October 4, 2016

"All things considered, I had a great week. I didn’t realize I was having enough impact to get on the Clinton enemies list."

"I don’t think I’m supposed to be happy about any of this, but that’s not how I’m wired."

Scott Adams, one of the differently wired.

80 comments:

mikee said...

I, myself, have been banned from reddit.com's /r/Pyongyang, and know how Adams feels.
Being acknowledged as disliked by those one loathes is a good feeling.

Lyle Smith said...

It's amazing how cowardly a society we've become. There will be blood.

YoungHegelian said...

There are some real thugs in the Hillary camp. Real, honest to God thugs. Except that they see themselves as fighting the good fight for Progress! & Diversity!, & they wear suits & ties. I'm looking at you, David Brock & John Podesta.

I wish I could imagine a way that this sort of political malevolence will end that won't involve violence, but for the life of me, I can't.

Clayton Hennesey said...

You would think Jack Dorsey would get a clue from somewhere that Scott Adams is a different person than Andrew Anglin.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Getting banned from a social media platform in a way that's difficult to detect or fight (and motivated by the political & ideological designs of those in charge of that platform/authority)? Hey buddy, you'd better start engaging in "more speech." It's good for what ails ya'.

RMc said...

Adams will be a lot less happy after he's jailed for his thoughtcrime (Trumpcrime?).

rehajm said...

It's all in the timing. Next month it will end and 'forgotten' by Thanksgiving. Only to begin again when it matters.

campy said...

Adams will be a lot less happy after he's jailed for his thoughtcrime (Trumpcrime?).

He'll stop complaining after his shower.

MadisonMan said...

It would be so refreshing if Hillary was asked about this during the debates.

Clayton Hennesey said...

To the best of my knowledge, only the appropriately named Twitter practices the chickenshit move of "shadowbanning", silencing people without publicly taking responsibility for it.

I wonder if Adams is the sort who might try Gab now, if only as a lark to blog and twit Twitter about.

Virgil Hilts said...

Alinsky tactics are evil but they do work, at least in the short term, and of course you have to be willing to lose your soul (a lot easier for the many progressives who do not believe that such a thing exits).

tcrosse said...

It's odd that Trump gets tagged as Hitler, while Clinton and her people act like Nazis. Actually, it would be more accurate to liken HRC to Stalin, rather than Hitler,
although her followers would take it as a compliment.

traditionalguy said...

Wow! That goes to show you how powerful Scott Adam's analysis was in exposing the deeds of the Propagandists. A small truth here and a small truth there and their best and tallest structure of fantasy land was collapsing.

Adams knows how to awake the hypnotized folks.

Dude1394 said...

The totalitarians of our country are all on the left. You principled liberals have been warned.

Gospace said...

For a while on Disqus my comments were disappearing as I posted them. Never did find out why, but after inquiries, my posts began to post again. I thing Disqus has made it more difficult to remove commenters.

traditionalguy said...

Clinton politics 101: always accuse your opponent of what you are doing. It surprises and confounds people who are in the know, and it leaves everyone else confused. Then, if you are caught doing it, you just say, " So what. Everybody does that."

Hagar said...

About Saul Alinsky, it should be remembered that it was Chicago City Hall he was fighting, and he was right up front and in their faces about it.

Gospace said...

traditionalguy said...
Clinton politics 101: always accuse your opponent of what you are doing. It surprises and confounds people who are in the know, and it leaves everyone else confused. Then, if you are caught doing it, you just say, " So what. Everybody does that."


Projection. All liberals and psychopaths engage in it. Oh, wait, that was redundant.

Curious George said...

Could have been worse. He could have been found in Fort Marcy Park.

LakeLevel said...

fas·cism
noun \ˈfa-ˌshi-zəm also ˈfa-ˌsi-\
1
often capitalized : a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition


Merriam-Webster

damikesc said...

You would think Jack Dorsey would get a clue from somewhere that Scott Adams is a different person than Andrew Anglin.

Can't imagine why critics lambasted Twitter's idea of the INCREDIBLY Orwellian-sounding Twitter Trust and Safety Council --- many of whom, ironically, committed the sins that they ban others for.

Nonapod said...

It's old news that people can justify appalling behavior by convincing themselves it's OK because their cause is righteous, or that everybody does it. The banality of evil continues apace. This is the strangest and darkest period in the USA in my lifetime. We have a completely corrupt FBI that allows suspects to destroy their computers and yet still has the audacity to claim they're not weasels and pretend they're honorable in any way. And the big story of the day is about an 18 year old tax record that is completely legal and irrelevant to anything.

