The DU Lounge
Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsWhat makes Trump adviser Stephen Miller so unlikeable?
by Kali Holloway at Alternet, Salon
http://www.salon.com/2017/02/15/what-makes-trump-advisor-stephen-miller-so-unlikeable_partner/
"SNIP..........
Stephen Miller likes to use a lower register, West indicates. So, number one, the pitch hes going for is at the bottom, even a little bit below, where he can comfortably speak. Hes also clenching his tongue a little bit while he speaks. This is a common, however unconscious, tactic by men to sound more masculine and authoritative. Its just to suggest that extra bit of, Heres what I have to say and welcome to it.
West suggests that Millers cadencewhich is more a sort of superior-sounding monotoneis another turn-off. He explains why Miller brings to mind the dude you had classes with in high school or college who everyone mostly wished would stop talking. Not the cool, interesting nerd, who was an inventive misfit waiting to blossom, but more like the unsympathetic know-it-all who repelled everyone with his smugness, arrogance and almost frightening dearth of charm.
In the case of this particular gentleman, we have a situation where large swaths will feel that this is not a guy I would enjoy spending time with, West says, making the understatement of the century. It feels like hes talking down to me, it feels like hes being overly pedantic, and indeed, condescending. What he does though is, speaking of that guy in college we all rolled our eyes at, when you dont have perhaps content on your sidewithout being overtly political herewhat one has to do then is compensate for that. And thats a keyword Id like to highlight with you: What we dont like about that, if we can remove ourselves from the political content for a moment, is generally the fact that it seems like this person is trying to compensate. We see a person who is trying too hard. Thats not an attractive quality, when we see someone pushing and trying too hard.
In other words, asshole voiceanother term McDonough helpfully offersis not partisan. Though in this case, keep in mind that Miller spent his teen years harassing Latinos, African Americans and Asians, wrote columns while he was a student at Duke that were so racist his colleagues in Jeff Sessions Senate office were stunned, and helped Steve Bannon write the unconstitutional Muslim ban. All of which makes him seem not just deeply unlikable, but ideologically dangerous and a threat to democracy. Also, he cuts people off a lot, as West notes.
.............SNIP"
Eliot Rosewater
(31,121 posts)punish the human race to get back.
volstork
(5,403 posts)a total asshole? Just a guess...
Kimchijeon
(1,606 posts)He's a complete asshole.
msongs
(67,453 posts)longship
(40,416 posts)BainsBane
(53,072 posts)BTK had that same dead look in his eyes.
longship
(40,416 posts)As a Democratic committee person, I knew Nola Foulston, who prosecuted that soulless asshole. She's a good Democrat.
BTW, mine was a cinematic reference. Quint, from Jaws.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)Corgigal
(9,291 posts)and try to live a life? Being that pissed at things that don't really affect you, is a waste of your life. Their are people who are on death row who live a fuller life.