GO AHEAD -- GOOGLE IT!

Yep. I posted this in Feb.
4wtlrj.jpg (click to show)

During the 2015 primaries Vanity Fair reposted the articles on-line. COPY AND PASTE THE NEXT LINE INTO GOOGLE:

site:VanityFair.com 1990 2015 Donald Trump

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/07/25/donald-trumps-ghostwriter-tells-all

I'll be honest; I'd be shocked if Trump ever opened a book post first year in High School. I remember hearing about this, and I don't doubt that someone gave him a copy.

But him actually opening it up , reading it, and internalizing the mechanics of how Hitler manipulated people?

I don't think so.

His behavior is classic abuser gaslighting. They're all liars, I'm the only one who knows what's going on.

And he learned it from his dad.

She wasn't with him in his bedroom. His wife was. SHE said he used to read the Hitler speeches book.

And let's face it. How many people would tell their cousins, nieces, etc., "Hey -- I was reading Hitler's speeches in a book a friend gave me, and Hitler said ..."?

Read the Vanity Fair stories instead of just making assumptions. His wife at the time said he used to keep the copy on a nightstand near their bed and he read it.

And Trump is the one who introduced the idea of "FAKE NEWS!", which then got twisted to "alternative FACTS", etc. Do you REALLY think he's smart enough to have come up with that on his own?? And that it WASN'T because he read about Hitler's "The Lying Press!"?

I majored in German in college, so we had to take a course on the history and culture of Germany. At the Nuremberg trials ALL the top Nazis knew they were going to be found guilty and executed. They were completely unapologetic AND they described IN DETAIL their tactics.

"Make America Great Again", "Enemy of the State", "YOU aren't a REAL American", "Non-Americans / [non-Germans] are all a bunch of criminals, rapist, drug dealers, terrorists,", etc., are all straight out of Nazi tactics.

The same with "Accuse your ENEMIES of doing what YOU are ACTUALLY doing. Then when people criticize YOU, falsely respond 'But what about that THEY are doing such-and-such?' That will be a diversion, the GENERAL PUBLIC will simply ASSUME 'Hey--they're ALL like that', and you can steer the discussion away from what YOU are ACTUALLY doing."

Let's face it--except for the Bible, how many people keep a specific book on a nightstand for an extended period and DON'T read it at least occasionally.

Putting the words "fake" and "news" together doesn't exactly take a supergenius to do. I'm quite sure any human being with the capacity to employ words at all could have done that. Using that phrase as evidence to show he read and internalized the book is a serious logical fallacy.

Bottom line is that the EVIDENCE is that he got it from Hitler--according to his WIFE who SAW him reading the book at least occasionally.

That is a giant non sequitur though. Just because I read Mein Kampf (to get into Hitler's mind and try to understand how someone could be so thoroughly evil) doesn't mean I will be taking after him intentionally (key word) if I ever become a public orator of repute.

Likewise with Trump; he may have read it, but we have no clue WHY he read it or if that is the actual source of his blunt speaking style or penchant for labelling opponents. He's a New Yorker, for crying out loud; they're all pugnacious jerks, to some degree or another. ;)

I don't doubt that he has/had a copy of Hitler's speeches next to his bed.

Because that's exactly the High Schooler Edge Lord bullshit I would expect from him. "Look how much of a bad boy I am! I read Hitler n shit! oooooooooo"

But there are many many many sources that say Trump doesn't read. That he has a hard time paying attention to anything other than stuff about himself- and this narcism isn't a new thing. He prefers to digest his information via conversations- that way it comes with interpretations already setup for him.

He has decades of experience at gaslighting and conning people.

Here's a great video essay on Bernie Sanders by Nerd Writer on Youtube. Most importantly, he talks about how Bernie and Trump use the same techniques to answer questions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16S2lQn5xgs

These aren't "secrets hitler discovered" but very standard rhetorical techniques.

Hitler was human scum. Of that we can be sure. But his oratory was fiery, effective, and not dissimilar to that employed by many people today.

I doubt anyone wants us to go back to Athenian or Roman societal standards, but we employ rhetorical rules developed by people like Aristotle and Cato. It's effective, after all.