Gk1 said...

None of this is surprising to those of us who have watched presidential election the last 15 years. Republican signs, campaign offices and personnel are routinely vandalized, burned, roughed up etc. It's no small surprise it would happen in the cyber world. I just wish they weren't so obnoxiously hypocritical when they get sprayed by the odd drop of piss coming the back other way.

Michael K said...

I don't much lurk on the left of the blogosphere and am surprised to hear how much play the NY Times Trump tax story is getting.

I doubt there are many small businesspeople who are Hillary voters and I suspect few who get only W-2 income understand the tax code. Still, you would think there are enough people selling stuff on E-Bay and at garage sales to figure this out ?

Maybe not. A nation of sheep.

Known Unknown said...

I don't much lurk on the left of the blogosphere and am surprised to hear how much play the NY Times Trump tax story is getting.

It's a non-story, too. I've taken a NOL for a side business for crying out loud.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I'll believe Mr. Adams's claim of persecution as soon as he gets attacked in a restroom at San Francisco International Airport, a swastika Sharpied on his face, and the beginnings of an involuntary buzz cut.

TosaGuy said...

Go back to the last election regarding the number who don't understand the tax code because they don't participate in it much.

Known Unknown said...

Adams may be a total tool, or someone with a warped sense of sarcasm. Frankly, I can't tell when he's talking about his abs and such.

eric said...

This is only going to get worse.

The right is too honest in its dealings. When the left wants your life and business destroyed, it urges a protest. Because they know what's going to happen at the peaceful protest.

When the right wants you to show these fools we aren't going to take it anymore, they say, "Run them down." And get banned on twitter, thus losing their voice.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Harold,

I've had the same experience with Disqus. I don't think it's nefarious; the platform's just buggy, especially when it's asked to handle a lot more comments than it was likely designed for. (I comment at McArdle; 'nuff said.) They tend to reappear later on.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Camp Hillary is camp Thug. People paid to spy and comment. Wait until she gets a hold of the first amendment.

Citizens United was all about her attempt to shut people up.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

eric,

Glenn apologized all over himself for "Run them down." So he's back on Twitter (avowedly not using it, though), back at UTenn, and (with a delay until conveniently just after the election, IIRC) back at USAToday.

But it was the sort of thing Twitter seems to make people do. Trump is, alas, a particularly notorious victim of this. Someone really ought to stage an intervention and take away his Twitter feed.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

AprilApple,

No, Citizens United was all about her attempt to shut people up who were talking smack about her. I am amazed that this isn't mentioned more often. The case had to do with whether an explicitly anti-Hillary video could be run on television within sixty days of an election. Is it any surprise that she's against it -- even though it lifted all restrictions on union spending?

I would like very much to see a draft of her proposed Constitutional amendment, incidentally. I don't know how you would write such a thing. Nor how you could pass it once written.

eric said...

But it was the sort of thing Twitter seems to make people do. Trump is, alas, a particularly notorious victim of this. Someone really ought to stage an intervention and take away his Twitter feed.

I appreciate his Twitter feed. Might it mean he loses the election? I suppose. But what if he wins, terrible twitter feed and all?

One of the things #Nevertrump wants us to believe is Trump is a worse flip flopper than Romney. What does he believe? He says one thing one week, another thing another week.

I think this is wrong. Trump doesn't speak like we are accustomed. He speaks like a regular guy standing in your living room. His Twitter feed is refreshing in this way. It's the sorta thing voters are always saying they want, but now that they have it, they declined cringe, or mock.

But an honest attempt to understand Trump may surprise people. For a billionaire, he seems quite normal. And he talks quite normal.

I compare it to sitting at home watching football with my friends. A commercial comes on, then a news clip. The news clip shows ISIS killing people by chopping off their heads. Someone says, "We ought to just nuke the whole middle East." Everyone in the room agrees.

It's not because we want to nuke the middle East. Its because we are pissed.

Or, as Selena Zito puts it on twitter, "The press takes Trump literally but not seriously, his fans take him seriously but not literally."

Anyway, I find his Twitter feed refreshing. Unlike Clintons twitter, which I'm 99% sure is run by her campaign and she has no idea how to use it, Trump runs his own twitter feed (except certain announced occasions).

