Remember Ralph Waldo Emerson’s axiom, “What you do speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you say”? These were wise and true words in their day. But that was before TV, sound bites and social media. And a population without critical thinking skills.
Today, it’s the opposite. As long as you scream loudly, most people won’t notice what you actually do. Even if you lie. Especially if you lie.
Most people are oblivious to this, as long as the lies are congruent with the memes they’ve been infected with. Or if those lies confirm their foundational beliefs or fears. Many people are easily manipulated because of something we discussed in the last post, their capacity for (or lack of) discernment.
Donald Trump is running as the candidate who will deport 11 million undocumented immigrants to protect American workers from losing their jobs to foreigners. Yet Trump actually manufactures the goods for his own companies in China, flies in foreign workers to staff his Florida resorts, and he used illegal workers to build Trump Tower.
Trump boasts that he will be the “unity” candidate, yet he disparages women, Mexicans and Muslims, mocks people with disabilities, and uses insults and name calling against anyone who disagrees with him. He may institute more lawsuits and threats of lawsuits than anyone on earth. He is possibly the most divisive and un-unifying person you could find.
He claims he’s self-funding his campaign and is beholden to no one. As I’m writing this, he just tweeted out, “Remember, I am the only one who is self-funding my campaign. All of the other candidates are bought and paid for by special interests!” But of course he’s taken millions of dollars in donations and has “Donate” buttons all over his website. (To be fair, he has put a small amount of his own money into the campaign. But he has done almost all of it as loans, so he can pay himself back from donations later.)
How can a person like Trump present himself as a candidate so the exact opposite of what he really is?
Because people listen to what he screams, and pay no attention to his actual actions. They read the labels, and pay no attention to the ingredients.
It’s really not much different than the guy working at the gym with a shirt that says “Personal Trainer” on it, but a body underneath that proves otherwise. People accept the headline, slogan or label at face value, with no discerning thought.
When President Bush wanted to gut the environmental regulations to appease lobbyists, he billed it as the Clean Air Act. When he wanted unconstitutional powers to wiretap and read the emails of all citizens, he titled it the Patriot Act. President Obama enacted the most expensive health care plan in the world, but of course he billed it as the Affordable Health Care Act.
If you feel jaded, skeptical and lied to, you can be forgiven. It’s hard to believe your own government would use the same manipulative, scheming, and deceptive techniques you would expect from a tobacco company, but they do.
The tobacco companies suggest that e-cigarettes are a much healthier alternative for you. The soda companies would have you believe their genetically modified corn syrup and artificial sweeteners are good for you. The studio wanted you to believe that Gods of Egypt was a great movie.
You have to be discerning enough to see through the surface evidence presented to you. You have to discern the difference between slogans, promises and pronouncements, versus actual motives, actions and results. And you have to go back to Emerson’s wise words and actually apply them again.
-RG
Prosperity TV
RG..once again you've nailed it! It's evident by editorials in European magazines that they are more discerning than the people in the US where Trump is concerned. In fact most of them are baffled that ANYONE would vote for such a lying bigot, manipulating used car salesman. He's truly a master of Con and should have a Vegas show instead of a presidential candidacy. Beyond this, the lack of critical thinking and how easily people's beliefs are shifted shows weakness of character, humanity and vision. And we can all learn from it! Thanks for being so dialed in.
Nailed it for sure. As George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it". This is almost an exact facsimile of what happened in Germany after the First World War. Hitler and the Nazi party played on the beaten down psyches of that country's populace; indebted and dejected after having to rebuild Europe. Hitler sought out scapegoats and found them easily, and hypnotized the German people through propaganda and repetition. How can the American people not see the parallel? It is mind boggling. The guy is a gas bag who only wants to hear himself talk (shout, more like it). Trump does not care at ALL about the common people, he is just playing on our sympathies, fears, anger, misfortunes, frustrations and the collective feeling of impotence after 2008, after 9/11, after the drawn out wars in the Middle East. And everything else. So right about Obamacare, too. What a boondoggle that is. It is understandable why the American people feel the way we do; it's just not that straw man who is going to solve our problems. A Trump presidency will only exacerbate our troubles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnpO_RTSNmQ
LeadToday RebelBrown Randy_Gage was going so well until the mention of e-cigarettes
dunnee88 Why? You believe they're harmless?
I applaud you for taking a quick decisive position on several controversial topics. We all, each and every voter need to apply critical thinking to our decision process. The fact that Trump is even considered a viable candidate attests to how far as a people we have strayed from thinking for ourselves.
