I'm reading "Threats, Gaffes and Men’s Posteriors: Trump’s Talk Gets Wilder/A Times review of the president’s public speeches finds that he is more profane, more absolutist, longer-winded and less coherent than he was in 2016" (NYT).
The Times review from 2015 through Thursday found that the president in his second term has used 19 percent more all-or-nothing words like “always,” “never,” “everything” and “totally” at rallies than he did a decade ago and 5 percent more than in 2024, a sign of black-and-white thinking that experts say often accompanies advancing age or cognitive decline.
Experts say!
He is cruder than he used to be, using nearly 15 swear words per 10,000 words compared with 14 two years ago and six a decade ago, a change consistent with age-related disinhibition....
I wonder if this sort of vaguely medical speculation is itself a sign of advancing age/cognitive decline/age-related disinhibition.
His vocabulary remains about the same, as does the reading level of his speaking, which hovers between fourth and fifth grade. (The average modern president speaks at an eighth-grade level.)...
Where there's no decline, be assured that he was always already low.
Wishing and hoping and thinking and praying, planning and dreaming....These days, even Mr. Trump seems aware that eyes are on him, watching and waiting.
“I love the weave,” he told the midterm Republican convention in Dallas in September. “You know what the weave is? You talk about something, then you bring in a ballroom or you bring in an airplane or you bring in Air Force One. But you notice I always get right back to the same topic.” And yet, he went on, “when someday, there’ll be a time when I do the weave is weave, weave. Someday, there’ll be a time when I don’t get back to the original subject, and then you can say he’s had it. OK? You can say then he’s had it.”
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24 comments:
Dammit! I knew I should have voted for Kamala - just for the superior coherence, if nothing else.
What? The NYT didn't compare Trump to Biden?
I was expecting them to say just the opposite. I also sold all my stock in April 2025 when they told me the tariffs destroyed America's future. Thank you NYT.
All that money and he still can't buy the respect he craves. Sad.
They can’t believe they’re losing to that guy..:
Public rhetoric in general has become much more crude in the last decade. Many dems are constantly dropping F-bombs.
Imagine the profanity filled tirade Trump will unleash in 2028 when the AOC/Hasan Piker ticket wins the Presidency.
NYT back to being NYT. (D)
LOL.
All that money and the NYT still can't hire a journalist.
The NYT(D) corrupt fascist left want to dismantle everything and insert a one-party state.
But Trump!
That was a strange video.
Agree with the NYT.
The talk about male and female asses is just ridiculous; even though it is kind of funny.
My theory is that all this crazy talk from Trump is paving the way for the smooth talk from Rubio and Vance; Marco in particular.
There could be a Bacharach/David tag here for that Dusty Springfield song. One of her last offerings was a song that Richard Carpenter wrote for Karen, which she never lived to perform.
I'm watching the Texas Senate race most closely. It will be a poetic justice if Talarico beats Paxton in Texas. Texas was a gimme for the GOP until Trump attacked John Cornyn out of a personal pique.
..tha butt talk resonates with a big potion of the electorate, especially important voting blocks…
"The reading level of his speaking"? Isn't that essentially vocabulary -- or maybe syntax?
Cutting back on Latinate words makes you cruder.
AI: Vocabulary and Diction: Refers to individual words or styles of writing that come from Latin roots rather than Germanic or Old English roots. For example, using suspend (Latinate) instead of hang (Anglo-Saxon), or residence instead of home.
Reading level tells you if you're too much into academic cliches. Best level for writing is about 8th grade. Bad writers are up in 13th grade.
"My theory is that all this crazy talk from Trump is paving the way for the smooth talk from Rubio and Vance; Marco in particular."
Not a big fan of Occam's Razor, are you?
"Public rhetoric in general has become much more crude in the last decade. Many dems are constantly dropping F-bombs."
And Trump's crudity has nothing to do with it?
"Best level for writing is about 8th grade. Bad writers are up in 13th grade."
Are you helping edit the Newspeak Dictionary?
IEE: “All that money and he still can't buy the respect he craves. Sad.” Trump doesn’t crave respect from Democrat voters. Trump understands TDS. People afflicted with it don’t. Conservatives look at people whose hatred for Trump blinds them to the destruction of our cities, our economy, our children and our borders as deluded enablers of the Marxists, Islamists and fruitcakes bent on destabilizing the Republic.
"He is cruder than he used to be, using nearly 15 swear words per 10,000 words compared with 14 two years ago and six a decade ago, a change consistent with age-related disinhibition...."
ONE more swear word per 10,000. Well, that's a statistically significant indicator of age-related disinhibition.
Now let's do a comparison of the writing in the NYT from 2015 (or 1995) till now. Start with opinion in news stories; compare adjectives describing politicians or other public figures depending on whether they are from the right or the left; compare placement and coverage of news that damages Democrats versus Republicans
Freder: “And Trump's crudity has nothing to do with [Democrats dropping F-bombs]? Right! It’s Trump’s fault. Is there any wrong he can’t do to mindless Democrats and their useful idiots?
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