Seems like the best way for a peasant like me to connect to a possible leader of the free world without the media filters.

SteveR said...

I hope the day will come soon that Twitter goes away.

rehajm said...

I hope the day will come soon that Twitter goes away.

Twitter has two things going for it: a supply of leftie billionaires who want to control the narrative and a tie in to professional football.

Achilles said...

This election will not be forgotten. Neither will the actions taken during it. I am putting down the marker with people that if they vote for or support Hillary we are not friends and I consider them bad people.

Sanders has dropped his support for Hillary. There are decent sanders supporters who believe in some forms of freedom. A decent person cannot support Hillary Clinton and the aristocracy that is trying to get her elected. It is fascist and completely amoral.

Comanche Voter said...

Well being called Deplorable by the Despicable is sort of a badge of honor.

Curious George said...

"eric said...

I compare it to sitting at home watching football with my friends. A commercial comes on, then a news clip. The news clip shows ISIS killing people by chopping off their heads. Someone says, "We ought to just nuke the whole middle East." Everyone in the room agrees.

It's not because we want to nuke the middle East. Its because we are pissed."

Speak for yourself. Of course at this point we will have to nuke Europe too.

Unknown said...

It is only fair to warn commenters here that they too are on a list and they will be silenced in good time. Oh, I know, you are thinking that I mean someone other than yourselves will silence you. No, actually, you will silence yourself. Just read campus publications supporting Trump, or attend campus meetings of Trump supporters, or....

What happened to those campus Trump supporters? Yes, I know, there are still a few campuses who have some. Just like there are still a few Trump supporters commenting. Endangered species.

Either Trump wins this election and appoints Supreme Court justices who support The Constitution or all Trump supporters will become "are you or have you ever been a member of the (Communist) Party" people in the very near future. When the progressives finish, the Republican Party will be firmly in the hands of the establishment again and in agreement with the Democrats on all social matters. Free speech will not exist as we know it. It will be in the same class as the "senseless slaughter of Native Americans". Only savages will be in favor of its practice, with all of its trigger warnings, mini-aggressions, lack of safe spaces, etc. We Trump supporters will all become the equivalent of buckskin-fringed, rifle-toting, bearded ignorant trappers with scalps hanging from our belts (Ugh. Good riddance).

buwaya said...

From Adams piece - "The timing of the hit piece might be a coincidence, but I stopped believing in coincidences this year."

Indeed - I stopped believing in coincidences some time before Mr. Adams.
The rest of the phenomena he is observing is typical and repeated across the right side of politics. Not on the other, a coincidence no doubt.

Joking aside, you really do have not just a ministry of propaganda but an organized though not entirely official Stasi operating in the US. This stuff is real and centrally directed. There isn't such a thing as normal, polite politics anymore because you haven't got your normal political/economic system anymore. It all really is Godzilla versus Rodan.

Michael K said...

We Trump supporters will all become the equivalent of buckskin-fringed, rifle-toting, bearded ignorant trappers with scalps hanging from our belts (Ugh. Good riddance).

It's been years since I read "Brave New World." If I am remembering it accurately, the savage who had not been"decanted" like the BNW citizens who spent their time at "The Feelies." was the good guy.

Michael K said...

"an organized though not entirely official Stasi operating in the US." I wonder if the Stasi equivalent was behind the Internet outage just as Assange was to hold his press conference this morning.

He canceled it but maybe he was just checking the Clinton Stasi.

Kevin said...

Remember, Hillary seriously wanted the US government to consider droning Assange, because he was embarrassing her.

Cuban-style turbas attacking opponents of Hillary are a given, if she gets elected, I think.

The John Doe raids in Wisconsin are the template for how Hillary's political enemies will be dealt with, if she gets elected.

eric said...

BTW professor, I hope you cover the Guccifer 2.0 Clinton Foundation hack.

Which can be found here. https://guccifer2.wordpress.com

Working on the assumption that this is real, it seems highly illegal. Not the hack. Which I know is illegal. But why does a charity, the clinton foundation, have those folders? Why does their charity have such lists of PACs and such?

I know the media won't cover this and they'll get a pass. But I hope you do, professor.

Brando said...

Was he officially banned from Twitter? Did they catch him trying to master persuade people?

I keep reading his blog hoping he can master persuade me, but except for that week I thought I was a giraffe, no luck.

buwaya said...

"but except for that week I thought I was a giraffe, no luck."

