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Comment by ComradeTaco | Hacker News Reader

Trump is amusing. He'll say something absolutely obscene, then his surrogates will say that he meant something different and slightly less obscene. Then supporters will go to great lengths to translate his words into an extremely favorable reading that actually isn't obscene at all.

We don't need a Rosetta Stone for it. Trump means exactly what he says.

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>We don't need a Rosetta Stone for it. Trump means exactly what he says.

Policy disagreements with Trump aside, I find that actually kind of refreshing.

I think a lot of people do, but it's best not to rate it too highly. It's a lot easier to communicate clearly and effectively when your propositions are simple, and it's a lot easier to have simple propositions when you're not constrained by the evidence.

That's pretty much the whole story of demagoguery and why it continues to work.

> demagoguery

Well, if President Trump actually does serve the common people, it will be a wondrous thing.

> A demagogue ... is a leader in a democracy who gains popularity by exploiting prejudice and ignorance among the common people, whipping up the passions of the crowd and shutting down reasoned deliberation.

Where is he doing anything other than furthering his interests?

Doesn't look too promising so far.

It's too soon to say. If he does end up serving a constituency, it'll arguably be one that's been long underserved. But personally, rueful cynicism is about the best that I can manage.

The constituency he'll end up serving is billionaires like him.

By demagoguery I mean demagoguery — I mean highly charged oratory, persuasive whipping-up rhetoric (https://youtu.be/ZFD01r6ersw?t=40).

Yes, but isn't that a prerequisite for political success?

  A demagogue for the common people* !

  *only certain people qualify

>serve the common people

Nowadays we call that populism. And we don't like it one bit! /s

I think that contains some degree of inherent value, sure.

Being honest and informed are much more valuable and refreshing traits to me.

It would be refreshing if he actually backed up his words, rather than just saying what he thinks you want to hear. It's not refreshing when he flip-flops depending on who his audience is at the time.

I wouldn't say that he means what he says. I think he says what he believes, without using reality-checking or diplomacy filters, which is a distinctly different behavior.

It is kind of refreshing, because while I have a sneaking suspicion that most politicians are secretly despicable people behind their masks, Trump is a despicable person right out there in the open. I know exactly where I stand in relation to him.

It would be if he wasn't a demented narcissist. His inability to ignore even the smallest trifle that casts him in negative light shows the extent of his mental illness.

I'm still trying to figure out how he is unlike Kim Jong Un.

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