General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI think much of Trump's appeal is his stupidity.
Stupid people find it a comfortable fit. He's saying what they think. Of course his hateful (stupid) bigotry is another thing that appeals. Hateful bigots find it a comfortable fit.
Yes, Trump is stupid. His language and syntax have long displayed that. Yes, stupid people (of privilege) go to Wharton. Yes, stupid rich people get even richer.
I'm sick of hearing that he's smart or canny. He is not.
And sorry, but there are a lot of stupid people.
Happyhippychick
(8,379 posts)People are aspirational and they think if they vote for it they will get it.
griloco
(832 posts)He's a con artist. (He has the New York Values of Willie Sutton and Bernie Madoff)
He "loves" everybody.
He's lying to everyone else, but he's telling you the truth.
#MakeAmericaWhiteAgain
meow2u3
(24,764 posts)He wants to make it acceptable for bigots to belittle women and minorities without being called out on their prejudices.
#MakeAmericaHateAgain
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,185 posts)Also, that he routinely scores 18 holes in one in a round of golf and that triple rainbows announced his birth. And that he doesn't defecate.
(By the way, the "Gary Forbes" responsible for this ludicrous graphic and many others on social media is a con artist from New York named Gary Pasquariello, whose failed past careers have include new-aged pianist and who currently is threatening GOP delegates on social media who aren't voting for Trump)
Nitram
(22,825 posts)world wide wally
(21,748 posts)Tommy_Carcetti
(43,185 posts)But after doing some internet research I actually found out that there was an actual grifter who goes by the name of Gary Forbes (but whose actual name is Gary Pasquariello), and his work predates that of the Trump campaign.
https://www.facebook.com/garyforbespianist?fref=ts
First he tried selling some crappy management advice book which nobody bought:
http://www.amazon.com/Gary-Forbes/e/B0041KTIUI
Then he transitioned into truly awful new age piano music (complete with fake reviews from non-existent celebrities and faked non-existent concert footage):
http://garyforbes.wix.com/pianist
Obviously, that didn't work out either, so he's shilling for Trump, claiming fake celebrity endorsements and apparently acting as his heavy:
http://wonkette.com/600818/trump-guy-has-this-one-weird-trick-to-ratfck-all-the-republican-delegates
http://www.snopes.com/chuck-yeager-donald-trump-endorsement/
The only question that remains is whether he's being paid (most likely under the table) by the Trump campaign to proselytize Trump over social media, or if he's just some Trump mega-fanboy whose doing this all on his own for the love of Trump. My money's on the former.
world wide wally
(21,748 posts)Who was the guy that would give phone interviews touting Trump that actually was Donald Trump?
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,185 posts)world wide wally
(21,748 posts)maddiemom
(5,106 posts)TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)in everything. But none of them know that.
(Barnum made a fortune knowing it, though.)
bullwinkle428
(20,629 posts)Javaman
(62,531 posts)he knows exactly what demographic he's appealing to.
the outraged morons who blame everyone else for their own problems.
so what do they want to hear? they want to hear that it's everyone else's fault and not theirs.
trump says this and that about minorities and how they are to blame, he says this and that about women and how they are to blame, he says this and that about anyone else other than the mouth breathing morons who are actually to blame.
when you are down at the bottom of the food chain, the very last thing the majority of these uneducated fools want to hear is: that they caused their own problems, because that means they have to confront their own fuck ups.
they can't deal with the fact that they were born in the dugout and will never leave the dug out.
the rich appeal to them, because the falsely believe, that while trump was born on home plate thinking he hit a homer to get there, the fools that follow him all think that because he "talks like them" they do can be "born again" on home plate. that they are all horatio alger, that they too, while not born rich can be rich by working hard! (at their crappy waged jobs) move up the food chain (they don't have the brains to move up the food chain) and be ceo of their own company (they haven't the foggiest notion what a ceo is let alone what one actually does).
the meme, which trump follows to a T, and has been trumpted by the right wing for decades is: you too can be rich!
this is nothing more than the late night tv fever dreams of get rich quick husksters that have been plying the gullible for years.
all trump has done is take that same line of bullshit, wrapped it in "plain speak" aka appealing to the racist morons sense of self loathing, and made it his own.
we now live in a nation of self indulgent ego inflated fools who think they are one genius invention away, one american idol win away, one reality tv contestant away from being famous or wealthy or both.
we live in the jobless economy, where jobs are outsourced and wages are declining.
those who live in the poorest parts of the nation, continue to vote against their own interests, because they don't want complex answers to their daily problems. Their daily problems are already complex, they want easy digestible answers.
they want the holy grail, they brass ring, the miracle that will lift them out of their daily misery and into a life of ease. aka pay their bills without having to choose between eating or the lights going out.
combine this with decades long propaganda that tells them that the very programs they subsist upon: welfare, unemployment and Medicaid; are evil. However, while they protest against these very same programs, they fear for them being taken away.
the duality of stupidity.
they are at odds with their perceived notion that democrats and public assistant programs are diametrically opposed.
