Tag: Scott Adams

Evaluating the Political Chess Board

Guest Post by Scott Adams

Trump has pulled ahead of Clinton nationally in both the new FOX poll and the Rasmussen Poll. And Trump passed Clinton in favorability according to the newest national poll on that topic. The Megyn Kelly interview (including the hyping of it ahead of time) marked Trump’s third-act turn.

By the way, Anderson Cooper of CNN said last night that CNN finds the FOX polling to be reliable and transparent, in case you wondered.

Meanwhile, Clinton is losing one primary after another to a dehydrated dandelion in her own party. That doesn’t bode well for the coming cage fight with Godzilla.

And Godzilla hasn’t even started to punch hard. He’s still looking at the opposition research and humming. So that’s coming.

Clinton is planning to appear on Ellen with the all-female cast of the new Ghostbusters movie. That’s what overplaying the woman card looks like. One wag on Twitter put it this way:

The New York Times did its best to make Trump look like a sexist, but they only succeeded in destroyed their own credibility when their star witness outed them for making up stuff.

Clinton surrogate Ed Rendel said something that was probably harmless in person, and in the proper context, but taken out of context by outragists it sounded like he was saying Clinton supporters are mostly ugly women. That didn’t help.

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‘Dilbert’ Creator’s 6 Reasons Why Trump Will “Win In A Landslide” In November

Tyler Durden's picture

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/08/2016 06:20 -0400

Scott Adams – creator of the infamous Dilbert cartoons – believes Donald Trump will win the presidency in a landslide. Trump’s “meticulously plotted domination,” as Adams explains to The Washington Post, stems from his running on our emotions and sly appeals to our own human irrationality. as the following six points make clear, Adams views Trump as “a master persuader” who will rhetorically dismantle Clinton’s candidacy next.

Having nothing to lose essentially then increases his chance of winning, because it opens up his field of rhetorical play. “Psychology is the only necessary skill for running for president,” writes Adams, adding: “Trump knows psychology.”

Within that context, here is what Candidate Trump is doing to win campaign hearts and minds, according to Scott Adams:

 


“Dilbert.” (by Scott Adams / Universal Uclick)

1. Trump knows people are basically irrational.

“If you see voters as rational you’ll be a terrible politician,” Adams writes on his blog. “People are not wired to be rational. Our brains simply evolved to keep us alive. Brains did not evolve to give us truth. Brains merely give us movies in our minds that keeps us sane and motivated. But none of it is rational or true, except maybe sometimes by coincidence.”

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Using Persuasion to Solve Everything

Guest Post by Scott Adams

Persuasion is a learned skill. It involves a well-understood set of science-tested tools. For whatever reason, Donald Trump is bristling with talent for persuasion and Hillary Clinton has none (that I can detect) except for basic political skills and her gender identity. Persuasion is not the only talent you want in a president, so I won’t try to oversell it. But let’s see what kinds of issues are susceptible to a president’s powers of persuasion.

I can think of two types of problems that can be solved with persuasion:

1. The Economy

2. Terrorism

Economies need two things in order to function. They need resources, and they need an optimistic mindset. Optimists with access to resources invest in new ventures, and they spend for consumption. That’s all you need for a robust economy, so long as you have an educated citizenry, no natural disasters, no big wars, and the government stays out of your way.

I realize that sounds like an oversimplification of economics, but it isn’t. If you have optimism and resources, (and no huge outside problems) almost everything else takes care of itself in time. Capitalism does the rest.

To a large extent, the mood of citizens determines the future of the economy. In the United States of 2016, resources are plenty. All that matters is how we use those resources. And that depends on our collective psychology. In other words, the entire economy can be persuaded.

Obviously you don’t want too much optimism in an economy. That gives you housing bubbles and stock bubbles. A properly persuasive president would move citizens to the middle of the optimism range where things work well.

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Stamina – Trump’s Linguistic Kill Shot for Clinton

Guest Post by Scott Adams

Donald Trump has been saying lots of bad things about Hillary Clinton for months, but the one that will stick is “stamina.” I’ll tell you why.

The best Trump kill shots have the following qualities.

1. Fresh word that is not generally used in politics

2. Relates to the physicality of the subject (so you are always reminded)

Clinton has already experienced some coughing fits on the campaign trail. And her voice often sounds hoarse, which is to be expected when you give speeches every day. Neither of those things mean much. But add the Internet rumors that Clinton has some lingering brain issues from a concussion, plus her long bathroom break during that one debate, and some rumors that she has trouble with balance, and there you go. That’s enough circumstantial “evidence” to convict her of being unhealthy.

Well, maybe.

The so-called evidence in this case is probably a mix of true facts that might not matter too much plus rumors and speculation. If you looked at any one piece of “evidence” on its own, it would mean nothing. But put it all together and you have…confirmation bias.

Confirmation bias is what makes you see any kind of evidence as supporting your point of view. Once Trump puts in our heads the idea that Clinton might have some stamina (health) issues, that’s all we will see in the evidence, even if it doesn’t exist.

And that is why “stamina” is such a well-engineered kill shot. Between now and November, the odds of Clinton having another coughing fit, losing her balance, forgetting something, or having some other health issue is nearly 100%. Trump has primed his “stamina” kill shot to get stronger as time goes by. Confirmation bias will keep adding “evidence” to his suggestion even if that evidence is imaginary.

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