“Courageous” and other adjectives in the 21st century.

It all started with some clickbait :

#methree : Trump is right about who’s to blame for bad relations with Russiai
#metwo : Anyone who thinks that Trump displayed perspicacity and political courage by sending a tweet should not be writing on the topic. The thesis of the article is that Russia has always been bad, America tried to intervene (shockingly) a few times in Russia/Ukraine shit recently, and therefore Trump is smart?

#methree : And what of all the #metoo girls in hollywood who were praised for their courage (if perhaps not perspicacity) for airing their grievances on twitter ? If there’s a better forum for sending shockwaves through the modern mediascape, I’m not sure I’ve heard of it yet.ii Now whether or not it’s shocking to you and I that America has an extensive history of intervening in Eastern European political affairs also isn’t the point. The point is that it’s inexplicably verboten in the Land of the Free to even suggest this fallibility, as if the President were Pope and his adherents could never do wrong for as long as they remained devoted crusaders righteously battling the infidel hordes. The question really raised by Trump’s tweet and the storm-in-a-teacup aftermath is : why do Americans on “both sides of the [ultimately polyhedronic] aisle” want an infallible Pope as Commander in Chief ?iii
#metwo : Nothing about DT is courageous, and any comparison to people that risked their careers by calling out the scum that they work with is disingenuous. Anyone that tries to dissect his tweets as anything more that the grumbling as of an old man is trying to find meaning where there is none. The author is a shill who fancies himself an intellectual. There were no deep questions raised by the tweet.

#methree : Courageous (adjective UK)​ /kəˈreɪ.dʒəs/ US ​ /kəˈreɪ.dʒəs/ : C1 having or showing courage. Courage (noun UK) /ˈkʌr.ɪdʒ/ US /ˈkɝː.ɪdʒ/ : B2 the ability to control your fear in a dangerous or difficult situation. Thanks to the Cambridge Dictionary, we can see that there is plenty courageous about Herr Trump. Between foreign affairs with North Koreaiv and Russia, and internal affairs between the Dems, Reps, and his own Third Party, he’s shown little to no fear in the face of one difficult and dangerous situation after another. The #metoo girls risked plenty too,v but to call comparisons between brave people “disingenuous” (ie. disingenuous (adjective UK) ​ /ˌdɪs.ɪnˈdʒen.ju.əs/ US ​ /ˌdɪs.ɪnˈdʒen.ju.əs/ formal (of a person or their behaviour) slightly dishonest, or not speaking the complete truth. is a failure to pattern-match. There are always deep questions if you’re open-minded.
#metwo : I am not open minded to calling him courageous in any way or definition of the word.

#methree : I suppose you wouldn’t… because no skin-in-the-game. The “deplorables” who voted for him however ? To them, he’s courage manifest compared to the empty suits he campaigned against.vi
#metwo : I’m not sure how much of his base define him as courageous. Brash, rich, white, honest would probably be higher on the list of adjectives.

#methree : Not the most representative sample size, but this has been studied! http://archive.is/d47qg

Turns out that “courageous” isn’t high on the list of adjectives commonly used to describe Trump, if only because the word has lost practically all meaning or opportunity for honest usage! Where are the war heroes ? Or even the visionary captains of industry, I dare ask ?

Anyways, the Hair-in-Chief isn’t exactly the Second Coming, but he’s still the best shot that an overstretched empire has at regaining some broader sense of decency, self-respect, and honesty. Yes, this will necessarily come at the expense of the self-worth of those in the western world who fancy themselves products of “higher learning,” but what of it ? Let the IYIs eat their Princeton diplomas.

There’s no courage in passing multiple choice exams. Courage is going against the grain in the real world. Even, maybe especially, if that real world is online.

At the end of the day, there’s no grander theatre that this.

___ ___ ___

  1. The relevant sections are thus :

    US President Donald Trump offended the entire political spectrum with a tweet this morning blaming Washington for poor relations with Russia. “Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of US foolishness and stupidity,” the president said, and he is entirely correct.

    By this, I do not mean to say that Russia is a beneficent actor in world affairs or that Russian President Vladimir Putin is an admirable world leader. Nonetheless, the president displayed both perspicacity and political courage when he pointed the finger at the United States for mismanaging the relationship with Russia.

    Russia is in crisis, but Russia always is in crisis. Russia has a brutal government, but Russia always has had a brutal government, and by every indication, the people of Russia nonetheless seem to like their government. If they want a different sort of government, let them establish one; what sort of government they prefer is not the business of the United States. America’s attempt to shape Russia’s destiny, starting with the Clinton Administration’s sponsorship of the feckless, drunk and corrupt Boris Yeltsin, had baleful results. So did the State Department’s attempt to manipulate events in Ukraine in 2004 and 2014.

    That’s why President Trump’s tweet this morning is entirely correct. Once again, it is refreshing to hear an American president cut through the cant and tell the unvarnished truth.

    Link to the offending tweet here

  2. Blogs and IRC are great if you’re a thought leader on the fringes of the web, but that’s not the video-oriented modern mediascape by any stretch of the imagination. Those who want or need to cater to the masses wield Twitter, and they do it rather well. See Trump, Elon, etc. Still not for me, though. Not since 2015, at least.
  3. Hint : It’s only the delusional-and-soon-to-be-discarded Reps and Dems that want the infallible Pope. Trumpites are perfectly content with a flesh-and-blood human being, scars and all. Don’t be surprised if the results of the upcoming midterm elections support this view.
  4. Would any other President since Truman have had the cojones to call Kim Jung Un “Little Rocket Man” ? I think not.
  5. Unfortunately, the #metoo girls risked more than they knew.
  6. NN Taleb also made a similar observation after watching one of the Republican debates, which he went on to describe in his most recent book Skin In The Game. He too saw some of the hints and hallmarks of the forthcoming Black Swan Event. Trump had battle scars from half-a-century slugging it out in New York’s vicious real estate market while his competition had “relevant experience” and were “electable. The choice was far easier than the “experts” predicted.

2 thoughts on ““Courageous” and other adjectives in the 21st century.

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