Don’t Stress About Trump’s PTSD Comments
How is anything that Trump says controversial anymore? He has already offended pretty much everyone he has ever addressed or spoken about, so it really comes as no surprise that he would also undermine the character of people suffering from PTSD in the most offensive way imaginable. His view on the matter is that PTSD is a result of weakness in soldiers, and that anyone suffering from it has only themselves to blame. He has also publicly stated that POWs don’t deserve the respect attributed to war heroes because they were stupid enough to get captured. But honestly, who cares at this point? What is the story here? “Donald Trump offends another subset of the population”? “Donald Trump has a controversial opinion on a topic most sound-minded people agree upon”? These should not be worth anyone’s attention, even if the guy is running for president of the United States.
The list of demographic groups he’s disrespected is vast, and includes: the disabled, about 1.7 billion muslims, the entire population of Iowa, Mexicans, women, and the list goes on and on. When I read news about Trump offending people, I find it very unlikely that any of these people are being offended by him for the first time. There is simply no value in constantly addressing Trump’s latest exploits. It’s like watching a sitcom in which a character has extremely politically incorrect views on everything (like Al Bundy from Married…With Children), after a while the audience becomes desensitized and expects him to be rude to others. Trump’s antics have become a running gag that’s given way too much media attention. Honestly, when someone reads an article like this, what do they take out of it? “Oh, I guess Trump is still an inconsiderate douche. Well, good to know that nothing’s changed”. Yet, somehow, it makes headlines every week! There is no new information here, thus there is no news. I’d be like the New York Times publishing a weekly column on how Barack Obama is still the first black president of the United States.
There is a lesson to be learned from the over-Trumpification of media outlets: media consumers like consistency. Despite what you might think, the status quo sells. We expect certain things to happen, like celebrities abusing drugs and alcohol, or popular sports teams winning championships, but that doesn’t make it any less exciting when they do happen. Likewise, we expect Trump to be crass and rude, and yet when he is we all lose our minds over it. He once again becomes the topic of dinner conversations, or class debates, gets retweets by the millions and of course headlines in all major news networks. But there was no news, no new development, it was just Trump being Trump again, for the millionth time. At this point, everyone knows who he is and what he stands for. Everyone also knows whether they agree with him or not. Despite the overarching consequences that this election will have on everyone’s lives, I cannot wait for this period of relentless un-news to be over.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/03/politics/donald-trump-ptsd-suicide/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/10/03/critics-exploded-over-trumps-ptsd-comments-but-many-veterans-who-support-him-dont-care/
I could not agree more. Every morning I sit down to pick a front-page article to read, and without fail Trump has been a headline every single day for the past two months. Yes, we are in the midst of a historical election. But as you've mentioned, I believe it's all about the press. Free press that is. Without trying, Trump is America's topic of conversation at all socioeconomic levels and in all media platforms. Without the shock factor it's even worse, people consistently negate upsets and controversies because Trump's made it the new normal in American politics.
ReplyDeleteAs one of my journalism mentors once told me, "The media has failed in its coverage of Trump." When Trump first announced that he was running, my mentor asserted, the media didn't take him as seriously of a candidate as say, Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz. Sure, his comments on Mexicans were horrible and once Jose Ramos got thrown into the mix Trump's rudeness got a spotlight because 1) Outlets will cover you to the ground if it perceives you as a person who is trying to hinder freedom of the press 2) A story that seems to follow a narrative of a white person hating against a well-respected person of color will always make waves of social media--and thus the news.
ReplyDeleteBut as I have discussed with peers, even though Trump had the spotlight in the beginning it was just entertainment. It seemed that no one thought this guy could actually win the nomination.
Yet here we are, just a month away from Election Day and, like you said, a day hasn't gone by without Trump making the home pages of major news sites. It almost seems like news outlets are overcompensating for not trying to hit him hard from the beginning, and I wish they did. Maybe history would have turned out differently.
I'm with you. I can't wait for this election to be over. And personally I can't wait for the next four years to be over.
As one of my journalism mentors once told me, "The media has failed in its coverage of Trump." When Trump first announced that he was running, my mentor asserted, the media didn't take him as seriously of a candidate as say, Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz. Sure, his comments on Mexicans were horrible and once Jose Ramos got thrown into the mix Trump's rudeness got a spotlight because 1) Outlets will cover you to the ground if it perceives you as a person who is trying to hinder freedom of the press 2) A story that seems to follow a narrative of a white person hating against a well-respected person of color will always make waves of social media--and thus the news.
ReplyDeleteBut as I have discussed with peers, even though Trump had the spotlight in the beginning it was just entertainment. It seemed that no one thought this guy could actually win the nomination.
Yet here we are, just a month away from Election Day and, like you said, a day hasn't gone by without Trump making the home pages of major news sites. It almost seems like news outlets are overcompensating for not trying to hit him hard from the beginning, and I wish they did. Maybe history would have turned out differently.
I'm with you. I can't wait for this election to be over. And personally I can't wait for the next four years to be over.
Well, to chime in now that this has all played out, I certainly empathize(d) with the fatigue. But to play a little devil's advocate, I'd argue that media consumers crave disruption; while Trump began the campaign as a long shot, it was these controversial comments that the outlets chose to run with, over a Jeb Bush town hall or Hillary Clinton rally, and these comments so outside our bounds of normalcy that viewers were hooked on. As Heidi says above, there's no way the news couldn't cover a well-positioned white man's public attacks against minorities. The media may have been ill-prepared to cover him within the proper frame of reference, but I don't see how they could choose not to broadcast blatant hate speech from a presidential contender. I think it fits in with the larger conversation around "normalizing" Trump, and I believe it could've been more dangerous to stop giving his slurs media attention in an effort to avoid advertising him.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, the media should focus on how they cover such rhetoric in the future...how, I'm not so sure.
I echoed your sentiments often throughout the course of his campaign. I immediately thought of Trump when I read about LA-based graffiti artist Plastic Jesus and his art of spraying "STOP MAKING STUPID PEOPLE FAMOUS." When we hear an unfiltered toddler make a tasteless comment or awkward remark, do we applaud the behavior and lend it attention? We know to give them a slap on the wrist and change the subject. The same should be done for unruly politicians.
ReplyDeleteNow that the election's played out, I worry about these comments he made and look over them in an effort to see what the next four years will be like. I agree with your point, though, and I can't help but think that the media served a major role in earning him the position he is in today.”