A Quote to Ponder
Truly foreign language edition.
Steven L. Taylor
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Friday, March 1, 2024
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50 comments
This is, well, something.
I guess he is trying to amp up the xenophobia (or perhaps admitting he isn’t good with geography or languages?).
¿Por qué no los dos?
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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This is why I hate the Biden-is-too-old nonsense. Trump is mentally fragmenting in front of our eyes (and ears) and hardly anyone seems to care.
@Not the IT Dept.: So much of what he’s said for so many years is barely-comprehensible word salad, so nobody seems to notice when the salad is starting to spoil.
This is a little reminiscent of “Nobody knew health care could be so complicated.” Trump often universalizes his claims (everybody knows, nobody knows, etc.) because he thinks it makes them sound stronger, even when the end result is semantically absurd.
There’s also the statement’s implicit dehumanization of immigrants—he thinks “nobody” speaks those languages because the immigrants don’t count in his mind as anybody; he’s speaking from the white, Anglo perspective in which the people he’s demonizing aren’t even thought of as people.
So he doesn’t know his wife Mercedes Trump was once a multilingual immigrant of murky legal status?
@Kylopod:
This. So much this (unfortunately).
And agreed about his use of language, which is ultimately grade-school level (at best).
@DK: Who had an anchor baby and used chain migration to get her extended family U. S. permanent residency.
My Mallorcan born, multi lingual, naturalized American wife works a help desk for a cable company. At least once a day she gets a call that goes like this:
“Good morning, my name is M, how can I help you?”
“Where are you?!”
“Sullivan, Missouri sir/ma’am.”
“I want an American/someone who speaks English!” (she is very fluent in English but does have an accent)
And she politely puts them back into the phone que.
Just once I’d like her to say, “I am an American, in fact I’m more American than you are. I had to earn it.”
Maybe on her last day.
Trevor Noah once joked Lardass likes talking with people when they’re drunk. because that’s when they sound like him.
It’s still funny, but maybe no longer a joke.
Ugh. What a vile excuse for a human being. This gibberish makes me grind my teeth. And they’re in really sucky shape.
Nope, I’m going to go back to looking at your picture for today and your series for last month. Unlike Trump’s phrasing, your pics make me happy.
@Kylopod:
That’s also the predicate for Arizona’s bill to make felony murder no longer a crime – as long as you’re killing an immigrant.
One thing that is [at last] true of the Trump era is that he & the Maga-ists finally eliminated the public hand-waving of the so-called moderate Republicans and are forcing into public consciousness the wild extreme views of the majority of Republicans. “The worst thing you can do to a Republican is to accurately describe their policies in public” has been an internet trope for years.. and it’s finally becoming reality.
I guess the 486 million who speak Spanish worldwide will be surprised to learn that nobody speaks Spanish.
What is astounding is that if you only read the prestige papers- NYT or WaPo- You would never have seen this.
They have a habit of never accurately reporting Trump’s words, instead they clean them up into airy abstractions.
Here’s how the NYT covered Trump’s speech:
Notice how they pluck isolated words from his speech, instead of printing the entire sentences, which are almost always a garbled meandering gibberish.
This has the effect of making him sound statesmanlike, and after 8 years of this, I can’t believe it is accidental.
The mindset of pride in ignorance and milquetoast uniformity is so confusing to me. IMO one of the neatest things our elementary school does is including the languages serviced by the school in its annual report. The peak number I’ve seen is, if I remember right, 17, for a school with 600-ish kids. Like, how cool is it that my kids get to interact with people whose parents are literally from across the globe at the age of 6?
But somehow there are 10s of millions of people who look at that and are like, “Two towns over…that’s devil’s kin!” What a sad existence.
@ptfe: We live across the street from a large public park with a large playground. On the other side of the park is married student housing for a large university. As a consequence it was entirely normal for my children as long as they can remember to play with kids who spoke other languages which may or may not have included English. I always thought that was cool.