I have spent far more time as an invisible rabbit, and of course several years as a crocodile.
So there certainly is something to it.
I have been working on identifying as a billionaire, seeing as perhaps I can qualify for medical coverage of identity issues.

Brando said...

"I have spent far more time as an invisible rabbit, and of course several years as a crocodile."

I'm just glad my giraffe week didn't coincide with your crocodile period, or that may have resulted in disaster.

Dude1394 said...

Blogger eric said...
This is only going to get worse.

The right is too honest in its dealings. When the left wants your life and business destroyed, it urges a protest. Because they know what's going to happen at the peaceful protest.

When the right wants you to show these fools we aren't going to take it anymore, they say, "Run them down." And get banned on twitter, thus losing their voice.


This is really true and the right needs to take it seriously. That is one reason it is so disappointing to see the republican "thought leaders" supporting Hillary, they will not be forgiven.

buwaya said...

To be sure, I am still a crocodile.
That does not preclude my having a parallel identity as a billionaire - to say one can't be both simultaneously would be pure bigotry or course.
Identity is a curious and mutable business, but also entirely essential and absolute, as all the LGBTWTH people probably say.

victoria said...

I think he over-inflates his importance in the world and in the life of the political world today. He is a gnat.I wouldn't and haven't read a word hes written in the last 10 or so years. The only people who really read him and listen to him are the right wing wonks, kind of like the people who have been reading this blog since Ann has decided she is in for Trump in a big way.
You can blah blah blah about my being a left wing Hillary lover. Not true. I just think that you all are about as right wing centric and you have blinders on as far as Trump is concerned and it has dismayed me as much as the left wing wonks. Most of you think you are so much smarter that everyone else because you have picked the "right" candidate. He is every bit despicable and nasty dishonest as Hillary is. Makes my skin crawl.

This is the best we can do, crooked and crookeder? Ugh


Vicki From Pasadena

campy said...

That is one reason it is so disappointing to see the republican "thought leaders" supporting Hillary

Stupid Party is as Stupid Party does.

buwaya said...

"This is the best we can do, crooked and crookeder? Ugh"

Yes. It is because you are, too many of you, crooked.
Thats how it works. People in a democracy get the leaders they deserve.
And if you don't think you are crooked, then you are perhaps a bit in need of self-examination.

The Chinese have a tendency to see political issues best addressed through self-improvement is some way or another. There is good sense here. Of course, they often, or usually, go about it crookedly.

YoungHegelian said...

@Eric,

BTW professor, I hope you cover the Guccifer 2.0 Clinton Foundation hack.

If this data is legitimately from the Clinton Foundation, the foundation needs to immediately have its charitable organization status pulled. Assets of charitable organizations cannot be used for lobbying, electioneering, or partisan purposes.

Like it's going to happen, unless Trump wins, & maybe not even then.

PS: Assuming this is a legit hack, does anyone in the Clinton camp have the vaguest idea about computer security?

buwaya said...

"This is the best we can do, crooked and crookeder? Ugh"

To add, this isn't really about the candidates. Its a delusion to care too much about their personal qualities, of any sort. The whole personality thing is, from a governance point of view, largely irrelevant. Its a Soap Opera, a masquerade, professional wrestling.

What counts is the clique they represent. No US President has much real power as an individual, not compared to the power his (or those that allegedly report to him) institutions control. Anyone who has been in a senior executive position quickly figures out that his authority is in fact extremely limited, what he can do depends entirely on getting correct information and getting his will out where things are done. Both are very difficult even with excellent subordinates. And the executive is rarely free even to select these subordinates.

A President comes in with a large group of people, only some of which are personally desirable to him, many of whom, for various reasons, he is obliged to grant power and positions. If you want to know how the country is to be run, identify this clique and who controls THEM.

buwaya said...

And its quite easy to ID who is in Clintons clique. They have a track record, and many of them, if not most, are already running some large slices of the US Government.
If you like how things are going, well, its very unlikely they will run things differently.

Trump is much harder to read. Some of his lot are rehashed Republicans related to previous generations of these, some are current State people, but the rest are unknowns. How these will deal with the bureaucracies they will be given to run is a good question.

Of course, if one has come to the inescapable conclusion (inescapable to anyone paying attention I think) that this bureaucracy needs to be ripped up by the roots and burned, then its easy to come to a choice.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

The New York Times provides a fact-free (in reference to what Hillary said and did) review of the a few of Bill's affairs. They go to great lengths to make Hillary into a victim, even as she's wishing she could "crucify" Gennifer Flowers.

