Remember "The Dress?"
Remember back in 2015 when some people called the dress blue and black? Others thought it white and gold. Same dress, same image.
Weird, huh?
Humans automatically make assumptions about the nature of the light shining on what we see. If we assume the dress is illuminated in daylight, we adjust how it would look in those cool, blue, short wavelengths, and we see a white and gold dress. If we assumed a warmer light of incandescent bulbs, we see a blue and black dress.
I myself saw white and gold. It was obvious. I was certain. How could anyone possibly see blue and black? I had no idea that I was actively making assumptions about wavelengths.
This photo helps make the point:
An ongoing theme of this blog is that our interpretation of political events goes through a similar process. We make presumptions, usually unconsciously, while our attention is focused elsewhere. I try to draw people's attention to the unspoken body-language message of political actors, to their tone of voice, manner, demeanor. Denoted words matter, but people are not "objective." We make unconscious decisions that frame and interpret what we think we are seeing objectively. Objective isn't objective.
I see Trump in what I believe to be the cool daylight of truth. He is a skilled con man who projects his own crimes onto others. He persuades the gullible because he appears to believe what he says. I recognize that many Trump supporters perceive him differently, in warm light, as a flawed but basically good truth-teller, an heroic defender of their tribe, now set upon by enemies.
I don't count on court cases revealing the underlying nature of the light shining on Trump. Trump is consistent and adamant. He can persuade people that the light is yellowish. People who saw a blue and black dress were utterly sure of what they saw. There will likely be a couple of them on any jury of 12. The "facts" aren't contained in the dress. The "facts" are buried in the viewers' own unconscious decisions about the light.
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6 comments:
Members of the People’s Temple saw Jim Jones as divinely inspired. Branch Dravidians saw David Koresh as divinely inspired. In the Trump/Republican cult we see the same thing happening on a national scale. Let’s hope it doesn’t have the same ending.
I look at the predicted presidential contenders and see a failing country.
“Left wing vermin “ is a perspective Hitler would approve of along with MAGA. Perspective can be warped to the point of killing Jews and I suppose even liberals.
Thank you for clearing up why reasonable minds could differ about the color of the dress.
Trumps persuasive powers to shape people’s reality is beyond just perception. I worked with NY bankers for to finance large utility and commercial investment-grade projects, and the projects had to be bulletproof before they could be underwritten. Yet these same sophisticated banks turned a blind eye to Trump’s shenanigans and repeatedly financed properties far beyond their market value.
These kinds of business models are objective and quantifiable using standard metrics for risk adjusted returns. I think there’s more to his appeal than just biases and preferences. He has the immense persuasive power of a cult leader to redefine reality with one of the largest followings in human history.
I agree with John. Trump is a monster of charisma. Only a few of these come along over time. The previous ones we have had were Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan.
It’s unfortunate that charisma at that level is not necessarily associated with any other positive attributes, such as intelligence and responsibility.
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