Ironically, in a recent study it was found that they are against Obama care but for the Affordable Care Act. A perfect example of what I'm driving at.
so to loop back around, is trump stupid? hell no, he's knows full well he's taking full advantage of the nation of rubes we live in and I can bet you on a stack of money I do not have, that trump laughs his ass off every single night at these fools.
maddiemom
(5,106 posts)Trump is far from dumb, and he knows exactly how to appeal to those who are. They started coming out of the woodwork when President Obama was elected.
cali
(114,904 posts)None of that demonstrates intelligence
Matrosov
(1,098 posts)Somehow he always taps into the right anger. One good example is how he says he wants to protect American workers from job outsourcing, which is a very un-conservative position. But there are enough blue collar Republicans who are mad about outsourcing, and his message resonates with them.
If he's stupid, he must be one of the luckiest idiots alive. I reckon he's actually a master troll.
odd.
I stated trump in not stupid.
I didn't say he was intelligent.
I made the statement saying that trump was a side show huckster.
sarah palin is a dimwit, but not stupid.
grifters know their marks.
they know how to play them.
if you think for one moment, that a person who knows how to pull a scam is stupid, then you have an awful lot to learn about people.
maddiemom
(5,106 posts)First Speaker
(4,858 posts)maddiemom
(5,106 posts)All you need to see the light is to teach for a few years in a school that idealizes athletes (some who happily are NOT dumb and shape up after the college scouts come along) and denigrates "the brains." A few years into college separates who will be more successful in real life, but continuing generations of would -be jock dads also seem to keep coming.
Javaman
(62,531 posts)wow, just wow.
it's this "nation of rubes" that we live in that have trump as the repuke candidate.
I rest my case.
maddiemom
(5,106 posts)Taking off from one remark doesn't mean I didn't read the whole thing. Get a clue. Actually I felt complimentary toward your post, but in the spirit of your simplistic reaction, am taking it back. So there!
Javaman
(62,531 posts)I apologize.
I'm just a tad bit sensitive these days. lol
cheers.
maddiemom
(5,106 posts)Nitram
(22,825 posts)It has been apparent for some time that many GOP voters like stupid. That's why they loved Bush. Maybe they see those who speak with intelligence as feeling superior to them.
maddiemom
(5,106 posts)It may be that previous generations of voters (prior to WWII and the baby boom) weren't so steeped in "self esteem" by their parents and teachers. It was OK, previously, to admire a political leader (to disaster, admittedly, at times). But the idea that a national leader should be more "like you" is a new phenomenon.
Bigmack
(8,020 posts)... is a documentary.
maddiemom
(5,106 posts)pampango
(24,692 posts)Not that any of us could afford the beer that Donald drinks.
Dirty Socialist
(3,252 posts)However, he is intellectually lazy. All of his intelligence is concentrated in selling himself and self-aggrandization.
cali
(114,904 posts)Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)Almost literally a billion dollars worth of free advertising and now they are panicking over the Frankenstien monster they helped inflate.
There are lots of ways of being smart, Trump is certainly smart in some ways.
cali
(114,904 posts)Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)He's shrewd and a dirty fighter, I think Hillary may get her clock cleaned, she hasn't come up against a candidate who will also say anything before and Trump is better at it.
Like I said the other day, Hillary is the not-particularly-gifted athlete who has made it to the big leagues purely on grit, dogged determination and stroking the right people, Trump is the natural who never practiced or learned the basics but is so talented he's a contender anyway.
maddiemom
(5,106 posts)Better believe she'll be super prepared for Trump. He has many vulnerable crevices to be dug into. I look forward to seeing them face off. Hillary has spent the last couple decades dealing with people who'll "say anything" and both Clintons have been dealing with haters during that time. I voted for Bernie in my state's primary, but I'm much more comfortable seeing Hillary face off Trump.
cali
(114,904 posts)Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)It's not as if Palin is going to step up to the plate again.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)His speech is a calculated tv act. We like to think people we don't agree with are stupid. This leads to under estimating them.
