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Reality that what you call bravado and consider cool when your friends do it ... everyone else sees as X is being dumb again. Trump is emotional and with low s

by watwut 2y ago

Reality that what you call bravado and consider cool when your friends do it ... everyone else sees as X is being dumb again. Trump is emotional and with low self control. He flips flops and is insecure. He crashed his companies around 6 times and managed to crash a casino. We are getting to see how and why it happened. He has certain charizma so some rich friend always helps him, including Putin. And plus the massive level of corruption he engages with helps him stay rich. But fundamentally, his businesses do badly.

pfannkuchen 2y ago
I mean bravado on a personal level (especially if someone is bad at it) and bravado in international negotiations are completely different animals. I feel like if you pretend it’s 1850 and there’s some great powers struggle afoot, trump makes a lot more sense. The game theory around international relations hasn’t really changed much since then, there’s just a veneer of ideology strapped on top of it. Btw it’s much easier to just label someone stupid than to seek to understand them. It is definitely tempting.
- piva00 2y ago
  You can understand it and come to the conclusion it's stupid. They are orthogonal concepts.
- watwut 2y ago
  Bravado on a personal level is the same kind of dumb. I can understand someone and conclude their behavior and reasoning are faulty, harmful or then call it dumb. This idea that everyone must project increasingly unlikely positive smart motivations onto Trump or conservatives in general despite what they say and do is harmful. > I feel like if you pretend it’s 1850 and there’s some great powers struggle afoot, trump makes a lot more sense. I would say, he does not. When there are powers struggles afoot, it is actually better to be capable to be strategic about who/how you antagonize and attack. > The game theory around international relations hasn’t really changed much since then, there’s just a veneer of ideology strapped on top of it. I would argue that it did changed a lot in between. International relations are not the same at all.

by watwut 2y ago

pfannkuchen 2y ago

I mean bravado on a personal level (especially if someone is bad at it) and bravado in international negotiations are completely different animals. I feel like if you pretend it’s 1850 and there’s some great powers struggle afoot, trump makes a lot more sense. The game theory around international relations hasn’t really changed much since then, there’s just a veneer of ideology strapped on top of it. Btw it’s much easier to just label someone stupid than to seek to understand them. It is definitely tempting.

piva00 2y ago
You can understand it and come to the conclusion it's stupid. They are orthogonal concepts.
watwut 2y ago
Bravado on a personal level is the same kind of dumb. I can understand someone and conclude their behavior and reasoning are faulty, harmful or then call it dumb. This idea that everyone must project increasingly unlikely positive smart motivations onto Trump or conservatives in general despite what they say and do is harmful. > I feel like if you pretend it’s 1850 and there’s some great powers struggle afoot, trump makes a lot more sense. I would say, he does not. When there are powers struggles afoot, it is actually better to be capable to be strategic about who/how you antagonize and attack. > The game theory around international relations hasn’t really changed much since then, there’s just a veneer of ideology strapped on top of it. I would argue that it did changed a lot in between. International relations are not the same at all.