As @Iowahawk says, journalism today is all about covering important stories like this. With a pillow. Until they stop moving.

buwaya said...

The New York Times just got some more money from Carlos Slim, who is no doubt confident that he will continue to rip off his Mexican telecom customers with the connivance of the US Government.
The NYT is part of his US political leverage.
Not that I think he personally dictates anything, anymore than Mr. Bezos does to the WaPo. These things are favors-for-favors; I subsidize part of your propaganda system, you look kindly on my other interests.
The Democratic party is controlled by a set of interlocking interests, and they own, between them, most of the news media and its institutions.

tim in vermont said...

the foundation needs to immediately have its charitable organization status pulled.

LOL, by whom? The NY AG? He is busy shutting down the Trump Foundation on some technicality.

Anonymous said...

Scott is finding out that nothing happens by accident in ClintonWorld.

tim in vermont said...

We live in a kleptocracy that is devolving into a kakistocrasy. If this second hack turns out to be legitimate, it won't matter. It's over, we lost our republic, probably long after Ben Franklin figured we would.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

Blogger buwaya said...

"but except for that week I thought I was a giraffe, no luck."

I have spent far more time as an invisible rabbit, and of course several years as a crocodile.
So there certainly is something to it.
I have been working on identifying as a billionaire, seeing as perhaps I can qualify for medical coverage of identity issues.



Do you own a mansion & a yacht?

Amadeus 48 said...

It is becoming clearer by the day that President HRC will not be held accountable for any unlawful or immoral acts she may direct or commit as President. The DOJ will be at her beck and call, the courts will be stuffed with her appointees, and the press and media will be at best quiescent and at worst complicit.

Trump is unqualified and unfocused and wrong about most things, but he is the best bet we have for avoiding the next steps to autocracy.

dustbunny said...

Victoria, if you think Althouse is "in for Trump in a big way" then you are really not paying attention. She is seriously, cruelty neutral. There isn't anyone out there anymore who is neutral so you are used to anyone who defends or criticizes either side as being on a particular side. She is pointing out things that the media are ignoring.

Francisco D said...

Amadeus,

I agree with you except for the unqualified part. "Qualified" is very subjective and open to liberals setting standards for others that they do not apply to themselves.

How is Hillary qualified? She was married to a POTUS and was handed a couple of simple jobs for which she did nothing?

tim in vermont said...

This is the best we can do, crooked and crookeder? Ugh

Apparently. Would have been nice if the DNC had let you guys vote on alternatives, wouldn't it. But that's not the way it is anymore. "You give me the power to nominate, and I will care little for your power to elect." I think Machiavelli said that. But I am too lazy to check.

wildswan said...

In Wisconsin they raided the homes of conservatives at dawn. They pulled up and shone their headlights on the houses and pounded on the door. They came in and took all writings computers and images including pictures of children. They threatened wives with criminal prosecution. They warned them not to discuss this assault with anyone, including other conservatives under penalty of being prosecuted for that separate offense. They asked if other conservatives had told them about similar assaults.

This was the John Doe investigation and it went on like that for years. It was ended finally by the Wisconsin Supreme Court which said that citizens were being persecuted for the opinions they held and ordered it ended. Two years ago. Then that was appealed to the Supreme Court and that appeal was turned down today October 4, 2016.

The prosecutor who led this attack on liberty was the Milwaukee County DA John Chisolm. Black Lives Matter came into Milwaukee and denounced his office for systemic racism in summer 2016. In the Democratic primary Milwaukee County voters normally Republican, voted the Democratic ticket in effort to oust Chisolm. Their candidate was a black woman lawyer. Chisolm won the primary with usual loyal Democratic black turnout and will win the election. Black Lives Matter did not oppose him - just an unnamed "systemic racism" which was not on the ballot and so Chisolm will be re-elected.

It can and did happen here. Still Chisolm's worst excesses were struck down by two courts. I'm not sure they would be by a Hillary court.

buwaya said...

"Do you own a mansion & a yacht?"

Well, see, this is something I could use some help with to get relief from my identity problem.

People get government funding for sex-change operations that work very poorly to solve their mental problems. In my case all of my issues can be fixed by simply giving me money. Or yachts and mansions of course, that sort of thing will do nearly as well.

