Our fight, it is no exaggeration to say, is the civilized world’s fight. It is a fight for reason and comity in the affairs of nations, against an administration whose worldview, and behaviour, is increasingly that of an aggressive dictatorship, in all its crudeness and its thuggery.
Mr. Trump, as the Prime Minister has said, aims to “break us,” a phrase with historic echoes. He has to now, or others will follow our lead. If he succeeds, then the world will be governed by nothing but force in the end, in trade as in other matters. But if we prevail, then “broad and sunlit uplands” must surely await.
I never understand when people, including ones opposed to him, say Trump has charisma. Is a raging toddler charismatic? Do I just have a different definition of charisma than everyone else?
I think a big part of it is the image of wealth and success he’s cultivated. The tacky gold shit everywhere, always wearing a suit unless he’s golfing, and so on. People with no taste see that and find it attractive and want in.
Strip all that away and he’s a used car salesman or blowhard at the end of the bar who won’t shut the fuck up.
Oh he has told them how great they are and they fall for it.
He told them that their hatred was righteous
Tell an ignorant simpleton that, and they’ll love you forever, just so long as they can keep hating
My theory: In the leadup to the 2024 election, Trump got invited to the Republican debates, and he was basically like “fuck no, I’m not debating those losers, I’m obviously the Republican candidate,” and in doing so made it true. This is the kind of charisma he has; he’s simple and egotistical and it appeals to other simple, egotistical people. He refuses to follow rules and that appeals to other rulebreakers.
Like him or not, he got himself elected president, twice. That’s not exactly an everyday occurrence.
Yeah, I don’t understand that one either.
That’s charisma.
I can’t do that. He can. That’s it.
My lack of understanding isn’t that he can do it, it’s why he can. More specifically, how a human can listen to him even just once and still want to agree with what he says.
…because he has charisma. That’s the whole point. Charisma isn’t a specific, measurable thing. It’s something that lets you do it when others can’t.
His charisma is the ability to get other people to agree with him. The “agreeing” part is the choice of those other people, not his. If Trump has charisma, it’s because people let him. It’s their personalities who define the effect, not his.
I can understand Trump. He’s simply a textbook narcissist. I cannot understand anyone who doesn’t understand that, and how that is at least 30% of Americans, and probably not that much less worldwide.
Yep. Exactly. He has charisma.
I guess I need to accept that some minds are just skipping records.
Good talk. Goodbye.