Home / General / The Mind, Such As It Is, of the Trumpian Anti-Intellectual

The Mind, Such As It Is, of the Trumpian Anti-Intellectual

/
/
/
2879 Views

Isaac Chotiner has one of his classic interviews with David Gelertner, whose latest self-defenestration Paul covered yesterday. To excerpt is inadequate because the cumulative effect makes it particularly amazing, but a couple highlights:

I certainly see in real life surrounding me that there is little or no rapport between the left and what I consider the average American.

“Looking around me, at Yale Univeristy, I see little evidence of rapport between THE LEFT and what I would imagine the average American to be.”

You say, “Mr. Trump reminds us who the average American really is.” It seems like you’re saying Trump embodies certain real American values and leftists don’t like him because they don’t like those values. Am I misreading your piece?

What I’m doing here is literary criticism. That’s my genre.

Well, I guess it’s that or saying that your genre is bullshit. It does show more self-awareness that the typical theater critic pundit, I must admit.

One reason that people dislike the president is that he expresses racism and misogyny and contempt for other groups of people, and that turns off a lot—

Those are assertions that, to me, are crazy and sound, like, slanderous.

CRAZY!

What did you think birtherism was?

Birtherism, these tags are meaningless. If you’re referring to them specifically, tell me what it is.

Calling into question whether or not Barack Obama was born in America.

What’s wrong with calling that into question? A lot of people were not born in America. Don’t restrict my freedom to ask questions that are perfectly legitimate, that cast no aspersion unless you choose to take them that way. Most of my best friends were not born in America.

In pointing out that popularizing an evidence-free conspiracy theory that the first African-American president was not born in the United States is racist, you are violating my First Amendment rights! I am just asking questions! Some of my best friends are Canadian! What’s wrong with being sexy?

It’s pretty much all like this. It may be time to shut down Yale College and Yale Law School until we can figure out what the hell is going on.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
This div height required for enabling the sticky sidebar
Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views :