Comments on: The Beginning of The End of [Donald Trump/Tea Party/Fox News] UPDATED https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/08/08/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-donald-trumptea-partyfox-news/ Wed, 12 Aug 2015 16:58:59 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.8 By: Russell Seitz https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/08/08/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-donald-trumptea-partyfox-news/#comment-471134 Wed, 12 Aug 2015 16:58:59 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=21387#comment-471134 ” the philosophical leaders such as Rush Limbaugh”

These are great times for American philosophy :

Rush’s protege’, professional philosopher wrestler and hockey stick jock Mark Steyn stands to inherit the Neolimbaughic mantle as surely as as Augistine followed Aristotle and Tom Cruise grew in to the shoes of L. Ron Hubbard.

]]> By: G https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/08/08/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-donald-trumptea-partyfox-news/#comment-471133 Mon, 10 Aug 2015 15:22:58 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=21387#comment-471133 Key to the kingdom: For the large majority of humans, the large majority of the time, emotions determine behaviors, and reason follows along with an explanation. Emotions are chemicals, or more specifically, the subjective sensation of the action of neurochemicals on neurons. Not to put too fine a point on it, but, _drugs_. Humans crave emotions, and any emotions at all will do: good ones, nasty ones, pleasant ones, stinky ones.

That gets you Trump, it gets you Fox, and it gets you their respective legions of supporters.

What to do about this: Sell better drugs: better emotions to replace the nasty ones. Obama’s “hope vs. fear” campaign in 2008 was a stellar example of how to do it right.

If we do that, we win. If we keep trying to “explain ourselves,” we lose.

—

Re. Erick Erickson: He has gotten a lot of hate mail from Trump supporters, and they have also been physically intimidating him. I believe we should at least give him credit for exercising good judgement this time by disinviting Trump, and send him lots of digital pats on the back. Now go look up “behaviorism” and see what happens when someone has a choice between an aversive stimulus and a rewarding one;-) Yes, that’s right, the rewarding stimulus is a reinforcer of behavior. QED and all that!;-)

]]> By: Donal https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/08/08/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-donald-trumptea-partyfox-news/#comment-471132 Mon, 10 Aug 2015 13:15:22 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=21387#comment-471132 Many outlets are reporting that Trump has not dropped in the polls, post-debate. 538 advises that we pay more attention to his favorability ratings among Republicans than his overall polling:
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/did-the-debate-hurt-or-help-trump-watch-his-favorability-numbers/
Also worth looking at:
http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/donald-trumps-six-stages-of-doom/

]]> By: A in Ca https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/08/08/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-donald-trumptea-partyfox-news/#comment-471131 Mon, 10 Aug 2015 06:52:37 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=21387#comment-471131 I think Ezra Klein’s explanation of what happened was best:
http://www.vox.com/2015/8/8/9121377/donald-trump-megyn-kelly

And then there is Trump’s great insight that politicians can be, and are bought:
http://www.vox.com/2015/8/6/9114565/donald-trump-debate-money
(Other politicians don’t mention it.)

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/08/08/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-donald-trumptea-partyfox-news/#comment-471130 Mon, 10 Aug 2015 01:12:23 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=21387#comment-471130 Robert, can onecreally flip flop and bloviatr randomly at the same time.

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/08/08/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-donald-trumptea-partyfox-news/#comment-471129 Mon, 10 Aug 2015 01:10:03 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=21387#comment-471129 Christopher, not necessarily. That is only one use of the term, an not even the original meaning.

]]> By: dean https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/08/08/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-donald-trumptea-partyfox-news/#comment-471128 Sun, 09 Aug 2015 23:22:31 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=21387#comment-471128 There is also the fact that the more trump has the spotlight the less people pay attention to what the other clowns are saying. Their ideas aren’t any worse but they aren’t has hyperbolic when they deliver them.

]]> By: Robert Murphy https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/08/08/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-donald-trumptea-partyfox-news/#comment-471127 Sun, 09 Aug 2015 22:39:39 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=21387#comment-471127 Mal Adapted (post 18), I didn’t say that Fox’s positions were solely based on viewership considerations, merely that at the end of the day that will decide their overall strategy. Trump has been all over the place policy wise; in his book in 2000 he was for universal health care based on the Canadian model, but you wouldn’t know it from his attacks on the ACA. In 2012 he said that illegal aliens were mostly hard working, decent people who were willing to do jobs that others couldn’t or wouldn’t do. Now they’re mostly rapists and murders (maybe a few are OK). He’s for protectionist trade policies, which doesn’t mesh with most Republican ideology. Hell, in 2008 he said we should negotiate with Iran, that Bush was evil, and he looked forward to Obama bringing some consensus government back to Washington. I don’t think Fox is unaware of just how much he’s flip-flopped and the extent to which his running is a just a means for Trump to get attention. They are using him as much as he is using them. He’s wouldn’t be their ideological first choice, or 10th. But he’s great entertainment. People like watching that kind of crap.

]]> By: Christopher Winter https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/08/08/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-donald-trumptea-partyfox-news/#comment-471126 Sun, 09 Aug 2015 20:50:45 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=21387#comment-471126 This led a conservative organization to dump Trump from a keynote speakers spot. We see a crack in the armor form as Erick Erickson, who had invited Trump to speak, disinvites him at the same time that he makes it clear that this is not because Trump was “politically incorrect.” Rather, it was because Trump failed to follow common decency. That is a crack in the armor because political correctness IS common decency.

As it’s commonly used, “political correctness” denotes words or actions that others regard as excessively protective of some group. A perfect example occurred on the night of 13 January 1993 at the University of Pennsylvania when Eden Jacobowitz, annoyed by several black women loudly celebrating outside his dorm window, called down “Shut up, you water buffaloes!” and was promptly charged with making a racist statement. The fact that no rational interpretation of “water buffaloes” ties the phrase to racism didn’t matter.

So I would revise your statement as follows: Common decency is politically correct (as well as morally correct), but political correctness is not always common decency. Trump’s appeal is rooted in the perception that he rejects this extreme sort of political correctness. That’s not what he’s doing, but that’s how some people perceive what he’s doing.

]]> By: Obstreperous Applesauce https://gregladen.com/blog/2015/08/08/the-beginning-of-the-end-of-donald-trumptea-partyfox-news/#comment-471125 Sun, 09 Aug 2015 18:58:40 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/?p=21387#comment-471125 Yeah, you hear pundits burbling in confusion as though Trump’s delivery came out of nowhere. But this style of rhetoric has been mainstream outside of journalism’s beltway bubble for decades now. It’s been ‘hidden’ in plain sight (in your face) for anyone to see or hear–not mysteriously buried under some rock away from polite society–but right there on talk radio, on blogs, at religious and political gatherings, on Fox news, in think tanks, on Capital Hill (yelling “Liar” at Obama during an address to Congess,for example), … And that’s not to mention that crap venues like Rush Limbaugh have been famously lionized straight out through quotes relayed by the MSM itself from the likes of Dick Cheney, or that all that ridiculous false balance, and center right pandering and whitewashing in the news also carries consequences.

And now we’re shocked, shocked!, that Republicans are fielding jack ass candidates, as if there was no precedent or fertile ground from which this supposedly inexplicable phenomena magically emerged. Really? This is where a line has been crossed?

Give.
Me.
A.
Break.

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