Trump “learned”? From “studying”?
Nah, dude is just an opportunistic dumb fuck
It’s wild to see his ex-wife’s claim, but I just don’t believe Trump was smart enough to study a book by Hitler and understand it. Hitler, as cruel and insane as he was, had a brain.
You're thinking of Trump now, as a deranged old man. It's entirely possible he studied it back before he was a rambling incoherent loon. A lifetime of hamburders, drugs and privilege must really fuck a brain up.
No, he was always an idiot
Professor Kelley told me 100 times over three decades that “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddam student I ever had.” I remember his emphasis and inflection — it went like this — “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddam student I ever had.” Dr. Kelley told me this after Trump had become a celebrity but long before he was considered a political figure. Dr. Kelley often referred to Trump’s arrogance when he told of this — that Trump came to Wharton thinking he already knew everything.
He was absolutely a dumbass this whole time.
To be fair, for a professor, any student reading Hitler's speeches on the side is very likely to either be a) the next Hannah Arendt or b) the dumbest goddamn student they'll ever have.
Good thing trump wasn't as smart. If he had half of hitler's intelligence, our democracy would've been fucked.
Edit: Not to praise whatever hitler's intelligence level was, just highlighting how much less competent trump was by comparison. (Eg: How he handled Covid)
I highly recommend actually reading “Mein Kampf”. After the opening paragraph we should talk again about Hitlers intelligence.
That man was an absolute buffoon, but he was highly intelligent in a social sense of the word. Not entirely unlike Trump.
You make a good point.
Trump is one of the dumbest men on the planet. However, he has clearly stumbled onto a disturbing social skill...Just like Hitler (who was also known to be an idiot).
I actually read the full article on this one. There are a lot of good points and similarities. Did he study Hitler's speeches? I doubt Mr. "Nuke the storm" or "inject bleach" is capable of studying. I think it's much more likely that he either blindly stumbled into the same success or learned a few tidbits from what he heard.
I differentiate 'learn' and 'study', the same way I might pick up a few words words from vacation abroad, vs cracking open a text book. "Fake news" probably comes up in a Hitler speech as much as bano and cerveza do on a vacation in Mexico.
The translators do him some seriously unearned favors.
No, it's not really any better in German. The man wasn't very smart, he hit a nerve.
Hitler im Original ist grausam. Allein seine seitenlange Tiervergleiche. Ich kann Serdar Somuncus Lesung von Mein Kampf sehr empfehlen.
I was saying that the German original is even dumber than the translation. It's my understanding that the translation is in properly written English, while the original is in poorly edited hick German.
Ah, yeah, now that I reread it, that makes more sense. My bad.
I think a dangerous trap we fall into is assuming that Trump is the mastermind at all. Hitler didn't rise to his position without a lot of things falling into place by a lot of people whose best interest it was in that he ascend. Stopping Trump sets this process back, but the whole organization of politicans, journalists, and business leaders who support him need to be held accountable as well.
of course. i say lets start in congress and the pentagon. mtg and felonious mike flynns brother would be two great people to start with.
Hitler was ridiculed for his incoherent speeches back then, too. And he was far from the brilliant military strategist he was built up to be by propaganda. His economic ideas were terrible as well and would have ruined Germany in record time even without the war.
We still are, but we would’ve been too.
He's always struck me more as doing a poor imitation of Mussolini
The list regurgitates the same points over and over.
Old, deranged trump is a complete lunatic. Young, narcissistic trump was dumb as a rock, but he cared a lot, a whole lot about his image. He was popular and he's always been the useful idiot actual powerful and smart people like to hide behind.
To his credit, it would be way too wild of a coincidence for him to play the fascist playbook so accurately. He's probably been coached, the new order book annotated by someone who actually read it. I don't think he studied any of this seriously though. There is no foreshadowing of future event. He just gets stuck and incredibly mad at something blocking his path, and he probably goes "Hmm, what would Hitler have done", and he gets to use whatever brainpower he has to follow a few simple guidelines and rhetoric.
