have said this before but trump’s brain is pretty obviously far more cooked than biden’s if you listen to what they actually say. but the presentation - basically trump being a spaz - makes trump *look and sound* less cooked to many people i think
Biden v Trump is a pretty direct ageism thing. Trump is aging worse than Biden, but due to vanity and aging in different ways Trump codes as less old and therefore gets way less shit for it.
It's not clear there's even much evidence for that (again) outside the NYT news operation.
There are polls showing more people say Biden is too old to be president than Trump, but I think you need to adjust for Trump supporters being fundamentally dishonest.
Dems are considerably more likely to say that they are both too old, because Dems are generally more reality based. The Republicans will say Trump is fine because every belief starts with the supposition that Trump should win
i mean the polls i saw overwhelmingly said trump won the debate. (whether that matters to the outcome is a different question of course.) i think it’s a reasonable supposition on the effect
Exactly. And he's benefitting a lot from always being kinda rambly. If you put even 2016 Trump side-by-side with 2024 Trump, the decline is obvious. But without that you can convince yourself he's the same as ever.
This is such a problematic and pervasive phenomenon in American society. Speaking and acting confident is a sign of competence and intelligence even when someone is saying something completely and demonstrably wrong and/or incoherent or is manifestly bad at their job.
i’m much more worried by his campaign’s inability to understand and respond to public concern in a remotely timely way. the nyt is what it is, but they just don’t have a handy, repeatable, explanation for what we saw, and the absence of one is making it worse.
and it is coming hand in hand with a glacial, stoic, attitude towards the out of control scotus winding up to plunge us into autocracy. i can’t say whether that’s befuddlement or what, but it’s an inability to meet the occasion with force that is becoming pretty frightening.
that would be perfectly reasonable! so do an interview right away and assuage everyone’s concern. reiterate the strong parts of the debate. don’t wait for it to take over a news cycle unaddressed like this.
How much is it the campaign vs the whole of the media salivating to setup this horse race and their ongoing 'he's old' narrative that is easy to write and rile people up over, that I haven't seen then let up on for well over a year?
Trump has gotten a shocking pass for a long time on his incoherent but blustery rants. It's a reminder about the shockingly high rates of functional illiteracy in this country.
The way you can tell Trump is cooked is because he’s not getting off legitimately funny zingers anymore. But people won’t point it out because they’re afraid to admit “lyin’ Ted” and “little Marco” are legitimately very good nicknames
let's not discount that his supporters see what they want, either.
so many times his words insult his own base (poorly educated) but they suck that shit up.
insulting military and veterans, etc, etc.
Maybe, but for the NYT and other media outlets to solely focus on one candidate while completely ignoring the obvious decline of the other seems a bit nefarious.
99% of the Trump phenomenon can be explained by the sufficiency of appearances.
“You don’t have to actually investigate, I just need you to ANNOUNCE an investigation.”
“I just need to FIND 11,780 votes.”
“Just SAY the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R congressmen”
Since Trump has had this style since the Apprentice days, perhaps the Dems could have paid attention to it and advised their candidate accordingly. Or they could nominate Granpa Simpson and hope things turn out for the best.
therollingexplorer.com/ableist-lang...
We can cook them both without using ableist words. Well, we can only cook them so much since they're both almost completely fried at this point.