@Chip Daniels:
I hear this all the time, but except for my hometown paper (Go Baltimore Banner!) I pretty much exclusively read “prestige” news sources (NYT, WaPo, NPR, The Atlantic). I never watch TV news or the talking heads shows. I do read a couple of political blogs (This one and TPM) where people frequently complain about the lack of MSM reporting on stuff, but I am rarely surprised by what comes in those (other than TPM’s live reporting).
More than once I’ve seen people complain that the MSM doesn’t cover some important topic, with a link to an article in the MSM.
On a charitable day, I would say this is nothing but Trump trying, and failing, to speak in tongues in order to connect with his xenophobic Evangelical, yet unChristian like, supporters. On any other day, I would say this was Bone Spurious experiencing entropy between his ears.
Being the Trump-whisperer for a sec–and giving this the most generous interpretation–he appears be referencing the fact that some folks who are coming to/across the border speak indigenous languages or Spanish sub-dialects that we don’t have translators for (hence the “We have nobody that even speaks those languages.”). This is a real and legitimate challenge for the immigration system.
That said, the solution is better funding and staffing to assist with those situations. Not simply rejecting those people out of hand–especially since indigenous populations are often suffering form literal life threatening oppression.
What on earth is “The Kids Guide to President Trump,” which you can order for “free” from Mike Huckabee?
The grift is never-ending.
@Matt Bernius: Expanding on your generous interpretation, it is also my understanding that we are getting people from all over the world arriving at that border (which says something about Mexico’s control of its own borders). I suspect we don’t have border agents at that border who speak the language of many of the new arrivals.
I still agree that the overall impression that Trump assigns to this is that these languages are a suspicious mystery to everybody who is American.
Serviceable butt wipes in the out house,
@Jen:
You may be sorry you asked:
http://www.thekidsguide.com/president-trump/
@MarkedMan: I’m not saying that they didn’t cover it- I’m saying they deliberately conceal his gibberish and make him sound intelligent.
Given how little sense Trump’s rhetoric makes per day, can’t we say he speaks a foreign language too? And this language definitely threatens our country!
@Chip Daniels: True. And they do the same for Biden and everyone else. Unless the article is about someone’s coherence, they don’t focus on someone misspeaking or stuttering or things of that nature.
@MarkedMan: Its normal to edit out the occasional verbal stumbles or stutters.
But this is a persistent pattern of concealing the truth that his speeches often are simply meaningless gibberish.
Not stumbling over words or grasping for the right word, but literally having no coherent meaning. He just throws together a lot of buzzwords and phrases which delight his audiences but in order to create a coherent meaning from it you need to almost insert one, which they do.
@CSK: Not if they’re like the 2 French born foreign language teachers I had who used to tell me that people in Quebec don’t speak French.
@OzarkHillbilly: Maybe not. It may be mostly streaming content. ☹️
@Chip Daniels: I suppose it’s futile to point out that the trumpers say the exact same thing about the media coverage of Biden? Or that I’ve read a fair amount coverage of both in separate articles (and of course, op eds).
Where there is a differential is in the “perception” op eds and even in the occasional straight news article. It’s much more common for a writer or reporter to concede that Biden has all his wits about him and is in fact doing a great job, but “these stumbles” are leading to perceptions of incoherence and senility and he must do something about that or resign this minute and let Super Democratic Candidate step up. There are many, many more of these blasts against Biden than against Trump. But it seems that people really want to read such things and it will get them a lot of clicks, if only judging about how often people here say the same thing.
@ptfe: When our kids were young our relatively small suburban school district decided to put all ESL kids in one elementary school. We were thrilled when they chose the school our kids attended: exposure to kids from a variety of backgrounds and cultures seemed like a huge plus to us. It still stuns me that people see that kind of exposure as threatening rather than beneficial.
@Chip Daniels:
Seriously. If you recognize that accurately portraying someone will make you sound like one of their partisan opponents… perhaps the light bulb should go on at that point.
@OzarkHillbilly: Well, I have definitely had conversations with a customer service rep that I had great difficulty understanding because of a strong accent, and this was not a pleasant experience.
