As I said in another thread I get the vibe of someone who is not of inferior intelligence or literacy skills, but rather who finds intellectual/academic work to be a chore and a bore. Who at school will read up on what will be on the test and count for the grade if he absolutely has to, and get a decent grade because of being competitive, not because of being scholarly – doing it for the score, not for the learning, and will forget about it two weeks after finals.
That person once he’s boss of his own outfit he will ask for the major background points as summarized as possible before the meeting and then he’ll take it from there with the razzledazzle Always Be Closing bluster. And why even read something you cannot monetize.
That’s not the way that wealth and influence typically work in the US. It’s not typically blatant bribery and what-not, as that’s illegal, and the more blatant, the more easily it’s detected. So rather than do it outright, it’s all done within the facade of legitimate operations.
To me, it’s more obnoxious how that stuff works after school than in the getting in/getting a degree part. I’m far more offended that some guy can skate through college and get a lucrative job with a high-powered company based on who his dad is.
He also graduated 40+ years ago. I’ve known several people who completely stopped any voluntary reading or learning the moment they graduated, so it wouldn’t surprise me if Trump, being rich and privileged, he has just slid backwards and only reads something if he absolutely has to. Reading is a skill that needs to be kept in practice, just like any other.
I don’t have proof I can share, no. I realize anecdotal evidence is just that, but there’s a large pile of it, anyway.
What do you mean “blatant bribery”? I’m saying that it happens exactly the way you describe in your last paragraph. They get in to the schools based on parental/family influence and donations and they skate through school because Mr. or Mrs. President of the University and the board members are not going to slap Junior’s hand over infractions and they’re going to do all they can to make sure he graduates. That doesn’t even count the cheating that Junior is paying for on his own. And obviously, the cush job follows graduation.
The details about Trump’s briefing preferences - single page, bullets (but not too many bullets), lotsa graphics and maps - made me laugh when they were leaked, because those are pretty much the guidelines I use when designing handouts for the classes I teach to teenage delinquents, many of whom are designated English Language Learners (what we used to call ESL).
Making the 3-pointer can you in to the school. It cannot get you the degree. Just like having money can get you in, and can smooth over a lot of problems, get you a lot of help not available to others, get educators to look the other way on certain things…but overlooking functional illiteracy?
That sounds a lot more like impatience and arrogance than proof of illiteracy.
I know “he won fair and square.” I was addressing Evan Drake’s question: "what the hell does it say about half-wit Hillary that she lost to such a clown?" IOW it says nothing, because she didn’t lose to such a clown; she won the popular vote.
It can be done. A good bluffer can pull the wool over many a teacher’s eyes. I’ve read stories about executives who bluffed their way to the top of companies with a combination of good memory and a wife/girlfriend who read things to them. I’ll look for some articles-- I know I read one in the WSJ years ago.
Star athletes generally have tutors for each subject in college. Many don’t need them, or wouldn’t if their major sport commitments weren’t such a time burden. It is, has generally been for the last 50 years, a tragedy that University coaches make 10 to 20 to 50 times the salary of the best professors, and that scholarship money is not being used for scholars.
That said, I enjoy a good lose a knee and get a concussion game as much as anyone.
The evidence presented here is unconvincing regarding his supposed illiteracy. All I see is low intelligence and severely limited attention span. We knew that.
It’s like the article I just read claiming he’s terrified of stairs, yet was accompanied by a dozen photos of him walking down stairs. “Tall, Top-Heavy Geezer Prefers to Use Escalator” doesn’t bait the clicks, I guess.
As a former college prof I’ve known Ivy League profs who really, really hate what the kids of the wealthy get away with.
(Kurt Vonnegut regularly ranted about the special treatment of the rich kids he personally saw while doing the visiting prof thing during his later years as well.)
They are treated specially. Especially in regards to obvious cheating. The parents pay for “tutors” and others to do assignments, write term papers, etc. Plus there are certain majors and classes that are simple enough for that to be all that’s needed to get by.
It is a lot like the “special help” athletes get to stay eligible academically. College admins get around the normal rules for students when fame or fortune are involved.
Trump has language issues. Look at his announcement of his Supreme Court pick. Many people pointed out during the campaign that his speeches were at the 4th grade level or so.
He clearly is tweeting in his own words. They are English sentences (mostly) but often have grammar problems. OTOH we gotta give slack to tweets.
I’d say his language abilities: reading, writing, speaking are at the 8th grade level at best. Not exactly functionally illiterate but well below what a PotUS should have.
The argot of law, executive orders, court rulings, contracts, etc. are beyond his ken.
With all due respect, in our system that is meaningless. The popular vote is but an interesting sidebar, because everyone knows going in that it’s the electoral voting that counts.
People in a state that will clearly be won by a given candidate don’t have nearly the incentive to cast their votes – which they know won’t affect the outcome – as those in a swing state. We have no way of knowing how many more people would have voted for either candidate IF it were decided by popular vote. It’s not at all implausible that Trump would have won the popular vote in a system where that is what mattered.
It’d be nice if we could ignore the Trumpista baiters and not get sidetracked into election arguments just because they can’t get past them. But maybe that’s just me.
Anyway, I have first-hand experience with illiterate adults no one suspected, as well. I was a bank teller in my youth, and a guy who ran… some fairly complex business and came in all the time brought me a letter about some bank fee or another. We went back and forth about it a little, and I was pointing to the paragraph that explained the why, and he finally leaned in and said, “I can’t read.” This was a white-collar business owner, probably $200-500k annually (this was ca. 1978), no one you would suspect of illiteracy. So it’s out there.
I still have no question about Trump’s intelligence except that I don’t think he’s any genius… but I do think he has some functional/behavioral/cognitive problem with reading literacy. Even if it’s just “because I can,” it’s a little terrifying that we have a President who will not use the one channel that works to learn and grasp complex information.
It doesn’t determine who gets to live in the White House, but it’s not meaningless. It means that the electee can’t rely on that his/her popularity to push policies through Congress. The makeup of Congress has the potential (in the absence of gerrymandering or other manipulation) to look more like the electorate as a whole, and this can produce a Congress that is absolutely at odds with the President.
Rich, privileged and lazy is the way I see it. Reading is hard so he avoids it. Sitting in front of a TV holding a remote is much less challenging. And because he avoids reading, it becomes harder. A vicious circle.
I believe that this might also explain reports of his very short attention span. He never developed the analytical skills to delve into a subject beyond a single sheet of paper with no more than nine bullet points. This is indeed worrisome but had he surrounded himself with good people, we could probably live with it. Instead we Bannon et al.
My god, it just dawned on me. We elected Chance the gardener:
Steigler: Mr. Gardner, uh, my editors and I have been wondering if you would consider writing a book for us, something about your um, political philosophy, what do you say?
Chance: I can’t write.
Steigler: Ha ha, of course not, who can nowadays? Listen, I have trouble writing a postcard to my children. Look uhh, we can give you a six figure advance, I’ll provide you with the very best ghost-writer, proof-readers…
Chance: I can’t read.
Steigler: Of course you can’t! No one has the time! We, we glance at things, we watch television…
Chance: I like to watch TV.
Steigler: Oh, oh, oh sure you do. No one reads!