Macron Uses Toddler Reverse Psychology Trick to Fool Trump Into Supporting NATO

[babylonsister]

Last edited Tue Dec 3, 2019, 12:33 PM - Edit history (1)

Edit to change/shorten link per suggestion from a friend
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/12/macrons-toddler-psychology-trick-makes-trump-endorse-nato.html


the national interest 9:11 A.M.
Macron Uses Toddler Reverse Psychology Trick to Fool Trump Into Supporting NATO
By Jonathan Chait


Today is another meeting of NATO, an organization Trump has denounced and undermined for years. The keenest minds in what remains of the free world have set themselves to the task of distracting Trump long enough to get through the NATO summit without dissolving the alliance in a tantrum. The Washington Post detailed the efforts leading up to the summit. The plans include flattering Trump with an elaborate dinner at Buckingham Palace, and presenting a series of trumped-up concessions to make it appear the allies have buckled to Trump’s demands by increasing their spending, thereby allowing him to claim victory rather than storming out in a huff.

The plans include “a largely symbolic concession from Germany to save U.S. cash by spending more to pay to keep NATO’s lights on — which diplomats hope Trump will seize as a victory out of proportion with its size,” and a presentation on defense spending increases cleverly cropped to make it look like they began in 2016. (Diplomats are comfortable just blurting this out to a major newspaper because they know Trump does not read articles.) The whole trick is to choreograph an elaborate ruse in which Trump will believe he forced the allies to submit to his will and won.

Amusingly, what seems to have worked instead is Emmanuel Macron’s completely different ploy. The French president gave an interview last month decrying the “brain death” of NATO, which he said had failed to account for America’s shrinking commitment under Trump.

Trump himself has called NATO “obsolete,” openly questioned whether the U.S. would come to the defense of allies under attack (the very foundation of the alliance), and privately told aides on several occasions last year he wants to withdraw from the alliance. But the notion that somebody else would question NATO, and blame its demise on Trump, has enraged him.

And now Trump is lashing out at Macron. “NATO serves a great purpose,” he declared today. “And I hear that President Macron said NATO is ‘brain dead.’ I think that’s very insulting to a lot of different forces … When you make a statement like that, that is a very, very nasty statement to 28 — including them — 28 countries.”

Manipulating children into doing what you want by pretending to demand they do the opposite thing is a trick most parents learn to use. It usually stops working around the age of 5.

[pangaia]

1. LOLOL

I was wondering what was up with Macron's comments...


If this is all true...

[lagomorph777]

3. I also enjoyed his tying "brain death" to Trump.

Very well played indeed.

[DENVERPOPS]

23. Did anyone hear in the news

that Trump was going to double tariffs on imports from France???????

[LiberalLovinLug]

29. It was a steep price to pay for Macron to save NATO

Trump will still need his pound of flesh for daring to even vaguely insult him.

[mr_lebowski]

2. If you don't wish NY Mag to think you visited via clicking a Facebook link ...

For whatever reason, like you hate Facebook

http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/12/macrons-toddler-psychology-trick-makes-trump-endorse-nato.html

[dchill]

4. Thanks. I do hate me some Facebook.

[mr_lebowski]

16. See post 14 below ...

[dewsgirl]

5. Thank you, I avoid FB at all costs for a multitude of reasons.

[mr_lebowski]

14. If you click a link with the text 'fbclid equals sign' in it...

You tell the internet that you visited the website via a link from Facebook.

The way to avoid is simple ... find the question mark character in the URL ... copy the text BEFORE the question mark, and paste into your browser URL box and hit return. Works 99% of the time.

That way you're visiting the site with a generic link, not one that tells the site and google analytics and such ... 'this site (in this case facebook) is from whence I clicked this link'.

I see Babylon change the URL ... it USED to have 'fbclid=' in it ... promise

[dchill]

17. +1.

[dewsgirl]

22. Thank you.😊

[erronis]

27. fb has become such a pariah that there are tons of browser add-ons to quarantine them

I use Firefox which is much better than Google's Chrome (perhaps there is a pay-to-play relationship there?). Don't know about the various MS browsers or Opera/Vivaldi/whatever-Apple-forces-you-to-use.

Others:
https://www.wikihow.com/Block-Facebook

If you must visit fb, you can put it into a container so it can't access your other private information. One is:
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/facebookcontainer/

Of course, I'm still using gmail so everything in that world is being monetized. I'm looking to move off the google apps if anyone has a good set of solutions.

[reACTIONary]

37. You might want to try...

.... Libre Office

https://www.libreoffice.org/

If by Google apps you mean the look alike MS Office apps like Word and Excel. I use Libre Office for most of my spreadsheet and word processing tasks and it works well.

[erronis]

41. Thanks - I use LibreOffice quite a bit, both in Windows and Linux.

It now has as rich a set of capabilities as MSs and Google's - sometimes better capabilities.

But my customers are generally MS-anal.

