# Why the extreme hyperbole over Trump? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 9, 2017, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-extreme-hyperbole-over-trump/788476 "2017-06-09T02:55:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2017, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-extreme-hyperbole-over-trump/788476/101 "2017-06-10T23:07:38Z")
> [@Una\_Persson](#): > > You posted this 2 days ago and couldn’t even devote the energy to respond to anyone here, nor add to the discussion. > > Did you mistake this forum for Facebook? Sorry, been sick. To briefly recap, I am not arguing with almost anything bad said here about Trump. My only contention is that Trump doesn’t meet the definition of even a failed fascist- he’s a big mouth, a blowhard, plain and simple. > [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Wait, you believe the only criticisms of Trump going round are that he’s a fascist (or at least kinda likes the freedom of action that fascists seem to have)? Of course not, there’s plenty to rationally criticize Trump about. But yes, there IS a lot of hyperbole out there. > [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > I think he would happily do many of these things if he a) had the energy, which he doesn’t, and b) could get away with it, which he can’t, at least not yet. Maybe, but so does any three-year old. I guess what I’m saying is that if good intentions don’t count only deeds, then bad intentions don’t count, only deeds. > [@Velocity](#): > > I think one major reason for the frenzy/hyperbole about Trump is that the man himself and his persona invites that sort of hyperbole. > > Trump [tackled Vince McMahon at a WWE event and entered a WWE ring himself](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkghtyxZ6rc), was a TV mogul, thrived on outrageous living, lived an outrageously gilded lifestyle, spoke of himself in hyperbolic comments/remarks, etc. > > I don’t think it’s actually about Trump’s policies. Someone like Mike Pence - a much quieter, calmer, more reserved figure - could have proposed policies twice as hardline, twice as conservative, twice as tough as Trump’s, and still not gotten half the hyperbole of Trump. And in fact Pence may be exactly that. I’'ll buy that. > [@BigT](#): > > Plus there’s just a lot of stuff that seems like hyperbole but isn’t. Like me saying Trump is evil, or an enemy of the United States. Or when I say he is a psychopath. When I say things about his supporters (not just those who voted for him). Or, hell, when I called him a fascist. I genuinely mean all of those things. Then by any objective definition of the terms you used, you’re genuinely wrong. > [@marshmallow](#): > > The information age is the age of hyperbole. Nothing is mediocre nowdays, it has to be the worst thing ever. No one listens if you say a bad movie remake was poorly executed, you say it shit in your mouth and raped your childhood. Combine this with political polarization and watch the fireworks. Both Bush and Obama critics made CTs that said they’d refuse to step down and instead institute a dictatorship. Lots of protest signs for both with Hitler 'staches on them. Like Orwell said, fascism doesn’t mean anything anymore. > > Into this environment walks Trump, a ridiculous person by any measure, someone who openly admires dictators and brings all the racist kooks out of the woodwork, someone who says things out loud that no one else would. The more you read about Trump the man the more disgusted you’ll become. So any exaggerations will have to be wild stuff. > > One could ask a similar question regarding Hillary, someone who puts Gore and Kerry to sleep, yet her opponents gave us Pizzagate, multiple assassination CTs, Benghazi, smelling of sulfur…what’cha gonna do? There’s too much money in it. This says it all, imho. What irks me is when something like the following exchange occurs: Conservative: “You know, there are laws in the United States about entering the country illegally. We really ought to do something about the huge influx along our southern bo-” Liberal: _ **“GENOCIDE!!!”** _ ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2017, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-extreme-hyperbole-over-trump/788476/102 "2017-06-10T23:32:53Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > … > This says it all, imho. What irks me is when something like the following exchange occurs: > > Conservative: “You know, there are laws in the United States about entering the country illegally. We really ought to do something about the huge influx along our southern bo-” > > Liberal: _ **“GENOCIDE!!!”** _ You saying that was the first time I’ve ever heard anyone say that. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-extreme-hyperbole-over-trump/788476/103 "2017-06-11T01:20:05Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Then by any objective definition of the terms you used, you’re genuinely wrong. Then that is your problem. You aren’t working with the objective definitions I am. And that has caused you to make the strawmen in your OP, mixing in actual things people say with things they don’t. I spent an entire paragraph explaining how he fits the definition of fascist. Rather than repeat myself, I’ll just [link a video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQlMtoDp8ks) on what fascism is. His evil is easily explained: he cares about only himself and would hurt absolutely anyone in order to help himself, as long as he could get away with it. It has nothing to do with whether you scheme. And that is the only ideology you need to be evil, and any other evil ideology ultimately boils down to that ideology. It’s what I mean when I say that society in general seems to have forgotten the difference between Good and Evil. We can debate on specifics, but the underlying concept is rock solid and real. Psychopath: that’s just a lack of caring about others. Generally all untreated narcissists (and many treated narcissists) are psychopaths by the common everyday definition, even if they don’t have antisocial personality disorder. And Trump has all the symptoms of Narcissistic Personality disorder, as has been discussed on this board many times. As for an enemy to the United States: he doesn’t agree with freedom of speech when it insults him. He wants the president to be a dictator. He denies _e pluribus unum_ and “all men are created equal” by making Muslims into scapegoats. And he has power, which makes him an actual threat and not just a loon. That’s an enemy. Yes, all these things I’ve said have been used in exaggeration in the past. But that’s what’s so horrible about all this. Trump actually fits those definitions. But people have been so inoculated against those words, they completely ignored it. Trump got to be as awful as possible, and we were unable to convince people how bad he really is. We have to wait for him to actually fuck over the country so that people will get it. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-extreme-hyperbole-over-trump/788476/104 "2017-06-11T03:59:51Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Sorry, been sick. To briefly recap, I am not arguing with almost anything bad said here about Trump. My only contention is that Trump doesn’t meet the definition of even a _ **failed fascist** _- he’s a big mouth, a blowhard, plain and simple. [emphasis added] and > [@](#): > > This says it all, imho. What irks me is when something like the following exchange occurs: > > Conservative: “You know, there are laws in the United States about entering the country illegally. We really ought to do something about the huge influx along our southern bo-” > > Liberal: _ **“GENOCIDE!!!”** _ If/when I write my textbook about online debating techniques, these are going to be used as shining examples of strawmen. Why are you so dismayed about the left/liberals “saying” outrageous things that you are making up yourself? It makes no sense to me. Unless I assume that you made a decision to be dismayed first, and decided that want the left/liberals were saying wasn’t sufficient to be dismayed about, so you made things up so you could be dismayed about them. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-extreme-hyperbole-over-trump/788476/105 "2017-06-11T10:46:53Z")
I just call him an America-hating fuckstick (alternating with America-hating shitstain). That’s not even controversial, let alone hyperbolic. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-extreme-hyperbole-over-trump/788476/106 "2017-06-12T23:17:18Z")
> [@Mr\_Bombastic](#): > > It’s called Trump Derangement Syndrome. There is no cure. > > On a serious note, Liberals are simply adults who have not matured mentally. This is why they want a nanny state to take care of them from cradle to grave. Trump is a threat to that. They are afraid that they will have to take responsibility for their own lives, and it scares the HELL out of them. They are to be pitied. “Take care of them” as in “build a wall to protect them from Mexicans”? Or as in “bring back their obsolete jobs in industries that damage the environment”? Because it seems to me that it’s the Trump supporters who demand to be taken care of. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-the-extreme-hyperbole-over-trump/788476.md?page=5)