It’s very special
The whole King of the Jews – Chosen One – Basically God thing inspired The Caring Atheist to resurrect (see what I did there?) an old clip of Trump pretending to love the bible while actually not knowing a damn thing about it.
1. You mention that the Bible is your favorite book !!!
2. What are your favorite Bible verses ? – I don’t want to get into it
3. The Bible means a lot to me
4. Are you a New or Old testament guy ? – Probably equal
5. The Bible is just incredible
6. The Bible is special
Trump has clued in to the fact that the general public is quite stupid and only judges any public discussion by two criteria:
(1) Did you have a response to what the first person said?
and
(2) Was your response something that pleases or bothers me personally?
The first reflects the opinion that silence is fatal — it means you have been, as they say in YouTube titles, DEVASTATED and PWNED. This is why creationists loved that video where Dawkins paused for a few seconds after being asked a supposed “gotcha” question — we know that this was just him realizing that he had been duped into allowing a creationist film crew into his home, but to the target audience it was the great evilutionist being STUMPED by the overwhelming SCIENTICITY of intelligent design. The average person does not believe in the adage about better to be silent and thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.
Trump always makes sure he has some sort of response to what you said/asked. It can be the most transparent bullshit. It can be uncreative and immature: “No puppet. You’re the puppet!” As long as it doesn’t offend his target audience, he’s accomplished his mission.
I think Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro have a slightly — but only slightly — more sophisticated version of the same thing. Just always keep the bullshit going. Don’t ever pause to think or acknowledge that someone else has made a point. Your audience will swallow just about anything if it’s consistent with their worldview.
Which is why Trump knows he can’t say “I don’t read the bible,” or “I find the bible very boring,” or “I’m too busy eating fast food and groping women to read the bible,” because that would offend. But as long as he steers clear of those land mines, he’s fine. They know it’s a transparent lie, but they don’t mind. In a way, it’s a reflection of what we’ve often noted here — the religious right cares more about obedience than actual piety. They’d rather make your child kneel and pretend to pray one a day at school alongside all the other kids than have your kid sincerely pray three times a day at home. The fact that the “magnificent and powerful Trump” is willing to pretend to be one of them is sufficient tribute for them.
Yes that’s probably right. I’ve noticed many times, I noticed with this one, the machine-gun way he replies to everything, no matter how stupid and ridiculous the reply is. He’s lightning fast and utterly imbecilic. I had thought that was kind of a drawback, but I guess if you want to appeal only to the quite or very stupid it’s a winner.
Torture for the rest of us though. The rapid torrent of utter bullshit…waaaaaa I hate it.
Politics and devastating impact to the country aside, I think it’s interesting that we’ve had two clearly nonreligious presidents in a row. Obama did a better job at paying lip service to Christianity, but I think that’s all it was. And Trump can’t even fake it.
So next up we have..Biden? Warren? Bernie? (Heaven help us) Pence? I’d say better than even odds it’s three in a row.
Not true about Obama – it’s not lip service.
And Biden? You kidding? Cradle Catholic.
@Skeletor
I object to that line of argument. It is how the religious shuffle responsibility for the shit they elected onto us, and the non-religious were about as keen on Trump as Latino Catholics were.
Trump isn’t non-religious, he’s a devout believer in the God he sees in the mirror, the same God that says greed is good and fucking over the environment is fine because when it all goes to shit you only have to repent and be saved, consequences are for atheists.
And I don’t see any real reason to say Trump doesn’t believe in the traditional God, either. He probably does, and believes he will have the specialist place in heaven. I know a lot of religious believers that you wouldn’t know are believers. They tend to believe in a less invasive god, and see no reason to live their lives in anything but a secular way, because their god isn’t going to punish them for what they do. Many of the (perhaps most) don’t believe in hell, and believe that all (even us non-believers) will go to heaven when we die because God is just that good.
Trump probably believes in the prosperity gospel. It is well suited for his worldview. And the idea that his wealth itself is proof that a god is out there who rewards the best and punishes the worst. I see no reason to consider him a non-believer in the absence of any statement of such by himself. I think he believes in god, but doesn’t give much thought to it most of the time. Just like most of my friends who sound exactly like atheists in almost every way until they day they actually realize they are talking to an atheist and get all offended that you don’t share their worldview. Though I doubt Trump’s god is the kind, gentle, and woke god of my Unitarian friends; he is probably the god of rich white people.