right, i mean, if you asked me what i thought on the spot, i might say something like this. it is actually rhetorically effective to contrast what someone says they do with what they're actually doing.
Replies
right, I think the distinction here is contrasting for the sake of dunking and demonstrating contempt vs contrasting for the sake of working in some consultant-approved keywords to boost your keyword score
aug 24, 2025, 9:54 pm • 3 0 • view
Which is, I think, the bigger issue with the candidates we see put forth: so many of them *require* crafted lines because they’re incapable of saying what they think in the moment (or worse, that they don’t believe what should be said). That should be disqualifying at this point.
aug 24, 2025, 6:56 pm • 192 3 • view
It’s the latter. They don’t have any convictions. They are empty vessels the consultants fill with messaging.
aug 24, 2025, 8:15 pm • 1 0 • view
Zohran did a charming little video about how his comms team told him he was using the word "ultimately" too much (cute supercut of same), then "I am listening, I am learning" (cut to interview where he catches himself at "ul-" and changes word). It killed me. I died. I'm still crying.
aug 25, 2025, 1:42 am • 3 0 • view
These people have the most gifted, natural communicator in a generation. A man incredible at being natural and human and connecting with who he's talking to... and they're trying to make him nitpick his words while speaking. If anyone can put me in touch with this comms team. I just wanna talk.
aug 25, 2025, 1:42 am • 0 0 • view
Old Dems still want their candidates to be nice to billionaires and corporations, while pandering to workers, which reads as increasingly contradictory and delusional.
aug 24, 2025, 7:19 pm • 4 0 • view
omg you nailed it! if i see chuck schumer hunched over a lectern reading from a piece of paper *1 more time* ....😡 if he can't just stand up and say what's on his mind, i have to wonder if he's still even GOT a mind
aug 24, 2025, 7:47 pm • 5 0 • view
Absolutely! The answers should be automatic because they believe in those values to their marrow. The answers should be scathing because to even suggest those values aren't worth it is offensive to the soul. The answers should be authentic because those values ARE authentic.
aug 24, 2025, 7:10 pm • 111 4 • view
Their marrow is donor dollars
aug 24, 2025, 10:14 pm • 1 0 • view
No shame in training and rehearsing. Like playing music. Not everyone is a spontaneous genius. But like music, you practice not until you *can* do it right but until you *will* do it right.
aug 24, 2025, 7:43 pm • 65 3 • view
You are talking about performance. Acting. What people trust in political terms is some level of authenticity. Too many Dems these days are media trained by people who are out of touch with real life & real emotional responses. People who think that somebody badly beaten by ICE is a “distraction”.
aug 24, 2025, 10:55 pm • 2 0 • view
Good points, still think a bit of coaching and practice could help a number of Ds connect better, but JMO. Great point about ICE hurting people. WAY more than a “distraction”!
aug 24, 2025, 11:23 pm • 2 0 • view
Given the truly outrageous things we are seeing unfold, checking with a political consultant before responding shouldn’t be anyone’s first move. Pretending like it’s “all cool” is also mind-blowingly stupid. In a house fire to say get out! In a dem house fire they say relax no prob. No bueno.
aug 24, 2025, 11:38 pm • 0 0 • view
Yeah. That's a pretty close metaphor, the only thing is though, they're privy to much more information than the hoi polloi and that's what started Bouie's whole comment thread. It's like the reliance of students using LLM's to do their writing – it's evaporating their skills as thinkers.
aug 24, 2025, 11:55 pm • 1 0 • view
Republicans have been media trained to go ape shit over the dumbest issue Obama wearing a tan suit; while Dems have been trained to characterize a severe beating by ICE officers as “a distraction”. You see what I’m saying? Sigh. It’s okay to get visibly angry in the face of injustice.
aug 25, 2025, 12:20 am • 2 0 • view
oooo, yeah when that conflation shows up in media I lose a bit of control.
aug 25, 2025, 12:24 am • 0 0 • view
Yeah, Democratic “leadership” in general has been terrifyingly disappointing as our hope out of this fast growing hell. And to boot they seem to want to shove down the ones that get it. 🤬
aug 25, 2025, 12:30 am • 4 0 • view
I don’t know if they have more info. I’d argue that they are working with less. My parents used to talk about 90s blow dry Dems who were airhead figureheads rather than real fighters. Between Clinton and Obama, the Dems lost their way. We’re paying for that now. Trump is using that to block us.
