100 days of gibberish - Trump has weaponised nonsense

[babylonsister]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/25/trump-100-days-gibberish-weaponised-white-house-language-presidency?CMP=fb_us

100 days of gibberish – Trump has weaponised nonsense
Lindy West

The Trump White House approaches language with the same roughshod entitlement he’s applying to the presidency. His sloppy lies and vague promises must not stop us holding him to account

Tuesday 25 April 2017 08.09 EDT
Last modified on Tuesday 25 April 2017 17.00 EDT


With only a week left of his first 100 days in office – traditionally a milestone for American presidents – Donald Trump sat down with the Associated Press to reflect on his accomplishments (sic) and preemptively brag about future ones. This remarkable artefact, a transcript of which AP then released in full, captures, more than any other piece of media (except perhaps Trump’s Twitter feed), the unifying ethos of the Trump White House: weaponised nonsense.

The interview is deep, pure, tangy, umami Trump. I felt like I was reading one of those children’s stories in which a villain’s soul is written into a book and imprisoned there for ever – only without, in America’s case, such a happy ending. Donald Trump remains in the Oval Office, making decisions about whom to explode next (in the interview he calls this responsibility “the bigness of it all”), not gathering dust on a sorcerer’s shelf. Bad! (Not good.)

snip//

Without language, there is no accountability, no standard of truth. If Trump never says anything concrete, he never has to do anything concrete. If Trump never makes a statement of commitment, Trump supporters never have to confront what they really voted for. If his promises are vague to the point of opacity, Trump cannot be criticised for breaking them. If every sloppy lie (ie: “Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower … This is McCarthyism!”) can be explained away as a “generality” or “just a joke” because of “quotes”, then he can literally say anything with impunity. Trump can rend immigrant families in the name of “heart”, destroy healthcare in the name of “life”, purge minority voters in the name of “justice”, and roll back women’s autonomy in the name of “freedom”. The constitution? Probably sarcastic. There are “quotes” all over that thing!

If criticism is “political correctness” and “political correctness” is censorship, then aren’t all ideas equally valid? Is the most qualified presidential candidate really more qualified than a person who is not qualified at all? If we let a scientist testify before congress about climate change, shouldn’t we also let the retired basketball player Shaq come and tell them about how he thinks the Earth is flat because he drove all the way across America and at no point was he upside down?

We must keep calling these ideas what they are, and to do that we need a shared understanding of what words mean. That’s why Trump’s 100 days of gibberish aren’t just disorienting and silly – they’re dangerous. Trump approaches language with the same roughshod imperialist entitlement he’s applying to the presidency (and, by extension, the world) – as though it’s a resource that one man can own and burn at will, not a vastly complex collective endeavour of which he is only a steward.

[retrowire]

1. (unintelligible) nt

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

10. 16 times, 16!...

From the article. Retrowire I could tell you read the piece. This is for others. Thanks.


"Sixteen times during the interview, which took place in the Oval Office, Trump’s speech is recorded as “unintelligible”, either because he was mumbling like a weirdo or because an aide was talking over him and didn’t want to be quoted in the interview – both of which, the Toronto Star notes, are “highly unusual”. Highly unusual is our normal now."

[Sunlei]

12. Republicans backed, supported and voted for this mental slob, because their party benefits from an

easy to manipulate sick man as president.

[PJMcK]

2. Words have meanings

My dictionary is nearly six inches thick with thousands of words and their definitions. The Guardian article articulates most of the reasons we have language. In order to communicate and cooperate as a civilization, we have to agree on the meanings of words or we're only making noises at one another. I mean, fundamentally, if you say the grass is green while I insist that it's purple, we'll never be able to effectively discuss the grass.

Donald Trump abuses language every time he speaks. If you want to give yourself a headache, try reading the transcript of his interview with the Associated Press. Nearly the entire interview is gibberish. I cannot parse a single sentence so I have no real idea what he was talking about. His thought process is unintelligible as he veers all over the place.

This is a short quote from Kathleen Parker's column today:

The disconnect between the witty and the witless was that Trump fans took him seriously, not literally, while the media — silly gooses — took him literally but not seriously — as many have mentioned.

This is a clever observation, but it’s ludicrous to suggest that reporters shouldn’t take literally a president’s or candidate’s words. Certainly other nations and leaders do.

I added the emphasis and the rest can be found here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dealmaker-in-chief-more-like-the-backdown-president/2017/04/25/7cddddc6-29df-11e7-b605-33413c691853_story.html?utm_term=.1fdb617f702a&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1

My point is that words have meanings and unless it's very clear that the president is joking, then his words must be taken literally. That job doesn't allow for ambiguity in communication. That path leads to confusion and danger.

I don't know why that is so hard to understand. After all, grass is green.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. It's pure psychobabble. nt

[MadLinguist]

6. No, it's psychopathbabble

If only the problem were just overuse of buzzwords from popular psychology!

[BumRushDaShow]

13. Or perhaps incoherent and unfocused babble.

[gordianot]

4. He wants you to love him, Big brother in the flesh and he is reduced to gibberish.

[The Wizard]

5. Trumpspeak

Caucasian Ebonics.

[MadLinguist]

7. Nah, Trumpspeak is an idiolect all its own

His manner of speaking is not shared across any groups. I seriously doubt it's even intelligible to whatever counts as Trump's self.

[yallerdawg]

8. The deplorable morons bought his line of BS during the primaries and general...

when anyone with even half a brain understood he was full of shit.

Today, the basket chock full of nuts believes he is doing a remarkable job.

People voted for and support this jackass in the millions!

Best argument for gun control I have ever seen!

[berksdem]

9. I would say best argument for birth control...

[Sunlei]

11. 100+ babies killed, maybe more. Republicans and their "family values" on display to the world.