(July 27, 2016 at 5:35 pm)ChadWooters Wrote:(July 27, 2016 at 5:01 pm)Aegon Wrote: I want a president who can speak above the reading level of a 7th grader. I don't think that's unreasonable.
I'm pretty sure that a man as accomplished as Trump could use big words in long sentences if he wanted. But he doesn't, maybe because it isn't important to him. How many people do you know that speak like they are writing a term paper? Only people that make their living by speaking and writing, like pundits, reporters, and politicians word-smith the hell out of everything they say. That's their product. They sell words. Trump is a developer/builder. His products are physical structures. To him words are just a means to an end. He doesn't worry about all the possible connotations and implications of what he says. People, like me, are tired of being talked at with condescension by academics, wonks, and statesmen, who talk a good game and know what everyone else should be doing but who never built anything in their lives.
Words convey ideas. If your ideas can be conveyed by such an uneducated vocabulary, what does that say about those ideas?
Further, in diplomacy, connotations and implications -- nuance -- is very important. The inability to navigate in such an environment is a strike against him at that point.
I would argue that people who talk to you are paying you a compliment in assuming that you can follow a complex thought. Why would you take offense at such a compliment? Why would you feel better about someone talking to you as if you are a seventh-grader when you are, in fact, an educated adult?
Language can in fact be a weapon, but it only intimidates those who don't have a good grasp of it. Language is complex in direct proportion to the idea being expounded (unless you're a lawyer). Authenticity does not mean veracity. One can be blunt and still be very wrong ... which is clearly the case with Trump.
