[Ads-l] Shoulda seen it coming....

Peter Reitan pjreitan at HOTMAIL.COM
Thu Jan 18 18:30:03 UTC 2018


The "implausible spin" is frequently made in response to a basic feature of "the Resistance," namely, interpreting and reporting every Trumpian ambiguity only in light of the worst of all possible meanings, without giving honest or fair consideration to the possibility (and in many cases, the clear likelihood) that the intended meaning was something less sinister.

The truth generally lies somewhere in the middle.

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2018 9:07 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Shoulda seen it coming....

---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
Subject:      Re: Shoulda seen it coming....
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The "rather implausible spin" is a basic feature of the Trump Administratio=
n and, by extension, of contemporary Republicanism.  When the current presi=
dent utters some controversial statement, the question is not "what did he =
mean by that?", but rather "what farfetched explanation can we come up with=
 that will not be believed by any liberals or moderates but will be believe=
d by many of our base and at least saves us enough face that we can move on=
 to the next controversial statement?"


Fred Shapiro




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