Cartoonist understood Trump’s power

Cartoonist Scott Adams died of cancer a couple of weeks ago at age 68. The creator of the comic strip “Dilbert” and also a hypnotist, he was one of the earliest and most perceptive observers of the persuasive power of Donald Trump.

Early in the 2016 election season, Adams recognized Trump as a “master persuader” who would win the Republican primaries and become president. A crucial insight of Adams was that Trump’s lying was a feature, not a bug. Trump’s “complete ignoring of facts,” Adams said, was “actually part of the persuasion.”

In addition, for years the mainstream media — like the major TV broadcasters and legacy newspapers — have puffed up Trump. Take birtherism. Please! That’s the conspiracy theory that Barack Obama had not been born in the U.S. At first this fantasy was too crazy even for Fox News. And when Trump began promoting birtherism in 2011, he should have been ignored. Instead, the mainstream media took Trump seriously and gave him more attention — laying the groundwork for his successful presidential campaign.

The mainstream media continue to defer to Trump’s whims and publicize his outbursts. When Trump says incomprehensible things, media like The New York Times massage his ramblings into sensible sounding quotes. It’s known as “sane washing.”

Trump supporters savour Trump’s outlandish lying. This attraction has been compared to enjoying watching the pretend reality of “reality” TV. Another comparison is to pro wrestling, where this artificial reality has its own name: kayfabe.

Adams saw how Trump would polarize the citizenry. And Adams realized how this divide would benefit Trump. Trump’s supporters were buoyed and entertained. Trump’s critics were flummoxed and dismayed.

The mainstream media echoed this division. The economic and cultural grievances of Trump voters were portrayed as reasonable and heartfelt. Whereas the earnest concerns of Trump critics were dismissed as condescending and disrespectful to the millions who supported Trump.

And Trump’s falsehoods were characterized as the dazzling strategy of a benign populist tribune. As Adams phrased it, “When President Trump acts without all the information and his facts are not accurate, he’s operating on a higher level.”

In contrast, Trump critics were branded as petty and snobbish. As columnist Bret Stephens wrote in The New York Times, “the Democrats have become the party of priggishness, pontification and pomposity.”

Adams described Trump as history’s “most successful stand-up comedian.” Trump’s appeal was identity politics, based on a shared mocking of leftists. Trump’s fans delighted in being in on the joke, amused by “owning the libs,” chortling at “liberal tears.“

“The amount of fun Trump supporters have is huge,” Adams observed. “You think you’re having one conversation, but one side is laughing and one is crying.”

Adams noted the power that this asymmetry gave to Trump and his proponents. The side that is crying can be outfoxed by the side that is laughing. It is as though Trump’s critics are pleading, “Don‘t you see that Trump is lying to you?” But Trump’s supporters are replying, “Ha. Ha. You are so stupid that you fail to see the brilliant game that Trump is playing!”

Adams called Trump a “clown genius.” What Adams did not explain was the real world consequence of all this fun and games. Ignoring facts and basing leadership on one mercurial personality does not produce good discourse or sound governance.

Things are about to get much worse, with the advent of AI-generated lies and conspiracy theories. More than ever, we need the well-researched reporting and rigorous fact-checking of the mainstream media. But that media has been discredited, partly because of their pandering to Trump.

The result, from a Canadian perspective, is that we are in an existential crisis. Americans will have to figure out for themselves where they are at — based on their own traditions and constitution.

But for Canadians, we have arrived at a Trump induced emergency. Because of Trump, our friendship, our trade and our security with the U.S. is in jeopardy. As is the whole North Atlantic alliance. It doesn’t get more existential than our country’s very existence. Plus, there is Trump’s degradation of global co-operation, science and culture.

A challenge for Canada is maintaining our thoughtful decorum while articulating our concerns to the American “clown genius.” One way is to send the prime minister to give a philosophical speech to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. Another way is to be more flipping direct, like Scott Adams was. Or as Jen Gerson was last week in the Canadian online newsletter, The Line.

“Go home, America. You’re drunk,” Gerson writes. “And we mean this in the politest way possible.”