Scott Adams on the Syrian gas attacks

[Correction 4/8/2017: Sarin, as peteybee of Spread an Idea pointed out, is a liquid, not a gas.]

Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert cartoon and a self-described expert on persuasion, thinks that the best way for President Trump to respond to fake news about Syrian gas attacks is by means of a fake response—

The reason the Assad government would bomb its own people with a nerve agent right now is obvious. Syrian President Assad – who has been fighting for his life for several years, and is only lately feeling safer – suddenly decided to commit suicide-by-Trump.

Scott Adams

Because the best way to make that happen is to commit a war crime against your own people in exactly the way that would force President Trump to respond or else suffer humiliation at the hands of the mainstream media.

And how about those pictures coming in about the tragedy.  Lots of visual imagery. Dead babies.

It is almost as if someone designed this “tragedy” to be camera-ready for President Trump’s consumption.  It pushed every one of his buttons.  Hard.  And right when things in Syria were heading in a positive direction.

• Interesting timing.
• Super-powerful visual persuasion designed for Trump in particular.
• Suspiciously well-documented event for a place with no real press.
• No motive for Assad to use gas to kill a few dozen people at the cost of his entire regime. It wouldn’t be a popular move with Putin either.
• The type of attack no U.S. president can ignore and come away intact.
• A setup that looks suspiciously similar to the false WMD stories that sparked the Iraq war.

I’m going to call bullshit on the gas attack.  It’s too “on-the-nose,” as Hollywood script-writers sometimes say, meaning a little too perfect to be natural.  This has the look of a manufactured event.

My guess is that President Trump knows this smells fishy, but he has to talk tough anyway.  However, keep in mind that he has made a brand out of not discussing military options.  He likes to keep people guessing.  He reminded us of that again yesterday, in case we forgot.

So how does a Master Persuader respond to a fake war crime?

He does it with a fake response, if he’s smart.

Source: Scott Adams’ Blog.

Donald Trump as master persuader

Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip, thinks Donald Trump will be nominated and elected by a landslide.  He explained why on his blog.

Donald Trump is a con man.  He’s also a fraud, a liar, a snake-oil salesman, and a carnival barker.  Clearly he is running a scam on the country.

Trump calls himself a “deal-maker.”

I call Trump a Master Persuader.

It’s all the same thing.  Trump says and does whatever he needs to do in order to get the results he wants.  And apparently he does it well.  Given the facts, you can either see Trump as highly skilled or morally flawed.  Maybe both.  I suppose it depends which side you are on.

[snip]

Trump completely ignores reality and rational thinking in favor of emotional appeal.  Sure, much of what Trump says makes sense to his supporters, but I assure you that is coincidence.  Trump says whatever gets him the result he wants.  He understands humans as 90% irrational and acts accordingly.

[snip]

Trump knows psychology.  He knows facts don’t matter.  He knows people are irrational.  So while his opponents are losing sleep trying to memorize the names of foreign leaders – in case someone asks –  Trump knows that is a waste of time.  No one ever voted for a president based on his or her ability to name heads of state.  People vote based on emotion.  Period.

 You used to think Trump ignored facts because he doesn’t know them.  That’s partly true.  There are plenty of important facts Trump does not know.  But the reason he doesn’t know those facts is – in part – because he knows facts don’t matter.  They never have and they never will.  So he ignores them.

Right in front of you.

The passing scene – August 17, 2015

Seven Myths about the Greek Debt Crisis by Stergios Skaperdas, a University of California economics professor.  (Hat tip to naked capitalism).

An economist argues that (1) default would not be the worst outcome for Greece, (2) the troika (European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund, European Commission) is not trying to rescue Greece, (3) Greece’s problems are not caused by corruption and bad policy, (4) no Greek government could have carried out the troika’s policies, (5) the troika’s policies would not have benefited Greece, (6) exiting the Eurozone would not be catastrophic for Greece and (7) the Greek government in fact does have bargaining power.

Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Care That Much About Abortion Rights by Ted Rall for Counterpunch.

Instead of trying to persuade judges that abortion is a constitutional right, why don’t Hillary Clinton and other liberal Democrats support legislation to guarantee abortion rights?  Ted Rall thinks Democrats hold back because they cynically want to keep abortion alive as a issue.  But maybe they’re just timid.

Clown Genius by Scott Adams.   (Hat tip to Rod Dreher)

The creator of the Dilbert cartoons thinks most people probably would buy a used car from Donald Trump because his campaign demonstrates mastery of the classic techniques of salesmanship.

The passing scene: Links & comments 9/28/14

Emotion Is Not the Enemy of Reason by Virginia Hughes for National Geographic.

All normal human beings are both rational beings and emotional beings.  Someone who claims to be rational and above emotion is simply being dishonest, either with themselves or others, about their feelings.  Someone who claims to be intuitive and above reason is being dishonest, either with themselves or others, about their thought processes.

Rational people direct their feelings toward appropriate objects.  They fear that which is truly dangerous, admire that which is worthy of respect and yearn for that which will make them happy.

This is your brain on narcissism: The truth about a disorder that nobody understands by Sarah Gray for Salon.

Someone who suffers from narcissistic personality disorder has, on the one hand, an enormous sense of self-importance and entitlement and, on the other hand, an ego too fragile to accept criticism or recognize unwelcome facts.

Nations as well as individuals can be narcissistic.  Patriots are willing to defend their native lands.  Narcissistic patriots insist that their native lands are the greatest countries that ever were and any criticism or doubt is by definition disloyal.

Simplifiers and Optimizers by Scott Adams for boingboing.

Do you try to do things the best way, and never get done?  Or do you do things the easy way, and never get an excellent result.  Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip, advises striving for excellence on the few things that are important to you, and looking for the simplest way to get through everything else.

 

How CEO compensation works

CEO compensation continually ratchets upwards because every corporate compensation board thinks its CEO’s pay should be above average, according to a study published in August by Charles M. Elson and Craig K. Ferrere of the Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware.

Corporate compensation boards benchmark their CEO pay against what comparable companies are paying and the benchmarks set CEO pay at or above the industry median.  It is like a college class in which every student is guaranteed an above-average grade.  Or Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon where every child was above average.

Click on CEOs of Public Firms Are Wildly Overcompensated for comment on the Elson-Ferrere study by Barry Ritholtz on his The Big Picture web log.

Click on CEOs and the Pay-‘Em-Or-Lose-‘Em Myth for a report on the study  by Gretchen Morgenstern of the New York Times.

Click on The official Dilbert website with Scott Adams for more from that cartoonist.