Donald Trump is a Rhetorical Genius


Marcus

Recommended Posts

Here is some well-done Trump humor for the Trump haters:

 

Trevor Noah: Donald Trump Sounds Just Like A Corrupt African President

Real Clear Politics Video

 

 

Why is it well-done? Because it cuts all the way down to a philosophical essence--the difference between producing wealth and confiscating it through murder. I'm pretty sure that was not Noah's intent, but this is one of the best lampoons I've seen so far in this respect.

 

Reactions to this video are going to be a sense-of-life test in the style of Ayn Rand's play, The Night of January 16th

 

I am not a fan of Rand's concept of sense of life, but since Rand used it to describe what she was doing in the play, I use it here. And it is valid enough to indicate a differentiation in the souls of people who respond, irrespective of what causes the difference.

 

So I wonder if Trump haters will feel revulsion or an inner discomfort at Donald Trump being humorously compared to bloody dictators or will feel mirth and believe the characterization is accurate. That is, which will predominate as more the more important aspect for resonance in the person's soul, the exaggerations of bluster or real-life blood and murder. It's very hard to consider both equally important on an emotional level--I would say it's even impossible.

 

In other words, as Trump's wealth did not come from confiscation and blood (or war), but instead from producing great projects the world over, it will be interesting to see how much this will count to those who react to this video. And in which direction, especially for people who don't like Trump.

 

I go from the principle that if the difference between production and murderous violence is not foundational in judging a person one doesn't like, it will ultimately not be important in judging the people one does like. But if it is foundational, it will be foundational across the board.

 

Since I believe the productive spirit is still strong here in America, I have a feeling this lampoon will backfire on the left and they will be perplexed as to why. But let's see...

 

Michael

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Note, I originally put the above post in "Trump Humor," but I moved it over here because the issue it raises is critical for understanding Trump's rhetoric.

The most important facet of marketing is to know your audience.

People who react with mirth to Trevor Noah's video will tend to be immune to Trump's rhetoric and even find it silly. People who are bothered by the video will tend to be receptive and feel deep resonance. (This last, I believe, is true for The Silent Majority).

And I believe Trump knows this.

Michael

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Note, I originally put the above post in "Trump Humor," but I moved it over here because the issue it raises is critical for understanding Trump's rhetoric.

The most important facet of marketing is to know your audience.

People who react with mirth to Trevor Noah's video will tend to be immune to Trump's rhetoric and even find it silly. People who are bothered by the video will tend to be receptive and feel deep resonance. (This last, I believe, is true for The Silent Majority).

And I believe Trump knows this.

Michael

Precisely Michael.

And all great communicators know this.

When the behavioralists were taking over the Speech department at the college, the attack on Aristotle's Rhetoric was that it had no scientific audience analytics which of course was not true.

Aristotle's writings had extensive ideas about the categorization of the audience.

"Due to the pervasiveness of an audience-oriented inventional strategy in the history of rhetoric, numerous analytic methods have been developed over the years to aid the rhetor in this hermeneutic task. From Aristotle's early efforts to categorize audience responses to George Campbell's attempts at engaging the findings of faculty psychology to contemporary demographic attempts to apply cognitive psychology, the tradition offers a vast array of tools for audience analysis, each of which relies on some visible criteria in order to determine an audience's beliefs or values.

http://grammar.about.com/od/ab/g/audienceanalysisterm.htm

Additionally, for Aristotle:

...common sense (also known as koine aisthesis or sensus communis) describes the higher-order perception that humans uniquely possess. This sense acts as kind of guide for the others, organizing them as well as mobilizing them in one connected perceptual apparatus. As Aristotle puts it succinctly, “In so far as it is indivisible, the judging principle is one and coincident with perception; in so far as it is divisible, it is not one, for it employs twice and simultaneously the same mark. In so far as it employs a terminal mark as two, it distinguishes two things, and these are separable for it as a separable faculty. In so far as it regards the point as one, it judges singly and coincidently with perception.”2 Crudely put, if I perceive an object to be both red and hot at the same time, then I determine those two characteristics of the object with two different senses, that of sight, and that of touch. I do not experience any difficulties in recognizing the two properties as belonging to the same object, not just because common sense is merely combinational, since I perceive said object in toto at the same time as I recognize it as an assembly of constituent properties, but because it is a faculty that belongs to each sense contemporaneously, and, as such, is capable of coordinating their structured collaboration (common sense is “common” to the senses). While this may seem a bit of an antiquated view, given its rudimentary and mostly intuitive understanding of the human sensorium, it nonetheless bears relation to its more modern conceptions insofar as it is still thought of as something organic that makes judgment effortless if and when it is allowed to flourish.

https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/mediatheory/keywords/common-sense/

A...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now