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George Bernard Shaw said, “Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.”
Trump’s campaign should teach us never to say never. There are times when fighting with pigs is unavoidable. Besides pigs like it when people say never wrestle with them. Better you bite your tongue than that you nip at them.
Pigs are people who will stop at nothing to get their way. Some pigs don’t know any better. They’re blind to their own bullying. Other pigs are so confident that they know better, that they feel justified in getting their own way. They are sure that they have found truth, and if you disagree you’re shamefully wrong by whatever double standard they can pull out their butts.
When you’re stuck wrestling with pigs, you have to pick your battles. And the worst choice you can make is trying to get the pig to admit it’s a pig. Alas, that’s about all we’ve gotten from hardball journalists this election season.
Trump’s laughably losing hand continues to win largely because even the toughest journalists continue to try to corner him on his incorrigibility. Their questions can be summarized as “Sir, aren’t you being self-servingly inconsistent?”
Watching these “hardball” flops is like watching someone try to eat Jello with chopsticks. Pinch as they might, the Jello will always slip away.
When you’re stuck wrestling with pigs, you have to pick your battles. And the worst choice you can make is trying to get the pig to admit it’s a pig. Alas, that’s about all we’ve gotten from hardball journalists this election season.
Trump’s laughably losing hand continues to win largely because even the toughest journalists continue to try to corner him on his incorrigibility. Their questions can be summarized as “Sir, aren’t you being self-servingly inconsistent?”
Watching these “hardball” flops is like watching someone try to eat Jello with chopsticks. Pinch as they might, the Jello will always slip away.
The game of gotcha is over, and Trump has won.
Ask any Psychiatrist: It’s worst than a waste of time to ask psychopaths and pathological liars questions. You won’t get straight answers, and asking only reinforces the impression that you still naively believe that they care about the truth. No psychiatrist is going to ask a psychopath whether he realizes that he’s behaving badly. Nor would they try to corner pathological liars into admitting that they’re lying.
It’s time for a new line of questions that assumes what has now been fully established. For example:
"Mr. Trump, do you ever worry that your wall-to-wall evasion, while winning you support, won't win you the election?”
"When did you first discover the awesome persuasive power of hypocrisy? Was it when you were a child? Did it work with your parents?"
“You obviously take pride in your ability to lie with a straight face. Do you sometimes regret boasting about it? Or is it not a problem because you can always lie about boasting to cover it up if you need to?”
“Obviously, you knew pretty early on that you had the power to fool a lot of people but when did it first dawn on you that you might just be able to fool a majority and win the presidency?”
“A lot of people wonder whether you know you’re a lying hypocrite or you’re just not bright enough to see it. Which is it?”
“A lot of people wonder whether you know you’re a lying hypocrite or you’re just not bright enough to see it. Which is it?”
It may be too late to ask him these questions in a context where they are likely to land a direct hit. The people most likely to ask such questions no longer have access to him, which puts the burden on the prestigious journalists he can’t escape.
His response, of course would be to take offense and storm off, and then tweet his flailing petulant defensiveness through the night.
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