aug 25, 2025, 12:15 am • 0 0 • view
You're right, I should qualify that statement: they THINK they have more information with polling. They do have more intimate knowledge of the private communications and interactions in committee and closed door meetings. This isn't defense, it's observing that they're blinding themselves.
aug 25, 2025, 12:20 am • 1 0 • view
They don’t. When I saw both Biden & then Harris people - plus surrogates - saying that prices at the grocery store weren’t a big deal because the stock market was good, I knew we were toast. Pol consultants earn millions. They don’t understand that ten cents means a lot to poor folks.
aug 25, 2025, 12:26 am • 2 0 • view
Or so I'm told.
aug 24, 2025, 11:55 pm • 1 0 • view
Again, this is being authentic. "It's who I am" Practice what you preach. No paladin is born. I thought along these lines soon after I punched reply. I think I understand what you're saying, and I believe might even be a facet of what the problem is.
aug 24, 2025, 7:56 pm • 26 0 • view
The befuddlement one must feel when confronted with a Crowder "Change My Mind" is unexpected. But that is the lay of the ground now. Until it evolves again the unpracticed must sit, the unready stand aside, the unwilling go home. And when they aren't needed, they too will be replaced. An opinion.
aug 24, 2025, 7:56 pm • 20 0 • view
I think Jeffries needs training. He has potential but sweet mother of pearl he makes a hash of things
aug 24, 2025, 8:02 pm • 1 0 • view
I can't say specifics, I don't "know" the man. But I think you mean rhetorical training? Everybody could use that. Especially in the face of the rambling barrage from 1600. What little I got was in boot camp. A torrent spat in your face that made no sense but you must push through.
aug 24, 2025, 8:07 pm • 2 0 • view
Yes, rhetoric. He seems like a quite smart fellow. Trump is made for propaganda. I can’t see how people stand him, but he connects with his devotees for sure, and it is a firehose.
aug 24, 2025, 8:50 pm • 2 0 • view
I don't wanna say it's like high school, but it's like high school. Some people feel that other people should just keep their place. And don't ever challenge them directly or otherwise.
aug 24, 2025, 9:48 pm • 1 0 • view
Good insight. Clique behavior.
aug 24, 2025, 9:51 pm • 1 0 • view
Yeah. Everybody calls it a cult. I used to. And there are some similarities, but maybe... Clique is better.
aug 24, 2025, 9:53 pm • 1 0 • view
Some Dems don’t like Jeffries, but I don’t have the issues with him as much as I do with the party. The Dems don’t use him enough to promote their agenda.
aug 25, 2025, 11:02 am • 1 0 • view
Interesting perspective. Seems a possible explanation of his wonky stances if the party is pressing on him.
aug 25, 2025, 1:56 pm • 1 0 • view
How do you do fellow human
aug 25, 2025, 3:23 am • 0 0 • view
Can you imagine how people in L.A. and D.C. feel about their terror and anger at being invaded is considered a "distraction" by the Dem leadership. Why not just flip them the Bird Hakeem and tell them to STFU.
aug 24, 2025, 7:01 pm • 16 1 • view
How can they not see that taken as a whole those messages << the sum of the parts? However persuasive any one statement may be, the people following these analytics and delivering them in sequence look like unprincipled, pandering losers who have no core. Everyone sees right through them.
aug 25, 2025, 3:39 am • 0 0 • view
IMO it’s mostly just a matter of firepower. You don’t need to obsess over the perfectly crafted message if you have blanketed all channels of mass communication with a constant stream of propaganda. You can’t break through that brain infection with a single, well-crafted message.
aug 24, 2025, 7:01 pm • 8 0 • view
"they're all freaks" works well with a quick reminder "and we are not"
aug 24, 2025, 6:57 pm • 0 0 • view
The worst thing about this memo? The messages they disfavor are as rhetorically INeffective as possible, meandering mishmash, while kitchen table shit is written crisply and urgently. Blue Rose does this all the time (they butchered one of @anatosaurus.bsky.social 's messages). It's atrocious.
aug 25, 2025, 7:22 am • 5 0 • view
The biggest problem was Biden never got out and spoke and Kamala only got like 3 weeks time to get it out.
aug 24, 2025, 6:58 pm • 3 0 • view
And she wasn't allowed to say anything against Joe or his policies.
aug 24, 2025, 7:11 pm • 3 0 • view
This. The gap between the rhetoric and the reality is so enormous. The messaging should start there. Even before you get into how awful the reality is.
aug 24, 2025, 10:01 pm • 3 1 • view