Have you seen Donald Trump?

Open Forum in English
41

“Who defines ‘offense’? Most of PC offends me,” wrote Iaing.

You can say anything in your closet. Political correctness is mainly related to the way we communicate each other in public places. It is not necessarily a legal matter. If you don’t like some PC expressions, you may disregard them at your own risk. Trump reportedly declared that Glenn Beck, who is a comedian-turned commentator, is a ‘really dopey guy’ who ‘looks like hell.’ I don’t know how Trump should have said this with political correctness.

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“The Stop Trump movement may already be too late to stop his onward march to the nomination. But it is slowing him down. The irony is that the main beneficiary is Ted Cruz, a right-wing firebrand also hated by the Republican establishment. Senator Lindsay Graham, who himself ran for the Republican nomination, has compared the choice as ‘like being shot or poisoned’.”–BBC News
The above is an excerpt from:
“Could Trump’s vulgarity cost him the nomination?” Could Trump's vulgarity cost him the nomination? - BBC News

43

The problem becomes when PC and thought policing starts masquerading as professional victimhood and unearnt entitlemen. And then you have plain speaking, truthful speaking even, sitting cowering in the corner. I think Trump is spot on about Beck. No need to sugar coat it, and suggesting one should do so - offends me.

But, of course, Trump also slips into bully mode , or defense mode, when people go after him.

That’s the jungle he was brought up in.

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There are at least two different meanings in the word “racism”.

  1. poor treatment of or violence against people because of their race
  2. the belief that some races of people are better than others
    Racism Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster

“Xenophobia”, on the other hand, means “a strong feeling of dislike or fear of people from other countries”(OALD).

Xenophobic people do not necessarily think that they are better than others. Some “racists” might not be suffering from xenophobia, which is a sort of mental illness. Treating people at the international airports in the States according to their race or nationality is a “political matter”, and it can be promoted by politicians and supported by xenophobic, or “islamophobic”, people. My guess is that Donald Trump is nether xenophobic nor islamophobic, although he actually proposed racist “policies”.

If he were xenophobic, he would not mind, when he were desperately joking, putting on the most fearful button and destroy our blue planet in order to make the country great again. Nightmare! I really hope that he will become simply a landowner-turned comedian at the great Fox News Channel.

46

Interesting.

According to these definitions, I am not a racist (phew!) But I am selectively xenophobic (in the sense of fear rather than dislike) about certain countries…

(I also once posted here under the name Teutophobe Jones…but of course that was a joke…)

47

“Treatment includes behavioral psychotherapy so that they will be taught not to react with anxiety or fear every time they encounter the … race.”
http://www.phobiasource.com/teutophobia-fear-of-german-or-german-things/

48

“Republican front-runner Donald Trump, meanwhile, regained any momentum lost last weekend against challenger Ted Cruz, sweeping to convincing victories in Michigan and Mississippi while sending a message to the Republican establishment to jump on board — or get out of the way.”

49

In my case they gave me shock therapy: many months of complete immersion among bearded, sausage eating, beer drinking, cigar smoking Bavarians.

(And that was just the women :-D)

50

Donald Trump will not turn up trumps. He is just selling trumpery “policies”. He should become a landowner-turned comedian with Glenn Beck at the great Fox News Channel.

51

Bottom line for me is that Trump has no self-control and is actually inciting violence against protesters at his rallies. No other candidate is doing that. A very dangerous kind of personality to be running the White House.

In the Reader’s Voice/Vent Line of the local newspaper, a reader commented:

“I don’t believe that either party wants to see Donald Trump elected president. They are scared to death that he will make it to Washington and uncover their corruption.”

I think this reader is deluding him- or herself if they think that that is what they are scared of. What is he going to do, wave his magic wand? Besides, the most corrupting element in the government is codified and buried in the tax code — which personally benefits Trump! As President, he would have very little influence and no power to change that, nor has he promised that he would even try, nor would he have any incentive to try. This same corruption is at the State level as well. Many States are having trouble balancing budgets, or even passing budgets, yet these same legislatures, where neither party seems to be able to agree on anything, have no problem being bipartisan when it comes to passing massive, multi-million dollar tax breaks for the multi-billion dollar fossil fuel industry. As I like to say, “It’s all in the tax code, folks!”

Another reader commented in the same newspaper on the same day:

“This is to the evangelicals who support Trump — I think they lost control of their candidate. He’s no longer evangelical.”

News Flash: He never was evangelical.

Same newspaper, same day:

“If the best the two major parties can offer us is the deeply flawed candidates — Trump and Clinton — then maybe it’s time to blow both parties up and start over.”

