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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   32892 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 5, 2024

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Just over and over again say, "Why don't you tell me how this is supposed to work?" Don't tell them how you think it's supposed to work. Just ask them to explain.

I think that's a tactical mistake, because it puts them in the position of authority. It makes you look like you're a student asking teachers to the professor, begging them to explain it to you more simply because you didn't do the assigned reading.

The stronger tactic is do your research, and then be unafraid to speak up with your own views on the subject. Don't back down, debate with them. Let the viewers at home decide who was right. Of course this only works if you both have the power to not get cancelled, and also enough rhetorical skill to debate a hotly contested issue on camera under pressure. Trump is one of the very few right-wingers who can do both of those things.

Possibly so. On the other hand, if the people "in authority", the "teachers" and "professors", are constantly and visibly completely unable to muster even the tiniest shred of plausible explanation, it eats away at any perception that they do, indeed, merit those descriptors.

Maybe if you have some power to really hammer them with questions for a long time, like a senate hearing. But most journalists don't have that power, politicians will just dodge whatever questions they don't like and end the interview or move on to a new subject. It was actually quite unusual for someone like Trump to sit down for a long form, hostile interview like he did with the NABJ.

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