As to his appeal...one word: Anger.
cali
(114,904 posts)hibbing
(10,099 posts)First Speaker
(4,858 posts)TryLogic
(1,723 posts)I just heard an interview on NPR with a small town judge in Montana. He pointed out that "Trump is a white board -- people can see in him anything they want to see". I had thought the same thing.
What does "make America great again" mean? For many, it probably means "make America white again"
(explaining the frequent comparisons with Hitler).
I really wish some reporter would ask a bunch of people what Trump means when he makes one of his ink blot comments that could be interpreted in a hundred different ways.
Demit
(11,238 posts)He doesn't have linguistic intelligence, no. But I think he is people-smart, the way good salesmen are. They can read you, and tailor their pitch to you.
http://fundersandfounders.com/9-types-of-intelligence/
Dirty Socialist
(3,252 posts)Good point
Volaris
(10,272 posts)That the Academic or Professional Elite in America know what the hell they are talking about. If I've been told by 'reputable' people that professors and professionals are dumb, and that IM smart, then OF COURSE I'm qualified to be Prezidunt. Only reason I don't get to, is cause rich liburls won't let me. So, I find a stand in whos just as 'smart' as I am (who also happens to be rich, so that the liberals can't stop him that way) to support.
Their support for him is rooted in 40 years of brainwashing that tells them 'you're smart, and everyone who actually knows better just hates you because you love Baby Jeebus and so wants you to fail so youre just like the -insert minority of choice-.'
We've allowed conservative 'intellectuals' to go ahead and destroy actual intellectualism in this country. Now that destruction finally includes themselves, and they're all asad. What did they think was gonna happen? Sunshine and Roses??
Fuck them. This is what they get. A Landslide Loser who will take conservativism with him when he goes down.
NO SYMPATHY for these fuckers. EVER!!!!
libodem
(19,288 posts)Oh, she would be a great VP pick for Clueless.
DCBob
(24,689 posts)Idiocracy fulfilled.
Lydia Leftcoast
(48,217 posts)Reagan had been so popular (actually, that was all hype--his popularity was only average), Terkel replied, "Because he made it OK to be stupid. Stupid people recognized him as one of their own."
libodem
(19,288 posts)Turin_C3PO
(14,012 posts)In my experience, most people aren't truly "stupid" unless they have an actual mental disability) but they are very willfully ignorant.
bjo59
(1,166 posts)even when Reagan was running. I remember that campaign and how every day the newspapers would report on yet another incredibly stupid quote from Reagan. A lot of Democrats were sure he would lose because of the garbled, nonsensical things he would utter publicly but it ended up being that this was one of the things that endeared Reagan to voters.
TeamPooka
(24,232 posts)Turin_C3PO
(14,012 posts)However many,many are willfully ignorant. I don't know how we can change that. As far as Trump goes, I'd wager he's about average in intelligence.
cali
(114,904 posts)But I don't consider that "stupid". It's clearly not genius either but someone with a 100 IQ can understand issues if they engage their brain.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)anything that deviated that far from their standard. This was just one of the eggs that survived.
The father was a real estate swindler, btw, one of the original bank$ter/jihadists. Took a lot of taxpayer money and far from stupid.
His progeny is a construct of the least we can be, which is why he is so comfortable to so many. Takes no effort. Don't equate that with stupid, however. We make bad decisions about risk every day.
Odin2005
(53,521 posts)He's playing stupid to appeal to the anti-intellectualism of his base.
LibDemAlways
(15,139 posts)simple minded USA, that translates to "He's smart. He's doing something right or he wouldn't be so filthy rich." The morons out there stuck in crappy jobs admire someone who seemingly has it all -- hot wife and more money than he knows what to do with. They mistake him for a self made man, not the guy who won the rich parent inherited $$$$ sweepstakes.
Trump isn't stupid, but he's so full of himself and entitled that he thinks he can say and do whatever he wants and get away with it. Thus far he has. It will be an interesting GE in the fall.
Andy823
(11,495 posts)There are a lot of stupid people around. I have seen some of them here on DU advocating that a Trump presidency wouldn't really be that bad, and that all the "fear" is just more tactics to get you to vote for Hillary. Anyone who actually believes that crap has to be stupid if you ask me.
One thing for sure, if Trump became president millions of people are going to suffer, not just here, but around the world. You just can put a psychopath like him in the WH and expect it to be OK. The crap about both parties being the same is utter stupidity with a capital S.
pansypoo53219
(20,981 posts)i have been on the bernie wagon for the WIN. we HAVE TO WIN now.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Rex
(65,616 posts)Trump loves his uneducated followers, they make him feel smart.