Good luck with that!

Same newspaper, same day:

“The Trump supporter that sucker punched the protester as police removed him from a recent rally said he punched the man because ‘he was running his mouth.’ Apparently Trump supporters do not believe in the First Amendment.”

True that.

The thing that scares me isn’t Trump. It’s all of the people who blindly support Trump and his cult of personality. If he reaches the general election race, it will get very interesting. He has yet to demonstrate that he knows much of anything about foreign policy. This should be worrying for a lot of people who are electing their next commander-in-chief, not to mention the rest of the world. But for a certain segment of the population, it doesn’t even seem to be a consideration. That is very worrying to me.

52

Well, first of all, never think of yourself as average.

You just have to get that word ‘average’ out of your vocabulary…

53

Alternatives?!

54

Brilliant piece of propaganda. The background music alone brought tears to my eyes… NOT!

55

“The thing that scares me isn’t Trump. It’s all of the people who blindly support Trump and his cult of personality.”

I agree.

56

I’m not especially in favour of Trump, and I very likely would not vote for him if I were American. However, I don’t see that it is entirely reasonable to talk about “blind support” for him. Who is to say what is going on in the heads of his supporters? Who is to say that they are “blind”? There is a kind of smug presumption here along the lines: well hey, these people obviously wouldn’t support him if they were as smart as we are and know what we know, etc.

Well, there are two levels at which this may or may not be true. It is certainly to be established.

As for “cult of personality”, that is perhaps true to some limited extent. But one could then argue that it applies to a greater or lesser extent to all major politicians in the TV age: Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton; and in a UK context: Thatcher, Blair…etc…

Normally, though, one associates the term “cult of personality” with a totalitarian leader such as Hitler. It would certainly be very facile to compare Trump to such people, in my view.

EDIT
Apparently there is some genuine misunderstanding about what I am saying here?! So let me clarify:

1.) I agree that there is, in a loose sense, a “cult of personality” around Trump - as there is around many major political figures.
2.) In the final paragraph I then refer to the general use of the words rather than anything particular. This is clearly established by the opening: “Normally, though, …”
3.) The words “such as” make it clear that Hitler is merely one example of a totalitarian leader
4.) I use the conditional tense “would be” which therefore refers to a hypothetical rather than any actual state of affairs.

The point of the last paragraph is merely to question whether it is wise to use the term “cult of personality” too loosely - and that is ALL that I am saying.

57

Demagogy at its finest, I spout random motivationnal quotes so vote for me please.

58

I also don’t believe Trump is a racist. I’m also for LEGAL immigration. My parents came to the US legally. No cutting the line. And the draft for the Korean War welcomed them (yes, 36,000 Americans lost their lives to help South Korea).

However, I love that the republican party may broker the convention and tear the party apart.

No one gave a damn when my candidate, Ralph Nader, was sued by the DNC in every state to take away his right to run. So now a bit of schadenfreude for me to enjoy. :slight_smile:

However, there is a pretty good chance Trump can carry New Jersey and New York(Upstate & Long Island) against Hillary. People really despise Hillary in my neck of the woods.

59

You’d have to watch his speech to AIPAC to see Trump at his best. He said he wanted their support but WOULD NOT TAKE THEIR MONEY. For better or worse, he seems to be holding true to not being controlled by power brokers or other assorted groups that want to control a candidate.

This alone is shocking. But we are a strange people. Ross Perot spoke the truth and was right about everything (yes, charts to back it all up. :slight_smile: ) but because he was labelled as “a loose cannon” and had “floppy ears” he was deemed unelectable. His debate against Al Gore on NAFTA & GATT on Larry King/YouTube is classic.

60

Let’s assume that Trump is a nice guy, generous to people, much nicer than he appears in public. It doesn’t matter. What matters is his public persona. The “media” didn’t invent him saying “Mexican immigrants are rapists”, “the media is disgusting” “so and so is disgusting” 'I am really smart", “I know more about “X” than anyone”, “the Mexicans won’t pay for the wall? The wall just go 10 feet higher”, “I am going to do such a deal -with China, in the Middle East etc. “( while exhibiting ignorance of the real issues)” I am going to change the libel laws so I can sue people who write negative things about me” . It is Trump who wouldn’t let go of the Obama wasn’t born here witch hunt, who bans certain media from his rallies. I could go on. It would be naive to suppose that somehow the brash, bullying, lying, excited, impulsive, egotistical hyperventilating Trump is not the real person, and if elected President he would somehow deliver miracles. On the other hand he did say “I am the most Presidential person since Abraham Lincoln”…