It is what it looks like

Written by

Ophelia Benson

in

Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight tells the media to quit rationalizing the monster.

I’m happy to acknowledge that Trump’s responses to the news are sometimes thought-out and deliberate. His criticisms of the media often seem to fall into this category, for example, since they’re sure to get widespread coverage and Republican voters have overwhelmingly lost faith in the media.

But at many other times, journalists come up with overly convoluted explanations for Trump’s behavior (“this seemingly self-destructive emotional outburst is actually a clever political strategy!”) when simpler ones will suffice (“this is a self-destructive emotional outburst.”). In doing so, they violate both Ockham’s razor and Hanlon’s razor — the latter of which can be stated as “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” One can understand why journalists who rely on having close access to Trump avoid explanations that portray Trump as being irrational, incompetent or bigoted. But sometimes they’re the only explanations that make sense.

Or, rather, irrational, incompetent and bigoted.

It isn’t complicated. What we see is what there is. He’s stupid, he’s malevolent, he has no impulse-control, he’s grotesquely narcissistic. He acts like an enraged toddler because he thinks and feels like an enraged toddler.

 

Comments

10 responses to “It is what it looks like”

  1. Theo Bromine Avatar
    Theo Bromine

    Perhaps it`s a problem of cognitive dissonance:

    1) This man is the leader of one the most powerful nations in the world (arguably the most powerful).

    2) This man is irrational, incompetent, bigoted, stupid, malevolent, narcissistic and has no impulse control.

    To acknowledge both of these facts simultaneously is a terrifying prospect.

  2. Stewart Avatar
    Stewart

    Image may contain: text

  3. Omar Avatar
    Omar

    President Donald Trump is often mocked for spending so much time watching television, an addiction that distinguishes him not only from his predecessor, Barack Obama, but all other presidents. Yet Trump’s relationship with TV—which extends to fannish shout-outs to shows he likes (like Fox and Friends) and mockery of the low ratings of shows that criticize him (like the Emmys)—might explain not just his singular path to the presidency, but his continued hold on his supporters. “He believes that television producers, especially of highly rated shows, understand what the public is interested in—what it fears, what it wants, what it loves,” Fox News host Tucker Carlson said in a recent interview. “And so TV programming in some ways is a more accurate reflection of the public mood than polling. That’s his view, he said it to me. And that’s one of the reasons he watches a lot of television.”

    This nails it in one, IMHO.

    Trump has built a career as a showman, just like Ringling Bros, Barnum & Bailey and all the rest of them off Broadway and on it.. A showman studies his target audience, and gives it what it wants.

    https://newrepublic.com/article/144940/trump-tv-post-literate-american-presidency?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=The+Long+Read+-+Collections+2017&utm_term=245896&subid=20403224&CMP=longread_collection

  4. Kevin Henderson Avatar
    Kevin Henderson

    In real life, if I met Trump I would have to conclude he’s an asshole. It’s that simple. This is not something I would choose. He’s done this all himself. It’s that simple.

    Nate is right. Rationilizing a nightmare doesn’t make the nightmare unreal. A nightmare is a nightmare.

  5. Stewart Avatar
    Stewart

    https://www.facebook.com/144310995587370/photos/a.271728576178944.71555.144310995587370/1675962695755518/?type=3&theater

  6. Stewart Avatar
    Stewart

    https://www.facebook.com/144310995587370/photos/a.271728576178944.71555.144310995587370/1675968702421584/?type=3&theater

  7. Stewart Avatar
    Stewart

    https://www.facebook.com/144310995587370/photos/a.271728576178944.71555.144310995587370/1675975985754189/?type=3&theater

  8. Stewart Avatar
    Stewart

    https://www.facebook.com/144310995587370/photos/a.271728576178944.71555.144310995587370/1676129932405461/?type=3&theater

  9. Bjarte Foshaug Avatar
    Bjarte Foshaug

    “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”

    In Trump’s case I think the razor should be “never attribute to calculation that which is adequately explained by stupidity and malice.”

  10. Acolyte of Sagan Avatar
    Acolyte of Sagan

    Bjarte, you could have ended that at ‘calculation’.

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