The Loyal Opposition

[BigV]

Please read this to help innoculate yourself from TRUMP-20.

It's an interview with the author, Texas A&M communications professor Jennifer Mercieca, of "Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump."

Here are six of terms I learned:

ad populum "appeal to the crowd"

"American uniqueness" — as in, America is just a different place, with a different history and values — not necessarily better or worse, just different. --snip-- Trump uses it differently. He claims to be the apotheosis of American exceptionalism mean[nig] "America winning"

(my favorite)
paralipsis, which you translate colloquially as "I'm not saying/I'm just saying." It's a signature way for Trump to communicate, typified by retweeting outrageous tweets — particularly from white nationalists and conspiracy theorists — and then disavowing responsibility. But he does it so continuously ("seriously, not literally")

ad hominem attack ... with ad hominem Trump is avoiding the central issue of debate and redirecting our attention

Trump is also known for ad baculum tactics, which means "appeals to the stick," threats of force or violence.

reification — in this case, meaning treating people like objects. Perhaps the best example of this is his treatment of women, whom he treats very differently depending on whether or not they are useful to him.

My hope is that readers of my book will learn how and why Trump's dangerous demagoguery works so that they can defend themselves from it. But that will only do so much. The bigger picture is we need to remake our political and economic culture to prevent demagogues like Trump from ever gaining power in the first place. We need to figure out how to create trust. We need to figure out how to end polarization. We need to figure out how to end frustration. We need an economic and political system that works for the people and not for the elite. The political project of our time is to defend democracy.

Amen sister.