I almost would rather engage in the whole customer support dance via a text interface, but not many have that. I can type fast, and written language doesn’t have any issue with accents or background noise (another issue I’ve had with support calls).
@just nutha: That’s amusing and I can see how that could happen. We were in Quebec City not long ago and witnessed a good-natured squabble about whether a certain pastry was called pain au chocolat (the French) or a chocolatin (Quebecois).
The thing is you have to be pretty stupid to be threatened by people crossing the border hoping for work. Calling this an invasion and talking about defending the border is dumb. Using military metaphors for a completely social phenomenon is the definition of stupid. Racism and nativism are dumb and incoherent. They melt away upon any examination. But many Americans chose to believe that racism reflect some native wisdom about the order of things. Trump is merely articulating the stupidity rather than pandering to it from afar.
@MarkedMan:
It is indeed futile to point out that Trumpists say the same things…if you don’t care what is true and what is false.
The objective truth is that Trump can’t form a coherent thought but instead traffics in imagery and soundbites like a frantic car salesman spewing whatever words are needed to move that old junker.
@ptfe: I agree. I recall a night in the summer of 2016 when my city was showing a movie in the park at the same time that the danger posed by Trump to immigrants was becoming clear. My daughter ran around the park that night with some of her classmates, while I talked with their parents, who were from the Philippines, Syria, Russia and Sudan. The movie that night was “Zootoopia,” an animated Disney film about prejudice and demonizing the “other.” As I compared the beauty of my actual community to the dark vision that Trumpism promotes, I was profoundly grateful for what I had, while profoundly sad and scared for our county.
@Jen: And while I was taking Korean at Yonsei University, I had a teacher who explained that people who live in Gyeongsang Province have a speech impediment that prevents them from correctly pronouncing many Korean words. Some of it is humorous; some of it is chauvinism.
@Paul L.:
Mexicans may very well prefer if rich immigrants from the US set up their own settlements. A few Mexico City neighborhoods have gentrified due to an influx of Americans, specifically digital nomads, immigrating.
Regardless, as is often the case, you fail to make an argument. You’re like a comedian whose act doesn’t have a single punchline. Sure, some funny lines may slip out on occasion. But it’s not an act or a set, it’s nothing more than a person with a microphone whose reason for being on stage is unclear.
@CSK: Spain spanish is different from the various south American spanish which is different from texmex or Mexican spanish which is different from…
@Matt:
Oh, I know. But I think Central and South Americans can make themselves understood in Spain. In any case, we’re discussing Trump’s ignorance.
@Chip Daniels: I agree with you about Trump’s coherence. Even back in his “glory days” when he was a subject of fun by NYC tabloids and Vanity Fair it was pretty obvious he was shallow and vapid and understood very little, although he was much better at appearing to know things. As he’s gotten older it’s gotten much, much worse whether through lost brain cells, cognitive decline, or, perhaps as important, having surrounded himself with sycophantic idiots who would never dare laugh at him or point out his babblings.
Where we disagree is with whether the MSM is actively covering up for him. I don’t actually see that much difference in the way straight news in a given publication cover Trump’s and Biden’s spoken gaffes. Where I see a difference is in the OpEds and, more specifically, the OpEds from those technically on Biden’s side. Pundit after pundit and even Dem Party Officials are falling all over themselves to “seriously discuss the perceptions around Biden’s age”. You don’t see any of this from the Repub side. (I put the never Trumpers in a different category). The difference of coverage in the NYT et al seems to be that partisan Repubs will bash Biden’s age over and over and never bash Trump, whereas supposed partisans on the left will bash both of them equally.
It’s one thing to talk amongst ourselves and express doubts about “perceptions” or speculate on the odd of a very competent and sharp 81 to go completely gaga by the time he’s 85 (not as likely as you might think*). It’s another thing for those within a cause to stand on the table and shout those doubts out to everyone in earshot.
