This is from last week but it seems all the more ironic now bc Donald Trump has bullied Greta Thunberg, bc he's salty she got picked to be Time's Person of the Year for 2019. She's only a tiny bit older than his own youngest son. He was nasty to her before too. The law prof. who made the pun wasn't malicious in intent like Trump was with his jabs at Greta & she apologised which is something I doubt he'd ever have the integrity to do. He severely undermines her "be best" anti-bullying campaign, making it into a farce bc he infamously bullies ppl of all ages, including kids.
Donald Trump's Distraction Tactics Find New Life Thanks to GOP's Manufactured Barron Trump Outrage
In this op-ed, Lucy Diavolo breaks down what conservative outrage over a joke about the name of the president’s son has to tell us about the role of superficiality in our politics.
The article explains how the pun was then seized on by Matt Gaetz & other Trump defenders to distract & divert from what the law professor actually said about Trump's impeachable conduct.
Donald Trump's Distraction Tactics Find New Life Thanks to GOP's Manufactured Barron Trump Outrage
In this op-ed, Lucy Diavolo breaks down what conservative outrage over a joke about the name of the president’s son has to tell us about the role of superficiality in our politics.
The article explains how the pun was then seized on by Matt Gaetz & other Trump defenders to distract & divert from what the law professor actually said about Trump's impeachable conduct.
As Gaetz’s performance displayed, these same distraction tactics are employed by Trump’s defenders as a way to divert attention from questions about quid pro quo and election meddling. Gaetz’s outburst and his misleading characterization of Karlan’s remark are the latest examples of politicians using superficial outrage theater to keep their spot in this reality TV presidency.
If our national politics were a reality series, we might imagine this week’s episode highlighting Gaetz’s attack on Karlan. Anyone who thinks the measured testimony of constitutional scholars has the same mass appeal that a televised shouting match does hasn’t been paying attention.
That’s not to say that we should allow our political discourse to continue to devolve along this line or that we should abandon all hope for more meaningful political conversations. But Trump’s distraction tactics offer an opportunity to ask why so many of our leaders are so desperate to obfuscate the truth — and why they’re able to get away with it.