That's the thing with the fascist playbook, it's incredibly dumb. You just ignore everything and get people riled up about the next thing in order. It's immigrants, the medias, scientifics, every other politicians, elections, the justice system, democracy itself. He'll be jailed and do the next thing Hitler did, like have a smarter someone publish a "solution" to their "struggle" and it will be spread like gospel. Given the chance he'd then starts a war with a neighboring country. Just follow the steps one by one, even a buffoon like him can get coached on it. Suddenly you'll hear Canada has to be liberated and it is all you'll hear about. That's what his second term and planned for-life presidency would look like.
Trump and other Republicans have recently not-so-secretly been plotting to invade Mexico in a war on drug cartels. It's not Canada, but it's right in line with the fascist playbook.
That’s giving Trump WAY too much credit.
Is it though? Read the article. It lays put a pretty good case for exactly why trump is copying Hitler.
This article reads like it was written by an AI whos entire dataset is comprised of talking points by the average redditor
Naah. The article actually makes valid points. Can’t be parsed from reddit.
Really. Those 20 points do absolutely nothing to indicate he "studied Hitler's speeches". It's basically just saying "Trump was awful. You know who else was awful? Adolf Hitler!".
Sometimes it's better to just let evil speak for itself. What a load of crap.
It seems he actually had a copy of My New Order though. But I doubt Trump ever had the discipline to study it much. Bannon yes.
The thing is, it just doesn't make sense. I think it's uncontroversial to say Hitler's skills in oration were a factor in the rise to power of that regime. But Trump? Trump is a horrible orator.
I don't see similarities at all in terms of oration. Trump meanders through a speech, often switching subjects abruptly, leaving thoughts incomplete, or otherwise being entirely nonsensical.
That in itself is a strategy -- I think people lacking formal education especially are susceptible to it and see it as sounding intelligent ("he's so smart, the thoughts just keep flowing!"), but it is extremely un-Hitlerlike in terms of oration style.
Is it an actual strategy of Trump or does he just naturally meander like that? I kind of lead towards the latter, which means he's probably gotten lucky by surrounding himself with stupid people for a very long time.
I could almost say that would be a disservice to Hitler. Fuck'em both.
It's a completely flawed comparison. Hitler was capable of making coherent sentences, and he was doing it rather well. He wasn't just identifying a few catch phrases (build a wall! Lock her up!) and repeating them ad infinitum to make the crowds go wild.
Fascism doesn't need to look like a bunch of drooling idiots in adult diapers. That's just the specific branch of it that ended up successful in contemporary America, for whatever reason.
You haven't really listened to a lot of Hitler's speeches then. The dude was a rambming baboon.
I agree. The reason I said it I would almost say it's a disservice is only because it seems strange to say anyone could do a disservice to Hitler.
Trump speaking at a fifth grade level is either a tactic or a beneficial coincidence, his cult loves it.
its good that trumps barely cognizant because hed be making much better speeches if he could.
If he made better speeches I don't think his base would be capable of following him. He's the perfect authoritarian for the people he's leading, as illustrated by the failure of the Republican party to find a substitute for him.
DeSantis is more cognizant, and happy to ape anything Trump does to get a following. He's a total failure.
Trump's lack of coherence makes it possible for him to get away with literally anything, as you can always chose what you want to hear and what you want to see, and there's always something he has said that indicates he feels exactly the way you do about things. It's a talent that is, thankfully, not easily imitated.
I don't think "the don" is intelligent enough for that.
He is a narcissistic piece of shit.
Okay, folks, show's over.
Nothing to see here, show's - oh my god, a horrible plane crash!
Hey everybody, get a load of this flaming wreckage!
Come on, crowd around. Crowd around, don't be shy, crowd around.
Wasn't he accused of something like that by an ex-wife?
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