Post by midcan5 on Apr 3, 2016 10:56:39 GMT -5
An excellent review on the appeal of Donald Trump.
"I went, first and foremost, to answer a deceptively simple question: How has Trump defied pretty much every rule not just of electoral politics, but of contemporary civil discourse to lead the race for the Republican party’s nomination for president? Set aside for one moment the economic conditions that we know have made Trump’s rise possible. What about those of the human psyche? What does Trump’s improbable rise reveal about how Americans understand themselves, what they imagine for their country, what they crave in their leaders?"
...
"In a paper called “The Psychology of Propaganda,” Money-Kyrle describes the mechanisms of what he saw:
“To me, at least, the speeches themselves were not particularly impressive. But the crowd was unforgettable. The people seemed gradually to lose their individuality and to become fused into a not very intelligent but immensely powerful monster… under the complete control of the figure on the rostrum. He evoked or changed its passions as easily as if they had been notes of some gigantic organ. The tune was very loud, but very simple. As far as I could make out, there were only three, or perhaps four, notes; and both speakers or organists played them in the same order."
A similar sequence—which Money-Kyrle described as first melancholia, then paranoia, and finally, megalomania—runs through Trump’s rhetoric, says Smith.
“If you swallow the first two movements, you’re feeling helpless and then frightened. And then you’re offered the fantastic package of magic to solve all your problems,” he explains. “Trump does that very, very well—I think he has a gut understanding of the psychology of persuasion.”
To test Smith’s case, I went through the many reams of observations I scribbled down reflecting on the Trump rallies. Nearly every paragraph fit Money-Kyrle’s sequence."
qz.com/645345/inside-the-trump-machine-the-bizarre-psychology-of-americas-newest-political-movement/
“Resentment is a much-understudied but critical factor in much right wing populism. The idea is that ‘they’ have taken away something that is rightfully ours. They have stolen ‘our’ America,” he says. “Trump binds people together around this core perception. He makes himself emblematic of this resentful America and promises to put people in a position where the tables will be turned and they will get their own back on the carpet-baggers.”
"I went, first and foremost, to answer a deceptively simple question: How has Trump defied pretty much every rule not just of electoral politics, but of contemporary civil discourse to lead the race for the Republican party’s nomination for president? Set aside for one moment the economic conditions that we know have made Trump’s rise possible. What about those of the human psyche? What does Trump’s improbable rise reveal about how Americans understand themselves, what they imagine for their country, what they crave in their leaders?"
...
"In a paper called “The Psychology of Propaganda,” Money-Kyrle describes the mechanisms of what he saw:
“To me, at least, the speeches themselves were not particularly impressive. But the crowd was unforgettable. The people seemed gradually to lose their individuality and to become fused into a not very intelligent but immensely powerful monster… under the complete control of the figure on the rostrum. He evoked or changed its passions as easily as if they had been notes of some gigantic organ. The tune was very loud, but very simple. As far as I could make out, there were only three, or perhaps four, notes; and both speakers or organists played them in the same order."
A similar sequence—which Money-Kyrle described as first melancholia, then paranoia, and finally, megalomania—runs through Trump’s rhetoric, says Smith.
“If you swallow the first two movements, you’re feeling helpless and then frightened. And then you’re offered the fantastic package of magic to solve all your problems,” he explains. “Trump does that very, very well—I think he has a gut understanding of the psychology of persuasion.”
To test Smith’s case, I went through the many reams of observations I scribbled down reflecting on the Trump rallies. Nearly every paragraph fit Money-Kyrle’s sequence."
qz.com/645345/inside-the-trump-machine-the-bizarre-psychology-of-americas-newest-political-movement/
“Resentment is a much-understudied but critical factor in much right wing populism. The idea is that ‘they’ have taken away something that is rightfully ours. They have stolen ‘our’ America,” he says. “Trump binds people together around this core perception. He makes himself emblematic of this resentful America and promises to put people in a position where the tables will be turned and they will get their own back on the carpet-baggers.”