General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI hereby propose the Trump Trot, a corollary to the Gish Gallop.
The Gish Gallop is a rhetorical device where one overwhelms their opponent with a massive overload of bullshit arguments to the point where it becomes nearly impossible to refute each and every point, and the opponent simply gives up as a matter of exhaustion.
The Trump Trot is where one's behavior is so consistently and completely outrageous, outlandish, offensive, boorish, distasteful, self-indulgent and otherwise hideous and is marked with repeated and routine instances where this individual manifests such behavior, that it becomes nearly impossible to call that person out on any one instance. Where for the ordinary person, an isolated instance of such horrific behavior would be fatal to their reputation, the exerciser of the Trump Trot is immunized because such disgusting displays of social antipathy become expected and characteristic of said person. You can't criticize that person for any one incident, because "that's just who he/she is."
Just think about it. In a span of roughly five days, Donald Trump has a) re-tweeted a supportive message from a Twitter user whose handle is "White Genocide" and whose account is replete with neo-Nazi imagery (and never bothered to remove the re-tweet after he was called out on it), b) claimed he could shoot somebody in the middle of New York City and not lose any popular support and c) told his crowd that a Sikh protester at a rally carrying a "Stop Hate" banner was "wearing one of those hats", i.e. a turban, intentionally stirring up Islamophobic and xenophobic sentiments.
Just think about it for a second. If any other candidate--even most of the Republicans--would have done any of those things, chances are they'd be done for. They'd be rung over the rails in the media and their support would vanish into thin air. But because Donald Trump does this sort of stuff time after time after time, he's built himself up an immunity, because we expect him to be that way, so we're not shocked by shocking behavior.
Kalidurga
(14,177 posts)What did he say he could shoot someone and he would still be loved by the people who are going to his rallies.