I Plead Ignorance

I didn't watch the State of the Union because almost anything on earth is more interesting and informative

I am ignorant of many things including killing a man in cold blood and stealing food from orphans.

Now, you can add pathetic old Joe’s 2023 State of the Union Address to things I know not from shinola.

Instead of watching the speech, I watched Trump’s live response on Truth Social. And Trump provided evidence of his brilliance in one simple Truth:

Do you realize how brilliant that line is, psychologically?

In one simple sentence, Donald Trump made you visualize 320 million Americans sitting in a circle around Joe Biden to discuss his obsession with the word “folks.” You saw it in your head, and you know it. Don’t deny it.

More than that, Trump raised serious doubts in your mind about Biden’s competence, didn’t he?

The idea Trump elicited from your psyche was “intervention.” Friends and family confronting someone with a problem—drugs, alcohol, gambling, whatever. Some problem behavior that threatens the person and those around him.

When you read “we should all sit down and talk to him about this,” you think of situations in your own life when a family meeting was called for. When people had reached the limits of their patience with one member of the tribe who had to be sat down and talked to.

The physicality in Trump’s line was convincing. “We should all sit down.” Most people, unskilled in the art of persuasion, would have omitted such a specific, physical action. But Trump provided a mental, visual action for your brain to see: millions of people taking a seat to help Joe Biden overcome his addiction to “folks.”

You might be thinking I’ve lost my mind. But you can’t deny that you see Joe Biden sitting in a metal folding chair with “Gym” stenciled on the back looking confused in the middle of a ring of Americans in neat, concentric circles that extend to the horizon in every direction. You can hear in your mind a Ned Flanders voice saying, “Joe, we have to talk about your ‘folks.’”

Without using the word, Trump emotionally convinced you that Joe Biden has a problem—a problem we, as good Christians, must help him overcome.

But that problem isn’t with “folks.” It’s bigger than that. “Folks” is only a symptom. The disease, the disorder, is much, much deeper.

Take a note on Trump’s use of language. This example is a masterpiece of communication and persuasion.

And, if you don’t believe me, maybe we should all sit down and talk to you about it.