Today I watched the second US presidential debate. Halfway through, I had a horrible realisation: I found myself disliking Clinton more than Trump, and, emotionally, I got a kick whenever he scored a point.
To be clear: were I voting in the States, and had to choose only between these two candidates, I'd choose Clinton. But that's due to rational thought. If I were voting purely emotionally, I think I'd go for Trump.
I know how horrible this sounds, so I spent some time thinking about why I feel this way. Here's what I came up with: I consider Trump emotionally and mentally almost challenged. He is either pulling a fantastic act, or he is genuinely delusional, paranoid, psychologically damaged and childish. I think this last adjective describes him best: childish. He throws tantrums, can barely string together a coherent sentence, jumps from topic to topic, has a short attention span &c. Seriously, watch him do anything and ask yourself, what would a 5 year old do in the same situation? In most cases, you'll realise their actions will be identical.
The thing is, when you stop taking a person seriously, and start treating them as a child in your mind, it's hard to get angry at them. In the same way I wouldn't take it seriously when a child says it hates its mother, I can't take Trump seriously when he comments on, say, immigrants. Whenever Gingrich opines on anything, I feel revolt and disgust. Whenever Trump offers an identical view, I just shrug it off.
Hillary, in contrast, is smart and grown up. So her flaws are far less easy to forgive. When Trump brings up the fact that she has made hundreds of millions for herself while being in public service, I cannot help getting annoyed; when she talks about Wall Street banks being greedy, and then makes millions off giving speeches at these same banks, I get angry; when she says one thing in public, and another in private, and tries to justify herself by comparing herself to Lincoln, I become incredulous. And when her supporters overlook these facts, when a lot of the media to which I subscribe hate the idea of Trump so much they end up exalting Clinton, I begin leaning the other way.
I am writing all this because I think a very big percentage of Trump's supporters feel(s?) the same way. So, for those of you who are actively trying to prevent a Trump presidency, I say this: stop fact-checking him; stop pointing out all the horrible things he has said or done - that's not necessarily going to sway people. The more you try to influence people by pointing out Trump's misdeeds, the more they are going to get riled at the hypocrisy of overlooking Clinton's.
So, instead, make this argument: Clinton will be a meh president. She's predictable. She won't shake things up. But Trump is unpredictable. Do you really want a 5 year old having access to the world's largest nuclear arsenal?
To be clear: were I voting in the States, and had to choose only between these two candidates, I'd choose Clinton. But that's due to rational thought. If I were voting purely emotionally, I think I'd go for Trump.
I know how horrible this sounds, so I spent some time thinking about why I feel this way. Here's what I came up with: I consider Trump emotionally and mentally almost challenged. He is either pulling a fantastic act, or he is genuinely delusional, paranoid, psychologically damaged and childish. I think this last adjective describes him best: childish. He throws tantrums, can barely string together a coherent sentence, jumps from topic to topic, has a short attention span &c. Seriously, watch him do anything and ask yourself, what would a 5 year old do in the same situation? In most cases, you'll realise their actions will be identical.
The thing is, when you stop taking a person seriously, and start treating them as a child in your mind, it's hard to get angry at them. In the same way I wouldn't take it seriously when a child says it hates its mother, I can't take Trump seriously when he comments on, say, immigrants. Whenever Gingrich opines on anything, I feel revolt and disgust. Whenever Trump offers an identical view, I just shrug it off.
Hillary, in contrast, is smart and grown up. So her flaws are far less easy to forgive. When Trump brings up the fact that she has made hundreds of millions for herself while being in public service, I cannot help getting annoyed; when she talks about Wall Street banks being greedy, and then makes millions off giving speeches at these same banks, I get angry; when she says one thing in public, and another in private, and tries to justify herself by comparing herself to Lincoln, I become incredulous. And when her supporters overlook these facts, when a lot of the media to which I subscribe hate the idea of Trump so much they end up exalting Clinton, I begin leaning the other way.
I am writing all this because I think a very big percentage of Trump's supporters feel(s?) the same way. So, for those of you who are actively trying to prevent a Trump presidency, I say this: stop fact-checking him; stop pointing out all the horrible things he has said or done - that's not necessarily going to sway people. The more you try to influence people by pointing out Trump's misdeeds, the more they are going to get riled at the hypocrisy of overlooking Clinton's.
So, instead, make this argument: Clinton will be a meh president. She's predictable. She won't shake things up. But Trump is unpredictable. Do you really want a 5 year old having access to the world's largest nuclear arsenal?
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