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Trump's obscenity as proof of sincerity

example · retold in 4 talks

Trump's voters read his lying and obscenity not as disqualifying but as evidence that he speaks spontaneously and sincerely, unlike prepared political professionals, the more obscene, the more authentic.

2016: 1 talk 2023: 1 talk 2024: 1 talk 2026: 1 talk
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026

As told 4

“When he is caught lying, Trump voters read this as a sign of his sincerity. You know he is not prepared by specialists and so on.”
“But if Trump ceases to be president, then JD Vance will take his place. And it could be even worse.”
“Trump said something vulgar or false or stupid... ordinary people, many ordinary people felt that through Trump they were attacking them”

What it carries

one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)

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Every retelling 4

Trump's voters read his lying and obscenity not as disqualifying but as evidence that he speaks spontaneously and sincerely, unlike prepared political professionals, the more obscene, the more authentic., illustrating libidinal economy,fetish,Trump as fetish figure
Žižek points to Donald Trump's refusal to feel shame as a key feature of his presidency, suggesting this lack of inhibition is what makes him effective or terrifying, and contrasts it with JD Vance's potential rise., illustrating shamelessness as a permissiveness
Žižek argues that Trump's vulgarities (like 'grabbing women by the pussies') helped him because ordinary people identified with his 'mistakes' as being 'one of us,' while liberal media attacks alienated them., illustrating fascism-populism,symptomal healing
Žižek explains Trump’s strategy: when he says something vulgar, Democrats think he is 'committing suicide,' but ordinary people identify with him because his vulgarity makes private, suppressed thoughts public, creating a sense of 'fake ordinariness' where he seems 'one of us.', illustrating fake ordinariness,ideology