Doesn't it applies to all of the candidates? What good can politician do, if his raise to president office is funded by the wall street, or other major corporations? I agree, Trump is no angel, but at least he speaks for himself as a person. At least he doesn't have to pretend that he is a good father. There are many things which are not right there, but at the same time there are many good things which speaks for Donald himself. Yes, critical thinking is important- but how much choice do you have in the present presidential elections? Or maybe you wish that the Hillary would become a president? Even you, Randy, are just a salesman and I bet you are the master manipulator. But what makes a difference between you and other salesman- why people like you? It is the intentions behind your actions, which are good, because you have good, spiritual, loving reasons why you want to be rich and help other people to become richer, smarter, happier. Does it makes you guilty, wrong or somehow dishonest in front of the people you engage in your business? If we start to think critically and analyze sales manipulations without adding your intentions for it- I can tell that it would be easy to create the image of you as some kind of asshole. So what if you have to sometimes use lies, so what if you have to sometimes use all sorts of strategies to achieve your goals? As long as it makes a world tiny bit better, you will always be right. It has nothing to do with methods, even the most honest and nicest people of this world have to use selfish, maybe even unethical methods to get somewhere in this life. At the end of the day- it is persons intentions which will shine through his actions. So we can truly rationalize about patterns and methodology, but can anyone look deeper than that and see the intentions behind the actions? It is much more easier to understand someone if you look from heart to heart, because the rest is just our own projection.
I have been deleting anything pertaining to DT, but I needed to read what RG had to say. You are ever so true. However, what really bothers me with all this shaweenigan is that "What you resist, persists". What you think and talk about, day in day out, will stay. The only thing we see right now, every where is DT. I usually delete every single post about this thing that we shouldn't talk about. That doesn't leave me lots to read in the morning. However, I would never delete what RG has to say. So, my grain of salt, just ignore that person. All together now!
Erast Matej What turns your rant into a lot of bullshit (although some of it is spot on) is the following (plus the fact that most people in prison will state that their intentions were good although their actions were deplorable): We see ourselves through our intentions but the world sees us through our actions.
Trump is the only candidate who does not spew politically correct bullshit. As far as his campaign contributions go, most of his money has come from small contributions from individuals and small companies. According to information from The Federal Election Commission, as of February 22, contributions from Lobbyists, Wall Street, and Super PACs have beeen made to the following candidates in the following amounts:
Hillary Clinton $57,748,407
Ted Cruz 46,726,605
Marco Rubio 34,313,903
John Kasich 6,729,311
Donald Trump 1,894,507
Bernie Sanders 45,234
Trump is hardly beholden to special interest groups.
Randy, Lets get our facts straight before broadcasting them.
Ted Pawlikowski
Randy_Gage thanks RANDY U0001f334
Always loved your ability AND willingness to call "call 'em like you see 'em."
Couldn't agree more heartily. I've been wondering if the Donald is the reincarnation
of Adolf.
@Ted Pawlikowski And what facts did I not get straight before broadcasting?
Randy_Gage According to The federal Elections Committee, he is not beholden to special interest groups, as are his competitors.
Ted Pawlikowski
@Ted Pawlikowski Randy_Gage That's an opinion you formed based on donation reports. It's nothing to do with the topic of the post I wrote and certainly not "a fact that I didn't get straight before broadcasting." -RG
Randy_Gage U know. http://twitter.com/EnricoMelloK/status/708191160695521281/photo/1
hi i am from iran. can from iran with you worked on it? I apologize because I can not speak English well. I hope that you will understand. Thanks for the answer.
So Randy, you're a liberal. Somewhat surprising for a man who professes that, with enough effort, a person can move ahead through there own efforts. I've been reading you for about a year and a half, gradually realizing you don't know nearly as much as you proclaim. A past post of yours about debt management was so "conventional," I thought you might be working for a "debt consolidator." Now, you've jumped on the "anti-Trump" bus, really not quite understanding that most Americans have had a "gut full" of Washington BS. Aside from your often-confessed health problems, you're living a pretty good life. However, a post like this pretty much neutralizes your image as a "hero of the average wanting-to-get-ahead man."
As to your liberal leanings, it really isn't too shocking when I read you go after organized religion. Personally, I somewhat agree with you in that I don't swallow the "dogma," but I do love religion as it answers questions for many and is great at keeping the masses "in line." Without it, society would be an uncontrollable mess. You might be wise to "block me" from your sites, and if you did it wouldn't be "earth-shattering" to me.
Brian Bennington Actually I'm a Libertarian. If I was a liberal I would probably be support Donald Trump. And I certainly don't block people from my site just because they have opinions different than mine. -RG
Why do so many people believe in the bullshit that politicians spew out? Well, let's analyze it - 70% of Americans believe that there is a capricious, supernatural male floating above the Earth ready to smite anyone who does not do what he says to a T:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r-e2NDSTuE&
You are right on. There needs to be a sign for Trump. DUMP TRUMP. He is causing people to fight in the streets. People following Jim Jones drank the poison kool aid. Wake up people. Trump is a con. He is even using Ben Carson, thinking he will get the black vote and angelics, Not.
