For the Record: Positive Thinking

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale's 88th birthday party, photo by Ron Galella! Remember him?), via NPR.

someone typed this for him. no way can Trump spell sieve

— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) February 15, 2023

There was a point there, maybe it was Miller, but in any event this was a funny thought bringing in the Artificial Intelligence everybody's talking about

holy moley pic.twitter.com/9mF0Nmz5Nr

— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) February 15, 2023

Then again, if the prompt isn't negative, it does a pretty good job, including a hefty dose of narcissism. pic.twitter.com/BZL2LxXM78

— Per Yaspera ad Astra (@Yastreblyansky) February 15, 2023

Following upon which Some Dude who does not understand the meanings of "style", "prompt", or "negative" took issue:

I wrote the prompt

— Per Yaspera ad Astra (@Yastreblyansky) February 16, 2023

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And Stephen Miller wrote the Carnage speech, for that matter. It's not Trump's style at all. Too many big words, too much alliteration, too much "you" pic.twitter.com/UjvB08QUx6

— Per Yaspera ad Astra (@Yastreblyansky) February 16, 2023

That's what style means: not the message, but the means you use to convey it. But then I let my interlocutor start trolling:

My point was that it's bad manners to try to ruin a perfectly good bit by dropping an insightless cliché into it like a dead horse into a swimming pool.

— Per Yaspera ad Astra (@Yastreblyansky) February 17, 2023

Oh, he enjoys saying the situation is bad at a given moment, but just to heighten the contrast with how great it will be when he fixes everything. "I alone can fix it!" He'll have a health care plan in two weeks! Next week is infrastructure week! "Your favorite president--me!"

— Per Yaspera ad Astra (@Yastreblyansky) February 17, 2023

Tucker Carlson is negative. Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi are negative. All those horseshoe leftists are negative, and so are all the classic conservatives from William F. Buckley onward. But Trump just doesn't care about anybody other than himself, and he's sure he'll be fine.

— Per Yaspera ad Astra (@Yastreblyansky) February 17, 2023

That's not bitching, and it's certainly not what I'd call negative. It's WWE trash talk to encourage the followers.

"Positive" doesn't mean "nice". His idea is to display how strong and active he is. In his mind he is punching Smith to the ground with these words and winning.

— Per Yaspera ad Astra (@Yastreblyansky) February 17, 2023

You literally don't know how to read. Go away.

— Per Yaspera ad Astra (@Yastreblyansky) February 17, 2023

When he's really scared, as with today's grand jury report from Fulton County, he pretends he's not under attack pic.twitter.com/dNaHFETEeu

— Per Yaspera ad Astra (@Yastreblyansky) February 17, 2023

But Some Dude had already blocked me by then. I do like the way I've drawn the difference between style and content, and beyond that a distinction some of you guys sometimes have trouble with, the difference between moral labeling and analysis. Dude here was upset because I didn't insist on the point that Trump Is Bad. But everybody knows that already! It's more useful to ask what exactly he was up to, and ultimately how he keeps getting away with it.