who the hell talks like this?
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“You are talking crazy-person talk. Put your words in word places please.”
―
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
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So.
I have relentlessly outlined Trump’s shortcomings from a business leadership standpoint.
I have relentlessly outlined Trump’s dubious relationship with the truth.
But today I turn to … well … not even his words … but how he talks.
I mean … well … who the hell talks like this?
“You know, I’m, like, a smart person.”
Uh huh.
Yeah.
Right.
I can honestly say that after having sat in thousands of business meetings, hundreds of conference rooms, dozens of boardrooms and currently trade personal emails with a wide range of business executives … the only person I have ever heard talk like this in a corporate business environment was eventually fired, monitored as he packed up his office, and escorted out of the office by security people.
He was a whack job.
And he talked like this.
All of this makes me begin to think Trump may actually … sigh … not telling us the truth when he says, “you know, I’m like a smart person.”
<note: “like” falls into the same speech pattern as the valley girl “whatever”>
The evidence continues to mount just from the shit he says that he is … well … just not smart.
I know dozens of business executives.
I know some incredibly smart people … maybe even some brilliant people.
I know some Ivy League graduates. Heck. I even know a Wharton person <Stanford people tend to be smarter & I have never met a non-smart Yale grad>.
And what I know is that none of these people talk like this.
I am no psychologist but I imagine the people who talk like this, and the ones who talk in first person <Ricky Henderson most likely being the most famous first person speaker — he called San Diego GM Kevin Towers and left the following message: “This is Rickey calling on behalf of Rickey. Rickey wants to play baseball.” > are people who are actually trying to persuade themselves that they are smart, have a good brain and know good words.
I admit when I hear Trump talk, well, I teeter between repeating Rex Tillerson’s reported thought on Trump — “fucking moron” – and simply shaking my head and saying “who the hell talks like this?”
All I know is that it seems more cartoon-like than President-like:
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“I went to an Ivy League college. I was a nice student. I did very well. I’m a very intelligent person.”
‘I’m, like, a really smart person’
“I am also honored to have the greatest temperament that anybody has.”
“I would say basically we talked condolence.”
“I have one of the great memories of all time.”
“Nobody has more respect than I do. Nobody.”
“Well, I think the press makes me more uncivil than I am. You know – people don’t understand – I went to an Ivy League college. I was a nice student. I did very well. I’m a very intelligent person. You know, the fact is, I think, I really believe, I think the press creates a different image of Donald Trump than the real person.”
“… my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, okay, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart
“My generals and my military, they have decision-making ability,”
“The response and recovery effort probably has never been seen for something like this. This is an island, surrounded by water. Big water. Ocean water.”
After arriving in Israel from Saudi Arabia, Trump told his hosts: “We just got back from the Middle East.”
And, of course,
Trump to hurricane victims in Puerto Rico: “Have a good time”
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I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer but, c’mon, no reasonable business person with any reasonable experience talks like this.
And we know that.
We do.
For some we knew this is not normal behavior earlier and for others it has been a grudging realization.
That said.
While we know no one should talk like this we have two problems in finally admitting it & dealing with it:
- The Slippery slope of excuses.
I have written several times about the “slippery slope of ‘just this once’.”
Just once becomes … well … okay just one more time … and then … oops … and you are well on your way on the slippery slope.
Suffice it to say a shitload of people are on the slippery slope with regard to making excuses for Trump.
And they know it.
And while those of us not on the slope can stand there and be righteous … I think it would behoove us to recognize that any slippery slope is a sonuvabitch to get off of.
We would be foolish to utter some simplistic tripe like “just do it” … just get off it.
We would be foolish because it is difficult — for everyone <if you have ever been on a slippery slope … despair, small lies, depression, etc. … you understand>.
Give someone a hand.
Help them.
Quit moralizing. Quit being righteous. Quit being holier than thou. Just fucking help them get off the slippery slope.
- Holding him accountable and our own accountability.
Oh … shit. Accountability is a two way street. No matter how heinous Trump may be on occasion if you hold him accountable … you will also be held accountable. What that means is it inevitably becomes a comparison of ‘failings.’
Well.
That sucked to type.
This means failings of character.
This means failings in judgement.
All of your own failings enter into the accountability fray <and I can guarantee he will bring them into the fray>.
If you make him accountable for his, you need to be accountable for yours <and do not be defensive in doing so>.
And this means dealing with a ‘counterpuncher’ who cannot discern the false equivalence between character failings and judgement and simply hammers away in his simplistic grade school rhetoric in a “if this, then that” pushback.
That sounds … well … horrible. But here’s what you have on your side.
Remember … who the hell talks like that?
Yeah. That’s his weak spot. Accountability does not need intellectualism so you can leave the high falutin’ words at home. Accountability of character & judgement is easy to articulate. It is easy because people really do know right from wrong and that how you win matters more than just winning … they just need to be reminded. And when they are reminded … people will hold him accountable.
Look.
No truly experienced normal business person talks like how Trump talks. They would get kicked out of any office in any viable business in America.
Trump has had 71 years, access to some of the finest America has to offer in education and the opportunity to learn more through experiences than most of us could ever dream for.
He has squandered them all.
Other than being able to bully his way through real estate transactions and make gobs of money off of licensing deals <which is simply being a grifter> he is hollow … hollow of even the most basic information a United States high school senior possesses.
If we cannot win against someone who talks like this, who is hollow … well … WTF … we don’t deserve to win.
Me? I would take him on anywhere at any time. He is hollow, I have seen hollow in business, and I know hollow cannot win.
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