“Trump is saying things that are moronic. That’s not because he’s a moron, he’s only pretending to be a moron. That way other world leaders will think he’s a moron who is too stupid to be reasoned with, so they’ll cave to the demands of the person they think is a complete drooling numbskull. In summary, Trump is publicly pretending to be a moron, but really it’s a genius strategy.” This is like the exact opposite of occams razor. I literally don’t understand how a grown adult writes all of that without immediately realizing how stupid it is and deleting it before posting on the Internet.
I literally don’t understand how a grown adult writes all of that without immediately realizing how stupid it is and deleting it before posting on the Internet.
The depressing explanation is that the world is filled with children and teenagers in adult skinsuits, who have learned how to dress up their ideas in similar clothing.
There are those that do believe the whole “5d chess” thing, but that is not what I got out the post. I read: “Trump is the idiot that would wear a bomb vest to a negotiation and set it off if he doesn’t get his way, because he thinks it would only hurt his opponents and not himself. It’s a difficult position to be in to negotiate with someone that stupid (and that’s a good thing???)”
“The joke’s on you. I was only pretending to be dangerous and stupid, so that I can scare everyone with my dangerous stupidity. Now, make me the most powerful person on Earth.”
That’s not because he’s a moron, he’s only pretending to be a moron.
My interpretation was that the post is saying he actually appears to be a moron (and is capable of persuading the public to support him anyway) but sometimes it is advantageous to be a moron. That would be true, in the sense that a moron (or, more generally, an irrational person) can make credible threats that a rational person could not make.
To Scott Adams, I would say that the danger of giving a moron power is that he is likely to end up actually doing something stupid as opposed to just getting concessions from people afraid that otherwise he might do something stupid.
There is some precedent for the general line of thought See Nixon’s Madman Theory The key, though, is the Madman Theory is that the president is having an emotional reaction (but is otherwise rational) and will escalate a military conflict, thus, in theory, encouraging the other party to back down and seek peace. The line the Madman is crossing is escalation, a violation of norms, but ultimately something that will harm the other party and not the madman’s country.
Scott Adams is proposing a Dumbass Theory, where the president is so much of a moron he will impose policy mutually destructive to both countries, likely moreso to the Dumbass’s own country. Unlike the Madman, there are plenty of ways to deal with a Dumbass apart from caving to his demands. After all, he is a Dumbass, and can be manipulated by a more clever counter party (we all know the ease of manipulating Trump). The easiest of which is to let the Dumbass carry through with his threat and wait for him to back down once the pain felt better his own citizens becomes too much to bear politically. (See Brexit, though the UK ultimately didn’t back down on kneecapping their economy, but it did set the stage for the return of Labour). More to the point though, the Madman is in a position of strength, the Dumbass is a position of ignorance and weakness. The idea that any leader would purposely try to publicly be seen as a fool, and to keep the act up for months or years, just to obtain some hypothetical bargaining leverage is absurd.
This is just Scott Adams, who understands Trump’s policy objective is stupid as fuck, making up an excuse to justify supporting him. But the simple fact is Trump is an actual moron - he knows tarrifs are a hammer that can be used strategically and obtain effective outcomes, so why not use them all the time for everything? It’s the same logic as his proposal to nuke hurricanes. He knows he has a hammer, so everything is a nail, no matter how much his aids try to convince him to stop wildly swinging around the hammer and smashing everything. The fact that Scott Adams had to construct this wild theory from whole cloth just shows how out of touch he is, willing to expend energy and time and his public credibility (whatever is left) just so he can stay in his safe Trump is God and will solve all my problems bubble.
I literally don’t understand how a grown adult writes all of that without immediately realizing how stupid it is and deleting it before posting in the Internet.
This statement is the only thing holding his cognitive dissonance-fractured psyche together.
“Trump is saying things that are moronic. That’s not because he’s a moron, he’s only pretending to be a moron. That way other world leaders will think he’s a moron who is too stupid to be reasoned with, so they’ll cave to the demands of the person they think is a complete drooling numbskull. In summary, Trump is publicly pretending to be a moron, but really it’s a genius strategy.” This is like the exact opposite of occams razor. I literally don’t understand how a grown adult writes all of that without immediately realizing how stupid it is and deleting it before posting on the Internet.
This is the same idiot that said Republicans would be hunted if Biden won in 2020
Surprise! Every time someone meets some consequences for their actions (Sydney Powell, Rudy Guliani, etc.) he says he was right.
The depressing explanation is that the world is filled with children and teenagers in adult skinsuits, who have learned how to dress up their ideas in similar clothing.
Oof that is spot on and well said, skin suits and all.
There are those that do believe the whole “5d chess” thing, but that is not what I got out the post. I read: “Trump is the idiot that would wear a bomb vest to a negotiation and set it off if he doesn’t get his way, because he thinks it would only hurt his opponents and not himself. It’s a difficult position to be in to negotiate with someone that stupid (and that’s a good thing???)”
says wildly dangerous and stupid things
“The joke’s on you. I was only pretending to be dangerous and stupid, so that I can scare everyone with my dangerous stupidity. Now, make me the most powerful person on Earth.”
My interpretation was that the post is saying he actually appears to be a moron (and is capable of persuading the public to support him anyway) but sometimes it is advantageous to be a moron. That would be true, in the sense that a moron (or, more generally, an irrational person) can make credible threats that a rational person could not make.
To Scott Adams, I would say that the danger of giving a moron power is that he is likely to end up actually doing something stupid as opposed to just getting concessions from people afraid that otherwise he might do something stupid.
There is some precedent for the general line of thought See Nixon’s Madman Theory The key, though, is the Madman Theory is that the president is having an emotional reaction (but is otherwise rational) and will escalate a military conflict, thus, in theory, encouraging the other party to back down and seek peace. The line the Madman is crossing is escalation, a violation of norms, but ultimately something that will harm the other party and not the madman’s country.
Scott Adams is proposing a Dumbass Theory, where the president is so much of a moron he will impose policy mutually destructive to both countries, likely moreso to the Dumbass’s own country. Unlike the Madman, there are plenty of ways to deal with a Dumbass apart from caving to his demands. After all, he is a Dumbass, and can be manipulated by a more clever counter party (we all know the ease of manipulating Trump). The easiest of which is to let the Dumbass carry through with his threat and wait for him to back down once the pain felt better his own citizens becomes too much to bear politically. (See Brexit, though the UK ultimately didn’t back down on kneecapping their economy, but it did set the stage for the return of Labour). More to the point though, the Madman is in a position of strength, the Dumbass is a position of ignorance and weakness. The idea that any leader would purposely try to publicly be seen as a fool, and to keep the act up for months or years, just to obtain some hypothetical bargaining leverage is absurd.
This is just Scott Adams, who understands Trump’s policy objective is stupid as fuck, making up an excuse to justify supporting him. But the simple fact is Trump is an actual moron - he knows tarrifs are a hammer that can be used strategically and obtain effective outcomes, so why not use them all the time for everything? It’s the same logic as his proposal to nuke hurricanes. He knows he has a hammer, so everything is a nail, no matter how much his aids try to convince him to stop wildly swinging around the hammer and smashing everything. The fact that Scott Adams had to construct this wild theory from whole cloth just shows how out of touch he is, willing to expend energy and time and his public credibility (whatever is left) just so he can stay in his safe Trump is God and will solve all my problems bubble.
This statement is the only thing holding his cognitive dissonance-fractured psyche together.