Bugs Bunny cartoons, not so much. I could decide I am Bugs Bunny, and then where would we be? There would be no end of trouble.

Michael K said...

"You can blah blah blah about my being a left wing Hillary lover."

But you are still voting for her.

Anonymous said...

"Victoria, if you think Althouse is "in for Trump in a big way" then you are really not paying attention. She is seriously, cruelty neutral. There isn't anyone out there anymore who is neutral so you are used to anyone who defends or criticizes either side as being on a particular side. She is pointing out things that the media are ignoring."

Oh god what baloney. Althouse was in it with both feet until the debate in which Trump made a fool of himself. Her tone changed after that, or she sure imitated a Trumpist really really well.

Bruce Hayden said...

@Dr K - thanks for the link to the 10,000 Year Explosion. About half way through now, and a lot to think about, esp. in terms of effects of civilization on our evolution.

Anonymous said...

And Vicki from Pasadena is right on the mark about Scott Adam's opinion of his own importance in this political season. He isn't even a flea on the dog Trump.

Bruce Hayden said...

So far, the big thing in the Guccifer DNC dump is that the primary movers behind TARP got donations to their personal PACs in trade for billions of taxpayer dollars. Here is the list so far (the DNC actually had a spreadsheet showing what they got, and how much they kicked back to these Dems):
Barney Frank
Carolyn Maloney
Chris Van Hollen
DCCC
James Clyburn
John Larson
Luis Gutierrez
Mel Watts
NANCY PELOSI
Paul Kanjorski

Tommy Duncan said...

@wildswan

You are one of the few that understands the Wisconsin John Doe saga. Vicki McKenna and Matt Kittle have done yoeman work to expose that fiasco. The Wis State Journal and the Milwaukee Journal have done their best to lie, spin, distort and mislead regarding the John Doe investigation.

The press is America's number one enemy.

Big Mike said...

Adams shouldn't feel along -- everyone who doesn't treat Hillary Clinton as royalty will be on the same list.

jaynie said...

It is just too bad that his paid speaking engagements are drying up. But I have thoroughly enjoyed reading his posts on Trump.

buwaya said...

The press aren't the number one enemy, they are just a tool. Just follow the money.

cubanbob said...

Unknown said...
Blogger buwaya said...

"but except for that week I thought I was a giraffe, no luck."

I have spent far more time as an invisible rabbit, and of course several years as a crocodile.
So there certainly is something to it.
I have been working on identifying as a billionaire, seeing as perhaps I can qualify for medical coverage of identity issues.



Do you own a mansion & a yacht?"

You must have him confused with the gigolo John Kerry. By the way when is J Effn K going to release his DD-214? It's only been twelve years since he said he would.

Brando said...

"Victoria, if you think Althouse is "in for Trump in a big way" then you are really not paying attention. She is seriously, cruelty neutral."

Ok, this doesn't pass the laugh test. Althouse finally admitted she's in this for Trump, but her writing and editorial choices have given that away months ago. Take for example how upset she is over Tim Kaine's "rudeness" in constantly interrupting Pence last night. Did she remark on how rude Trump was with his far more constant interruptions during last week's debate? Does the Pope poop in the woods?

We all see things through the lens of our bias. I'm anti-Trump and anti-Clinton generally, but try to be fair--and when one is accused of something I ask "would I feel this way if this was about someone I supported?". For example, the unfair charge about Trump's "PTSD" comments the other day. Althouse can generally be more balanced than most Trump fans, but her bias often shines through pretty brightly.

Brando said...

"I think he over-inflates his importance in the world and in the life of the political world today."

In terms of politics, Adams is small potatoes--he still writes one of the best comic strips--and while Althouse seems to quote the guy like he's gospel, I think he does deserve credit in his theory that Trump is using some "master persuasion" techniques (or to put it less charitably, con man tactics to make his sale). It's the best explanation for how he maintains a high floor of support even when he brazenly flip flops and tells obvious lies.

And you don't have to be a stupid person to be conned--in fact, intelligent people often make good conning targets because due to their intelligence they are the last to realize they've been conned (or "persuaded" to use Adams' term). And of course they will most vehemently deny they are being conned, and double down.

No Trump fan will agree with this--if any respond at all it will be with insults if anything--and I'm not trying to insult them--being taken in by a person like Trump can happen to anyone. But those of us who haven't been "persuaded" should understand what is going on.