What’s sort of sad is that Trudeau the Younger keeps rising to the bait. After so long in national and international politics, you would think that he’d develop a better sense of what is a serious insult that threatens Canadian authority, and what is someone poking just to get a rise out of him.
At first glance, it seems childish or bullying. However, it seems that he does this with people of roughly equal status. For example, he gave this kind of nickname to other Republican candidates during his 2016 campaign, and Trudeau is the PM of Canada. I can't remember him doing this to an average person who disagreed with him. Reporters are part of the fight and he's said some ugly things about some reporters, but not this kind of nicknaming. So, it's not really bullying, I suppose.
Of course, I don't really enjoy listening to Trump most of the time, so it's entirely possible I've missed actual bullying.
So, is it childish? It seems that way, but it also seems to be part of his negotiation strategy. There's a tradition in chess of trying to psyche one's opponent out. I never cared to play chess with people who wanted to play that way; I play for fun, not money. But still, the stakes are pretty high and maybe it is a legit negotiation strategy.
I would still tend to think childish, except Trump seems to keep winning. And that's as far as my analysis has gone.
3 comments:
I not so sure Trump is trying to be funny so much as he's needling/trolling Trudeau because Trudeau is so thin-skinned and easily pushed.
In one respect, the continued trolling because he can is just laziness on Trump's part, for all that he's far from lazy in so many other dimensions.
Eric Hines
What’s sort of sad is that Trudeau the Younger keeps rising to the bait. After so long in national and international politics, you would think that he’d develop a better sense of what is a serious insult that threatens Canadian authority, and what is someone poking just to get a rise out of him.
LittleRed1
At first glance, it seems childish or bullying. However, it seems that he does this with people of roughly equal status. For example, he gave this kind of nickname to other Republican candidates during his 2016 campaign, and Trudeau is the PM of Canada. I can't remember him doing this to an average person who disagreed with him. Reporters are part of the fight and he's said some ugly things about some reporters, but not this kind of nicknaming. So, it's not really bullying, I suppose.
Of course, I don't really enjoy listening to Trump most of the time, so it's entirely possible I've missed actual bullying.
So, is it childish? It seems that way, but it also seems to be part of his negotiation strategy. There's a tradition in chess of trying to psyche one's opponent out. I never cared to play chess with people who wanted to play that way; I play for fun, not money. But still, the stakes are pretty high and maybe it is a legit negotiation strategy.
I would still tend to think childish, except Trump seems to keep winning. And that's as far as my analysis has gone.
Post a Comment