Jochen wrote:
Unless of course, he is appealing to every(wo)man's inner selfish-narcissist? First you tweak up fear (and maybe greed in the background) and then appeal to the (very natural?) narcissistic and selfish sensibilities that come with that?Knowing *their* emotions could be the key. Maybe one major reason why Donald Trump's followers find him so persuasive is that they have the impression he knows what they feel, because what he says fits exactly to how they feel. The most selfish and narcissistic person who is incapable of empathy gives people the feeling that he knows what they feel. It is a little bit paradox, isn't it?
Also Trump has a penchant for a type of vagueness which makes it easy for a motivated listener to map their own worst hopes/fears onto everything he says (very polarizing). He blathers so much nonsense about so many things it is easy to pick and choose what you want to get excited (or incensed) about.
As for me, the (rare?) times something the Donald does or says appeals to me I can usually find a limbic system level greed or fear trigger of my own that he's touched on? Gilded embellishments in the background of the White House, Supermodels and Pornstars and Inappropriately Young Women hanging off his arm (or waiting just out of sight) and Personal Jumbo Jets and Golf Resorts (with fake fake-gold trophies) and outrageous rhetoric about immigrant crime and the "unfairness" of global trade/relations really do just the opposite for me. Total turnoffs. But for many I think those things give them a little tweak... gives them hope for their darkest desires and confirmation on their darkest fears.
When I hear that maybe Social Security income won't be taxed, I get a little bump to my limbic system thinking of the 2 or 3 figure savings I might get on my tax bill (unless of course I go full tax-revolt as I preach to others). When I saw the big fentanyl roundup in NM/AZ/NV/OR I was heartened to imagine that the "worst of the worst" had been at least mildly subdued, even though I'm pretty sure a careful look will see a lot of collateral damage to people, at worst, on the periphery or victims of the "worst of the worst" themselves.
Musk used to appeal to my latent (or mostly recovered) inner libertarian, convincing me that just good old fashioned elbow grease and innovative thinking (and acting) could save me from the existential risks of our own thoughtless self-destructive ambitions and the selfishness of others. I was raised on a similar Good Old Fashioned Future SciFi canon he apparently was (maybe the SoAfrica SciFi literary centroid was a decade or so behind the US/Europe?). I can't tell he read anything with a "cautionary tale" built into it though...
OpenPGP_0xD5BAF94F88AFFA63.asc
Description: OpenPGP public key
OpenPGP_signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature
.- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom https://bit.ly/virtualfriam to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ archives: 5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