When you do some critical thinking about politicians, you will see that as a collective their prime directive is to control the people and keep them as victims.They divide the people by creating a 2 party system, pandering to certain classes of people, and enacting laws that restrict the people, yet most people actually acquiesce to this BS.The people who support the republicans blame the democrats and the people who support the democrats blame the republicans; yet both groups are mindless drones of the system.They have been conned into believing they have the power of choice because they can vote for their candidates, but they fail to understand that politicians do not govern the people.Instead they are the owners along with Big Corporations and Big Banks and the people are their subjects.This is the system the establishment has created, and most people follow it and obey it blindly.After all, they are patriots, and people who question the government or the systems are labeled as homegrown terrorists.
As for Donald Trump, I like his business acumen, and I that he speaks his mind and doesn’t give in to political correctness and act like every “phony” politician.However, if he wins the national election, the republican party will do everything in their power to stop him from enacting his campaign promises.In fact he will be the first president impeached by his own party. So, I don’t understand the reason Donald Trump ran for president.My theory is he is a democrat plant, and his job is to cause so much chaos and division in the republican party that Hilary Clinton, who should be in federal prison, easily wins the national election.It appears this con job is working well.
Wake up America…you are being controlled.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC_wjQtfhZQ
@Rita Losee Stop being a follower. The news media has taken control of your mind.
@My2cents You and "Jo" are "right off" on your assessment of Trump's motives. Imagine for a minute you had several billion $ (Like in two or five or seven thousand million $). And, you own several of the world's top vacation spots. And, you have a famous model wife and lots of kids and grandchildren who idolize you. Would you run for president, especially if the downside was a generation-spanning, drastically ruined reputation. ("Hey, wasn't your great great great grandfather that terrible lying president"?)
Really, the only way he can satisfy his ego with this is if he truly is a great President. Nothing else works. He'll do it by utilizing his exceptional deal-making skills to make congress more than happy to move ahead. After all, a good deal-and we've all been involved in them-is one where everyone is positive about the outcome. Yes, he has plenty of "minds to change" and "fences to mend," but he is the only one running who will place move value in accomplishing his goals than "staying true" to some often rigid and sometimes destructive political ideology. This whole thing is his to loose, and really, if he can get nominated and then elected, he deserves a shot.
How can a person like Trump present himself as a candidate so the exact opposite of what he really is? After reading your article twice, RG, I've changed my view about Donald Trump to "skeptical" from "sold". I was sold on his "strength of conviction" that he was going to make America great again.
it just occurred to me one has to agree or affirm it's NOT already great... wikipedia & google, are useful at a time like this..
Randy_Gage Thankyou Randy, my mind just redefined "critical thinking"
Brian Bennington Really? Society would be an uncontrollable mess? A frequent theme I get from fundamentalists is that without religion there
would be no reason for people to be good. I find this shocking. Do these people
long to rape and pillage, but refrain only because God is watching? The Wall
Street Journal had an article by Robert Lee Hotz on the discovery of
"mirror" cells in the motor cortex that reflect the actions and
intentions of others as if they were our own. They cause us to identify with
the characters in a novel, or suffer when we watch others suffer on the evening
news. If we are good, it is because we see ourselves as part of the human race
and the happiness of others makes us happy, not because we are going to be
rewarded at a later time by a supernatural being with male genitalia floating
in the sky.
FixedOpsGenius Randy_Gage "666" is the number of the name of the coming Antichrist
So an honest assessment of a political personality recently claiming conservativism equates to being liberal (in the progressive sense) regardless of the evidence provided to the contrary? Trump appears clearly fascist to me. I appreciate RG's post as it is well reasoned and apparently unbiased. I happened across this post and have no prior familiarity with RG. If your assessment of his opposition to organized religion is accurate i can already say i dont agree with everything he says, but his above position is hard to credibly debate. Sadly, in true Trump form, your response to this post turned very personal. Far too common in today's culture.
To accomplish this, there is http://www.web-farm.co.uk one, and alone one watch: The Patek Philippe Calatrava. In connected assembly back 1932, built-in in the Depression, as it were, the Calatrava combines common functionality with elegance. To http://www.toprolexsreplicauk.co.uk the green eye, it http://www.rolexsreplicas.org.uk is anonymous. To the alone who knows, it says that the wearer prefers Romanée-Conti to http://www.rolexreplicaa.co.uk, well, annihilation else.