superrific
Inconceivable Member
- Messages
- 3,053
OK, this guy deserves his own thread. Of all the aspects of the campaign that I find baffling, he's probably the most baffling. Definitely not the most important, but he makes no sense.
1. First, how do you get to be a spokesperson for anything when you look like Odd Job? I mean, obviously he's an East Asian guy; nothing wrong with that. But I don't know any other East Asians who look like Odd Job, and if they did, they would alter their appearance so they don't look like Odd Job. And this is a spokesperson position. Looks are part of the job. You don't have to think propaganda Barbie should be the model for a media person to notice that Press Secretaries and spokespeople are almost always at least reasonably attractive. As we used to say when I was programming, there are front office guys and back office guys (I worked almost entirely with male programmers; it was the 90s and early 2000s). Cheung is a back office guy all the way.
2. OK, move along from his appearance. He goes out of his way to be as obnoxious as possible. He's not just combative; he's offensive, dismissive, irrational and foaming at the mouth. Again, not the qualities you want in a public face. They stopped sending Stephen Miller on TV when they realized that nobody likes him. I don't know if he's back or if he just issues statements, but for a while you'd never see him on TV because he's such an asshole. So they've now got a guy who makes Miller look polite and laid back.
3. Trump seems to have a lot of spokespeople. The others are more traditional in their approach -- you know, trying to be likeable, at least a little. So they know what a press secretary is supposed to be. But Cheung is still the boss. And I get that they are becoming more open about their fascism, but there was a time in which they were trying to pretend that they weren't authoritarians. Having a spokesperson so vulgar and obnoxious that it would make Putin blush -- again, how is it this possible?
I find the presence of this man in the campaign, and his attitudes and behaviors, and his prominence, to be baffling. Can someone help me understand him? I don't think "well, they are authoritarians and having a press contact like that is part of their brand" is a fully satisfying answer. Normally Trump is smart enough to send out Habbas or Kayleighs as the public face; even if they are idiots, at least they aren't scary looking or fucking sociopathic. And then there's this guy.
1. First, how do you get to be a spokesperson for anything when you look like Odd Job? I mean, obviously he's an East Asian guy; nothing wrong with that. But I don't know any other East Asians who look like Odd Job, and if they did, they would alter their appearance so they don't look like Odd Job. And this is a spokesperson position. Looks are part of the job. You don't have to think propaganda Barbie should be the model for a media person to notice that Press Secretaries and spokespeople are almost always at least reasonably attractive. As we used to say when I was programming, there are front office guys and back office guys (I worked almost entirely with male programmers; it was the 90s and early 2000s). Cheung is a back office guy all the way.
2. OK, move along from his appearance. He goes out of his way to be as obnoxious as possible. He's not just combative; he's offensive, dismissive, irrational and foaming at the mouth. Again, not the qualities you want in a public face. They stopped sending Stephen Miller on TV when they realized that nobody likes him. I don't know if he's back or if he just issues statements, but for a while you'd never see him on TV because he's such an asshole. So they've now got a guy who makes Miller look polite and laid back.
3. Trump seems to have a lot of spokespeople. The others are more traditional in their approach -- you know, trying to be likeable, at least a little. So they know what a press secretary is supposed to be. But Cheung is still the boss. And I get that they are becoming more open about their fascism, but there was a time in which they were trying to pretend that they weren't authoritarians. Having a spokesperson so vulgar and obnoxious that it would make Putin blush -- again, how is it this possible?
I find the presence of this man in the campaign, and his attitudes and behaviors, and his prominence, to be baffling. Can someone help me understand him? I don't think "well, they are authoritarians and having a press contact like that is part of their brand" is a fully satisfying answer. Normally Trump is smart enough to send out Habbas or Kayleighs as the public face; even if they are idiots, at least they aren't scary looking or fucking sociopathic. And then there's this guy.
