiving is the rutabega holiday, as far as my family is concerned, and we were eating dinner during the debate. Therefore, by that criterion, I believe my mother is actually the winner. You can all feel free to vote for her, but I’m not sure she much wants the job.
@Scildfreja
Right on!
Re: Beck
He’s used to being the outlandish one. Upon running a mile in our shoes, he finally understands how we feel about him. Like with Plato’s caveman, the realization has burned itself into his eyes. He doesn’t yet fully grasp it. Does he dare look within? See that the monster is of his creation? That all he knows might prove humbling in its falsehood? Perhaps not. Until then, at least he has turned against the void crab. Baby steps…
I don’t think I’ve ever had a rutabaga before.
@Axe:
I’ve thought from the beginning that “Trump-ism” is the love child (… umm… make that “hate-child”) of AM talk radio/Fox News and 4chan/reddit….
to me, Beck, Limbaugh, Coulter, et. al. created Donald Trump: The Repub Nominee with their constant pandering to the basest fears of the party base. He’s the money man for the Attention Economy.
This is one of those cases of “things that are bad are even worse when you add sexism”. The media in general, and the punditocracy in particular, has a vested interest in, and thus a bias towards, “middleground-ism”. This faux-objectivity is a standard in lots of debates where the gender of the participants is not a particular factor (see: creationism v. evolutionary theory, for instance). But then, when a woman is involved, the incessant ‘what about’ gets used to completely water down all of the intelligent analysis that might possibly get put forward.
If you’ve had turnip, you’ve essentially experienced rutabaga. They’re much the same. We actually used to call it turnip, since proper turnips won’t grow here*, but at some point the grocery stores started bringing the real thing in from the States and we were forced to modify our terminology.
*I want to say in all of Canada, but maybe other provinces have them.
@Eddie
Aaand… stolen. I’ll endeavor to give you proper attribution, but no promises 🙂
@Eddie,
Bad news: it’s no safer for her anywhere else, either.
Good news: Sounds like she’s got the drive and passion to succeed. She’s got the tools she needs to cut her own path. Take heart. I think she’s gonna do just fine!
@Moggie,
Trump is setting it up so that if he loses, his followers will believe it is due to electoral fraud. Specifically, fraud caused by black and other PoC communities.
“Areas” he’s talking about are, of course, areas which have high concentrations of Democratic voters. Minorities and the poor.
Here’s the article from Slate:
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/10/donald_trump_is_setting_a_time_bomb_for_racial_violence_on_election_day.html
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-dems-can-win-pennsylvania-only-if-they-cheat/article/2599254
Well, how can they tell if someone votes multiple times? Those bigots confuse one person for another because all ___ look the same.
Also, I voted yesterday! I did early voting since I’m leaving the country soon, but not without first making sure I do my civic duty.
I was watching the debate and felt that Trump was going to push Clinton at any moment, much like a school yard bully. Not as scary, but still threatening. (I have fortunately never had to experience harassment that many other women have related.)
Astronomical computer was a job description!
There’s a nice overview of what they did on this video from 21.05 to 25.20.
It’s amazing really. If we want to do something, we just follow some instructions with our equipment. The idea that you had to employ a woman with a maths degree to work out where to point your telescope if you wanted to observe certain stars had never occurred to me.
I’m really glad my state switched to mail-in only. I really don’t want to deal with a bunch of 2nd ammendment people looking to “do something” about us 15th and 19th ammendment people trying to exercise our rights.
I don’t want Glenn Beck to turn liberal.
I want him to Go Away. Get a nice quiet job outside politics. Get off the air.
The last thing I want is him cluttering up leftist political space with the sort of fact-free apocalyptic conspiracy theories he peddles in. Maybe if he goes David Brock, founds a website with an intended purpose, and stays the hell out of the limelight and lets the work speak for itself, then maybe.
I think he’s found himself on the wrong side of another massive ego sucking all the oxygen from his flame, and is flailing for another source of attention the only way he knows how; another redemption story.
Not buying it, Beck. You lead half the country to believe that a moderate Democratic politician was a fascist antichrist. You don’t get to bounce back from that shit. Have your redemption quietly, outside of the public eye.
2nd Amendment
“There being a fear of gays, blacks, Jews, Muslims, and women, the right of white men to have and carry guns shall not be infringed”
@leftwingfox
I’d wish for him to GO AWAY. There is no value for his words, just bigotry, fear mongering, and causing those of faith instead of caring about loving all to fearing and loathing all.
Brave teenage protester wears a “Grab my pussy, I dare you” shirt to a Trump rally:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/this-teen-wore-a-grab-my-pssy-i-dare-you-shirt-to-a-trump-rally_us_57fd0c95e4b0b6a43035a693?
Now if she just used a pic of a female cartoon anthro cat armed to the teeth, the image would be complete.
Trump is really far away from being a principled fiscal or social conservative or right libertarian and closer to the alt-right. The alt-right really isn’t anything new. It’s more or less people tangential to nihilistic anarchist movements who are indifferent to most political issues but would prefer if society didn’t have any moral expectations whatsoever, whether the expectations come from the left or the right.
That’s always been popular among people like serial rapists, but it can have a populist appeal when you add bigotry and pander to people’s anger and fear.
Just from how Trump behaves, you’d expect he would get support from people who are rightfully ostracized by society. About 5% of men are serial rapists and maybe 30% have rape culture attitudes, so there are plenty of people predisposed to support Trump.
“Nailed it hard”??
Gross. But he probably thinks it’s clever and subversive.
@Bina and @Scildfreja Unnýðnes, regarding Adams sounding like a PUA:
If there was any doubt–
http://img.allw.mn/content/ny/pb/m2gqe9f054dcc4569c7f2320717060.jpg
Thank you, all, for bringing me up to date with Glenn Beck.
I am sure he can contribute something useful to society in the future. I bet he has a skill he can use. Maybe he’s good at clearing out gutters, or carpentry, or mental arithmetic. Maybe he makes a killer lemon meringue pie. Just so long as his skill does not involve standing in front of a camera and sharing off-the-top-of-his-head thoughts on politics and any related topics.
@Nerd
Yo, that’s your upper bound? 30?
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FpxVivdAFOI/UnOZcneKa8I/AAAAAAAADLw/g0-3i3W3exc/s1600/lowerexpectations.gif
Maybe I’m being cynical, but that’s awfully optimistic…
It’s a reasonable assumption. At least a significant part of the population buys into rape culture.
I just watched this documentary on the BBC. Truly horrifying stuff. I’m pretty much in tears now 🙁