Killary Clinton, The Donald, or Jill Stein: The US Election

Mod note: This thread deals with the build-up to the 2016 US election, held on November 8th 2016. For the new thread on political developments in the US since the election was called for Trump, go here: 'Donald Trump wins 2016 US presidential election'

I saw this on Facebook recently. It does a really good job of deconstructing how Trump uses language to emotionally connect with people and sell his version of reality.

This is great for sharing, I'm going to pass it along.

Thanks for posting!

Great video and analysis on Trump's speech, whitecoast! Thanks for sharing.

I think it always helps to have a good break-down of how a spellbinder works. His popularity continues to astonish me and it really shows where most americans are at these days: hate-filled small minded fourth graders. The US is really rapidly going down the drain.

Thanks for sharing, Whitecoast!

It is a peculiar thing that most of Trumps words contain only one syllable! And kind of scary that most American's better relate to someone speaking at a 4th grade level!!! He strikes a chord with people who are angry at the way things are going, yet he does not present any real solutions....just keeps pointing out that there are "problems" and he's the one who can find out what is going on.

The way it looks, Trump will end up with the nomination. Who'd have thought a narcissist extraordinaire would be the people's choice? Just a symptom of the pathology that's infected US society.

It makes me shiver how a demagogue of his kind could get so far. I've recently watched a few presidential debates from 50 years ago, and the difference is striking. Just repeatedly using trigger words picked from a 4th grader's vocabulary list gets you the farthest :O Makes it hard not to lose faith in humanity.

It's funny you post this because just yesterday, after reading the headline (something along the lines of): Trump says he could shoot someone in the street and his core fans wouldn't blink a few times, i just realised that as loopy as he is, he can spit a tyrannical line out one side, and out the other shoots a twisted but relevant line about the economy (or something similar); his audience either eats it up or lets it slide, and as he says, he gets away with it.

I think Dimitry Orlov commented on FB that, actually, this vitriolic and idiotic chit chat works to his favour, because, Orlvov says, the public would see someone who acts like a politician as untrustworthy, due to the economy and the like. Which i think may explain the appeal of his single syllable blabber.

We really are in the most interesting times


I think this meme going around is quite apt - i posted it with the following quote:

“Just look at us. Everything is backwards, everything is upside down. Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, psychiatrists destroy minds, scientists destroy truth, major media destroys information, religions destroy spirituality and governments destroy freedom.”

― Michael Ellner

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Trump the wannabe dictator is on it again...:


https://www.facebook.com/TheYoungTurks/videos/10153362247819205/?pnref=story

Kind of scary to see how history repeats itself, right infront of our eyes...

Eulenspiegel said:

It makes me shiver how a demagogue of his kind could get so far. I've recently watched a few presidential debates from 50 years ago, and the difference is striking. Just repeatedly using trigger words picked from a 4th grader's vocabulary list gets you the farthest :O Makes it hard not to lose faith in humanity.

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Watching these videos I too can't but think of the speeches given by JFK and RFK during their presidential campaigns. But that was such a long time ago now, America didn't get to Trump over night. The change came slowly and covertly, most people, and especially the younger generations, never noticed the difference. I cry with you Americans for what it was, what could have been, and what instead is

Scott Adams (the guy who writes Dilbert) has written a lot about Trump in his blog. Adams, who always struck me as a bit creepy, studies hypnosis and manipulation as a hobby, and says Trump is a master at this (he calls him a wizard). A lot of the things he says that sound like gaffes or random shooting off of his mouth are actually well crafted. He predicted Trump would win this thing last summer.

The video at the top of this thread is a good example of how a good hypnotist/spellbinder lets the listener fill in blanks. When Trump is talking about terrorism or ISIS or something notice how in the video he repeats, "We have a problem, we have a problem, we have to get at the bottom of the problem. We can't solve the problem until we know what's the problem..." Etc. your average American nationalist can fill in the blank with the problem being immigrants or the violent nature or Islam or something. But even someone like me kind find himself nodding thinking that the problem is western imperialism or the U.S. bombing those countries and funding false flag groups.

In fact, I found myself nodding when he opened an attract on Hillary's weakest point, her warmongering. He actually said that the world would be better off if Ghaddafi and Saddam Hussein were still in power, that we've destroyed those countries, let a mess and made everything worse. It's scary that he's the only candidate that's said this.

Well, after watching that video, I won't be calling Trump dumb any-more... he clearly is quite intelligent if he does all that consciously. Looks like he'll most likely be the next US president - as unthinkable as that sounds. In a way, it shows where the empire has got to - a business tycoon or a family dynasty as the 2 choices..

Shared the video on FB.

Who'd have thought a narcissist extraordinaire would be the people's choice?

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When has it ever been otherwise? As bad as he is (awful!), I don't see him as any worse than some others. Just different to the usual beltway insiders.

Trump's body language is interesting too. In the video posted above, he keeps doing a chopping movement with his right hand. This movement is in sync which his intonations which is put on almost each syllabus, leading to an hypnotic spelling beat.

I remember Laura mentioning that this chopping hand movement may be one of the visible signs of psychopathy.

luke wilson said:

Well, after watching that video, I won't be calling Trump dumb any-more... he clearly is quite intelligent if he does all that consciously. Looks like he'll most likely be the next US president - as unthinkable as that sounds. In a way, it shows where the empire has got to - a business tycoon or a family dynasty as the 2 choices..

Click to expand...

That's something I wonder about myself. Does he (and others like him) do that consciously, or is it rather a sort of semi-instinctive way of behaving that he has found in the past that works through trial and error? It's like that thing that apparently psychopaths have of being able to tell if someone is a potential victim by simply looking at their mannerisms or even the way they walk. (This was mentioned in a documentary about psychopathy.) Personally, I find it hard to believe that they are so smart that they figured that out by studying psychology or hypnotic techniques, so I think it's more experiential or intuitive on their part. Creepy either way.

If Trump wins "elections" this could be a such a pyrrhic victory for him if US were no more... President of nothing...

Windmill knight said:

luke wilson said:

Well, after watching that video, I won't be calling Trump dumb any-more... he clearly is quite intelligent if he does all that consciously. Looks like he'll most likely be the next US president - as unthinkable as that sounds. In a way, it shows where the empire has got to - a business tycoon or a family dynasty as the 2 choices..

Click to expand...

That's something I wonder about myself. Does he (and others like him) do that consciously, or is it rather a sort of semi-instinctive way of behaving that he has found in the past that works through trial and error? It's like that thing that apparently psychopaths have of being able to tell if someone is a potential victim by simply looking at their mannerisms or even the way they walk. (This was mentioned in a documentary about psychopathy.) Personally, I find it hard to believe that they are so smart that they figured that out by studying psychology or hypnotic techniques, so I think it's more experiential or intuitive on their part. Creepy either way.

Click to expand...

I agree - maybe it could be said that he has a "hard wired" link to some kind of higher command (center), that he is running on remote controls... genuine reaction machine. So maybe his hairstyle is manifesting all that data flooding him through his "crown chakra" or whatever

I think that Trump's success is mostly due to Americans being fed up with the establishment. He is a guy who finances his own campaign and therefore appears not to have been bought.

He actually speaks out some important truths that most of the other candidates avoid to even touch upon. Corruption in politics is one of them.

He also appears to have a much saner stance on Putin - there was TV interview where he correctly pointed out that allegations of Putin's wrongdoings are not the same thing as truth or that the US should support Russia in Syria.

I think Putin also sort of endorsed him, so I'm not sure if he is indeed such a bad choice among the candidates.