Scott Adams: In his own words
As you know, Donald Trump has been sinking in the polls, thanks to the Clinton campaign adopting Trump-like persuasion tactics and framing the GOP nominee as an unstable, racist maniac. That approach is working, and time is running out for Trump to change things. Should I update my prediction of…
Read MoreIf you have been following this blog since last year, you know I have been saying Trump was playing 3D chess against 2D opponents. And by that I meant Trump was using powerful persuasion techniques while the rest of the field was flailing away with facts, reason, policy details, and…
Read MoreWould you feel safe voting for a presidential candidate without knowing which prescription drugs he or she is taking? I asked the question on Twitter and got this result so far. If you said it is safe, perhaps you have never been around people taking powerful prescription drugs. Many meds…
Read MoreAs amazing as this sounds, I watched a video clip of Dr. Drew explaining to CNN’s Don Lemon that Trump does NOT show signs of insanity or dangerous narcissism. Indeed, as Dr. Drew explained, some healthy narcissism is probably helpful for leaders because they want to be seen as successful. (I have…
Read MoreIn yesterday’s blog I made the provocative claim that a smart civilian can learn any political topic in an hour under the tutelage of world experts. The job of President of the United States was designed for inexperienced people. Being a governor or a senator isn’t much like being president….
Read MoreYesterday I tweeted this provocative claim: This caused a predictable crap-tornado on Twitter. One of the most popular retorts came from Bill Kristol who replied “Tweeting.” As luck would have it, I’m an expert at writing humor under the constraint of brevity. So I responded thusly. That was fun. But the…
Read MoreI’ve been watching the Democratic National Convention and wondering if this will be the first time in history that we see a candidate’s poll numbers plunge after a convention. On the surface, the convention is going great. Michelle Obama made a speech for the ages. Bill Clinton was his masterful…
Read MoreIf you are following the media coverage after the GOP convention, you know that Democrats and their surrogates are describing Trump’s speech as “dark.” The first ten times I heard the word, I thought it might be a situation in which someone clever used the term once and others copied it….
Read MoreLet’s say Donald Trump wins the election. And let’s say Democrats believe everything they say about him – that he’s the next Hitler. Wouldn’t President Obama be obligated to declare martial law and remain in power? I realize this question sounds silly when you first hear it. But keep in…
Read MoreYesterday Hillary Clinton announced her VP running mate, Tim Kaine. Let me tell you how that decision looks from a persuasion standpoint. I’ll ignore Kaine’s education, experience, political preferences, and anything else that voters say they care about but don’t. Today, let’s just talk about how people will feel about it. For…
Read MoreTrump gave his nomination acceptance speech last night. I grade it an A-. It wasn’t a speech for the ages, but it was presidential enough. As convention speeches go, it was solid. As I have already blogged, all Trump needs to do is NOT act like a crazy racist for the next…
Read MoreWhen you are trained in the ways of persuasion, you start seeing three types of people in the world. I’ll call them Rational People, Word-Thinkers, and Persuaders. Their qualities look like this: Rational People: Use data and reason to arrive at truth. (This group is mostly imaginary.) Word-Thinkers: Use labels, word definitions,…
Read MoreMonitoring Mosques People are outraged because Newt Gingrich suggested that the U.S. government should start monitoring mosques to thwart terrorism. Outrage is a perfectly reasonable response to Gingrich’s proposal if you’re dumb enough to think the government isn’t already monitoring mosques in the U.S. How do I know the government already monitors…
Read MoreTrump’s biggest problem in this election so far is that most racists appear to be on his side. At least it looks that way to the public. That awkward perception allowed Team Clinton to brand the Trump campaign as the racist team. Clinton’s strategy of racial politics has been effective….
Read MoreThe primary goal of government is its own credibility. That notion needs some explaining. Governments do many things, including building roads, providing social services, defending the homeland, and more. But no matter what the government is trying to accomplish, its macro-responsibility is to maintain its own credibility. Governments without credibility…
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