[Hekate]

6. Fiendishly clever, & let's hope it works

[RainCaster]

7. Parenting is the art of distraction

Macron knows his stuff.

[defacto7]

8. Shhhhh... don't wake the baby.

[SledDriver]

9. Why though? Why coddle him?

Why not call him out? Why not put him on the spot and point out his lies and exaggerations and make a fool of him? Get the press corps laughing at him until he has a crybaby tantrum and show the world what a child he is? Then make him go stand in the corner.

Seriously. He wants to be revered as a leader, have real leaders push him and test his mettle. He wants to bully his way to the front of the crowd, bully him back and show the world what a weakling he is.

[Ilsa]

10. I think all of them are in on it.

MF45 is the only one there incapable of seeing it, and his handlers are too afraid to tell him he's been played like a spoiled brat gets managed.

[erronis]

28. Some of those handlers are actually in cahoots with the real puppteers. Happy to help pull those

strings in case there's a bunch of rubles at the end.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

19. He definitely needs a time-out.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

34. it's better to preserve NATO while we deal with our Traitor Tot

[malthaussen]

39. Expediency. n/t

[H2O Man]

11. Recommended.

I think it is important for us -- citizens of the US -- to keep in mind that Trump was never very smart, and that his intelligence is spiralling downward as he ages.

[malthaussen]

40. Sometimes, I think Mr Trump may actually be quite intelligent...

... wading through his flow-of-consciousness rants, I can sometimes discern a thread that runs through them, but he is apparently incapable of unpacking his associations and communicating them so other people can follow them. Which is not necessary, in the case of his supporters, since he could recite the alphabet incorrectly and they'd still cheer him to the echo.

But however creative his mind may be, he appears to be a terribly un-critical thinker. I've often thought he believes and agrees with whomever he spoke to last, making his scheduling secretary the key person in the Administration. And he loves him some conspiracy theories, which is a symptom of a fairly pedestrian mind that nevertheless believes it "really" knows what is happening, and can penetrate secrets opaque to more common minds. And indeed, from his public pronouncements, this does seem to be a major facet of Mr Trump's character, Dunning-Kruger writ large. Since D-K rather requires that the sufferer be of low intellect, it would seem that Mr Trump must fit the profile.

Unless, you know, he really does know better than every other person on Earth. Hey, it's possible.

-- Mal

[SayItLoud]

12. May work for NATO doesn't work for US Elections.

tRUMP will brag, enhance and LIE about all of this to make himself look like "a stable genius". Solidifies for his Cult45 how great he is and for the dummies on the fence...well, they will fall on his side and vote for him claiming "see he's so smart he got those cheap countries to pay up". They are too Fn dumb to know the head games of Macron, et al . So, Nato wins (great) but we lose...just sayin IMO.

[0rganism]

21. naturally that's not Macron's concern

if he can get Trump to do what he wants, through whatever diplomatic method, then that's just as good for him as any other US president would be.

Democratic candidates have to take responsibility for making the electoral case against Trump. once they stop parsing each others' health care plans, maybe they can do some work on it.

[Pepsidog]

13. So obvious what Macron is doing. Psychology of a toddler is a good reference.

[elleng]

15. 'Manipulating children into doing what you want

by pretending to demand they do the opposite thing is a trick most parents learn to use. It usually stops working around the age of 5.'

[Kid Berwyn]

18. Donald J Trump is NOT JUST A MORON.

He’s an effing moron.

[Lock him up.]

20. Orange toddler could change his mind anytime on a whim though.

And we all know it.

That's another reason he has to get the boot.

[Chakaconcarne]

24. Trump also offered up Pompeo to testify on impeachment..

Obviously without Pompeo knowing he would do that...

May have been during briefing with Trudeau.

[moondust]

25. Terrible Twos at 73.

"Hay everybody, lets make him Prezinet and give him the nucular buton!"

[klook]

42. That is exactly what it is.

“Terrible Twos at 73.”

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

26. "When you make a statement like that, that is a very, very nasty statement..."

All else aside, the fact that we have a pResident whose rhetoric is this utterly asinine is mortifying. It reveals a mind inferior to the task and dignity required by the position.

[MFGsunny]

30. Guess who isn't 5 years old yet?????? Macron knows.

Betcha MF45 will be exposed about that tail being pinned on him (a$$ that he is).
And, of course, he'll have a temper tantrum but in the end he'll lose - just like every other time.

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice".

[Susan Calvin]

31. .

https://m.

[lark]

32. Below are my best guesses -

His actual emotional age - 2. Physical age, accounting for all the Adderall abuse over 4 decades is 84. Intellectual age is probably about 5. Manipulation and lying - off the chart.

[hay rick]

33. LOL.

Toddler psychology! In the words of Homer Simpson, "It's funny because it's true." Trump has changed Homer Simpson from a buffoon to a prophet.

[PatrickforO]

35. Wow. Stops working at the age of five, does it?

Why does that scare me?

[burrowowl]

36. K&R

[BSdetect]

38. TRumP Toddler Reverse Psychology