Jennifer Mercieca Profile picture
Jul 24, 2020 10 tweets 3 min read Read on X
WOW Review | A deep dive into President Trump’s doublespeak and other rhetorical tricks washingtonpost.com/outlook/a-deep… #DemagogueForPresident
"it deserves a place alongside George Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language” and Harry G. Frankfurt’s “On Bulls---.” It’s a brilliant dissertation on Trump’s patented brand of balderdash. That makes it one of the most important political books of this perilous summer." WOW!
Thank you @Folly_and_Glory, I'm speechless.
is it ok if I tweet out the review every hour?
It wouldn't be terrible if #DoubleSpeak became a thing?
Available at B&N, your favorite local, or here in hard copy, kindle, or audiobook: amazon.com/Demagogue-Pres…
Thank you to everyone who bought the book today! It’s currently the top new release in rhetoric! 🤩 Image
I didn't realize that the review is in the ACTUAL @washingtonpost newspaper! I don't even think I can pick one up in my town, but I got a screenshot. Image
I can't find a copy to buy in my town and I don't see where you can buy them by the issue?

Does anyone want to mail me their B6 from today?
Friends, it's all sorted! A kind tweeter is going to send me hers.

And folks, not being able to get the actual print paper is a downside of living in small town Texas. Y'all are lucky!

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More from @jenmercieca

Aug 24
Expect that Trump won't "debate," he'll be there to humiliate. What does he think will humiliate Harris the MOST? He will call her names, distort her record & policies, try to make her cry, try to intimidate her & attack her heritage. He'll say she's a dumb silly girl & a whore.
He will spew so many lies (Gish Gallop) that no one is able to refute them. Do not try. This isn't a "debate," do not try to debate facts. Weirdify: expose, critique, and mock. Explain Trump's weak-sauce strategies to the audience--
"Well, that was about 20 lies right there. I'm not going to waste the short amount of time I have here refuting them (it's on my website-post factchecks). Trump lies a lot, some of the worst lies he tells are about how this nation isn't already and hasn't always been great..."
Read 13 tweets
Aug 23
This is a large part of our collective trauma. We lack civic spaces, can't find the time to join, never go to the park or library, and can't say we have friends we can count on. For some of us it's much worse than it is for others of us. We all suffer. This neoliberal life.
And once you read it, you'll see why so much of what I recommend about saving democracy is about connecting with one another and building trust:
Read 5 tweets
Aug 13
"Trump promised that the papers proved that he and his businesses wouldn’t profit off the presidency, but when reporters asked to examine the evidence, the folders and papers appeared blank. Not for the first time nor the last, Trump had offered props instead of proof."
Trump is America’s Authoritarian P. T. Barnum zocalopublicsquare.org/2021/01/07/pt-…
In Turbulent Times, Showmen Can Distort Reality and Make Suckers of Us All zocalopublicsquare.org/2017/10/27/gre…
Read 7 tweets
Aug 11
Weird. 😂
Image
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This might be locked for y'all, I can't tell: sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
Sometimes called "carnivalesque" and sometimes called "tactical frivolity" and sometimes called "culture jamming"--humor has been taking down repressive regimes since ancient Greece:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnivale…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_j…
Read 11 tweets
Aug 7
I've been writing a little lately about "reflexive control"--the strategy Russians use to get their targets/adversaries to do what the Russians want, but think it's their own idea (Russia's goals become your goals). It's really effective, and the point of their information ops.
So thinking about reflexive control--creating a context, feeding the information environment to create the conditions by which your adversary makes the choice you want them to make--and the last few weeks. Biden/Harris have completely inverted Republicans' control over the race.
Republicans didn't think it possible, could not conceive of a world in which Biden willingly gave up power (so much so that Trump was tweeting today trying to make Biden recant his decision 😂). All Republican plans were designed to control the outcome of the race against Biden.
Read 6 tweets
Jul 29
More about the #weird strategy: fascists use language strategies that create the conditions for fascism. Part of that is creating fear & hate objects & then defining "normal" & scaring folks into defending/policing the new normal. When we make fascism weird, it loses its power.
The current iteration of the "weird" strategy is genius because it shows how isolated the right-wing media ecosphere is. Most folks don't know wtf they're talking about. The OFoxMax crowd is a small % of the US population, but a large share of cable news viewers.
They only talk to themselves. They don't try to solve problems or even cover actual news. It is pure outragebait all day and all night. That outragebait is good for keeping an audience, but it turns them into weirdos. No one cares about what they care about.
Read 7 tweets

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