*The average male at 80 years old has a 25% chance of developing dementia in his remaining life. Life expectancy for 80 year old men in the US is 7 years. These are averages. I assume that for people of exceptional sharpness performing at the top of their game in intellectual pursuits and who have access to exceptional health care, the life expectancy is significantly longer and the the four year expectation for dementia is substantially lower.
I am hoping that during the Republican convention, Trump will give a rambling, unintelligible speech that will terrify Americans at the prospect of him getting another term, when he clearly should be in a doctor’s care, or locked in the attic, or whatever wealthy people do with their elderly relatives who aren’t quite there anymore.
I recognize that a lot of Republicans think the same will happen if people hear Biden speak.
A few weeks ago it was being floated that Trump would give the response to the State of the Union. I so wish that would happen.
@Monala:
“Zootopia” bothers me. Not because it is a Furry Masterpiece, but because the demonized group are literally predators who have to act against their literal natures to live in a civilized society. The predators take drugs (flowers, against their will) and then become savages.
I get what the makers were going for, but I think they missed the mark.
As far as Furry Masterpieces go, however, I think they hit the mark perfectly. Nick Wilde is a generation’s furry awakening, the way that Robin Hood as a Fox was for previous generations.
I would also pay good money to hear Donald Trump summarize the plot of Zootopia, and explain whether it succeeded at its goals.
@Paul L.:
You posted a specific question with no context.
If it was an attempt at asking a rhetorical question, it failed because it doesn’t have an embedded point.
If it was a genuine question, it helps to know why you’re asking. Better yet, a good idea is to say, “if yes, then . . .” and “if no, then . . .”
As it stands, there is no way to form a response in dis/agreement, because you didn’t provide anything substantive. I mean, your question appears to be an attempt to compare migrants from economically distressed areas looking for work to rich Americans buying land in Mexico. That makes no sense unless you’re attempting to make a misleading point.
Yes, the article I linked does include those things. But again, it’s useless to compare poor migrants from awful economic situations entering the United States and Americans with decent paying WFH jobs moving abroad to take advantage of a lower cost of living. The latter has a much larger negative effect on the native population than the former does.
If I’m not mistaken, and I very well could be, I think there is some analysis that suggests anti-immigrant sentiment in the US is highest in places with a lower concentrations of immigrants.* It’s almost as if there is a reason other than the stated ones(most of which are bullshit) for the anti-immigration stance.
*I’m genuinely curious about where I read this, so I will try to dig up a cite. But I have somewhere to be at the moment.
@Kurtz:
Well, don’t tell the troll, but foreigners can own and lease land in Mexico. They’ll get their panties in a bunch
There are restrictions and limitations, and land near the border or the coast is harder to obtain, but it can be done.
@Kathy:
I still own a small home in San Miguel de Allende. In Colonia Guadalupe. Wish I had more time to spend there. Love that place. Might end up there for retirement.
@Jay L Gischer: So have I. but my wife speaks perfectly understandable English (you want to hear the opposite? Go to Appalachia, or the Mississippi delta)(I have lots of experience in both)
Trust me, the number of “Americans” who can’t speak ‘English’ are innumerable. My wife is not among them. Fck the xenophobic pieces of sht.
eta: it would not surprise me in the least if my wife spoke better English than you. Pretty certain she speaks it better than I.
@Paul L.: Biden has served this country in the Senate since the ’70s. What have you done for your country?
I support immigrants. They do jobs that the native born shun like marrying Donald Trump.
@MarkedMan: “Where we disagree is with whether the MSM is actively covering up for him. I don’t actually see that much difference in the way straight news in a given publication cover Trump’s and Biden’s spoken gaffes. Where I see a difference is in the OpEds and, more specifically, the OpEds from those technically on Biden’s side. Pundit after pundit and even Dem Party Officials are falling all over themselves to “seriously discuss the perceptions around Biden’s age”. ”
This is where I see a massive amount of bias. Trump is clearly demented. The old line by the media that they are merely raising concerns is a way of doing things while denying doing them.
I’d dearly love to have seen Trump encounter Lloyd-George, who had a habit of chatting in Welsh to his Private Secretary during international conferences.
LOL