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The president of the United States has many faults, but let’s not ignore this one: He cannot write sentences. If a tree falls in a forrest and no one is there to hear it … wait: Pretty much all of you noticed that mistake, right? Yet Wednesday morning, the president did not; he released a tweet referring to “forrest fires” twice, as if these fires were set by Mr. Gump. Trump’s serial misuse of public language is one of many shortcomings that betray his lack of fitness for the presidency.Trump writes sentences. Professor McWhorter does not approve of his sentence structure. I am a writer by trade, although I don't write much for my employer, because I have a team of copywriters who handle the work. Do I prefer copy that is free of typographical errors? Of course. This is also why my company employs a copy editor.
McWhorter knows his premise is faulty, but persists anyway:
One must not automatically equate sloppy spelling with sloppy thinking. Quite a few admired writers are not great spellers before editing. The problem here is that he neither checked the tidiness of this message before it went out to the public, nor asked anyone else to take that step, about an issue as dire as an interruption of governmental services (Governmental Services?). Such negligence is of a piece with Trump’s general disregard of norms, details, and accuracy.One must not do something, but one does it anyway. Thanks for clarifying, Professor.
5 comments:
It would be so refreshing for them all just to say, "We desperately hate him. We would do anything to bring him down." That kind of honesty might begin a healing process. But they have to pretend that their hatred says something about him rather than about themselves. And so they ponderously explain again and again how HE is abnormal. Physician, heal thyself.
In other news, 99% of all texters and tweeters are unfit to be President. That should cut down on the clutter the next two years.
I'm still not a much of a Trump fan, but we've come from his opponents saying he needs to be removed because he's a super secret Russian agent to removing him for fast food and sloppy spelling.
At least they're setting the bar high.
Really, what McWhorter is saying is "Please put us, the media, back in our rightful places as arbiters and deciders of what you, the public, will read and hear."
Nice try. Personally, I've learned my lesson about trusting the gatekeepers, and I can only say "no way".
I'm still not a much of a Trump fan, but we've come from his opponents saying he needs to be removed because he's a super secret Russian agent to removing him for fast food and sloppy spelling.
Good point, John. I don’t know that I’ll ever be a Trump fan per se either, but offending the sensibilities of one’s opponents is not an impeachable offense.
Really, what McWhorter is saying is "Please put us, the media, back in our rightful places as arbiters and deciders of what you, the public, will read and hear."
Can’t argue with that either, Bubba.
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