two things I want to talk about:

>trump saying “we’re going to make a deal for greenland”

>being funny as an oration tool

Trump v. Greenland

Trump just says stuff. This is a known thing. He does it all the time.

What’s interesting to me is the vagueness of the statement above. “We’re going to make a deal for Greenland.”

ok, what does that even mean? in this way, when observing what people assume it to mean, the statement operates as a Rorschach Test. what one thinks it means it a statement about what one thinks about the current president and his geopolitical jockeying.

not exactly a breakthrough statement. not exactly a paradigm shifting take. but it’s important to remember. it’s important to keep in mind, “ok, what is this person really saying with their statement?”, because often times it’s really just a big nothingburger.

Oration and Being Funny

I was looking for the definition of “object-level” today, and lo and behold, I stumble across r/slatestarcodex. in the post, someone asks, “why do people say X when Y already means that and is more easily understood?”, to which someone replied, “because sometimes using different words helps people engage.”; I’m paraphrasing both these points, but this is the gist.

and then I thought, “you know, comedy kind of folds in here too, because you can use humor as a hook, you can use it to grab people’s attention in a world where literally every product and consumable Thing is trying to do just that.

the specific joke structure of This Thing But It’s Actually That Thing actually works very well to grab people’s attention and get them more engaged then they typically would be.

habituation is very much a thing. people also tend to largely operate on cognitive autopilot. these two things in conjuction give rise to a world where information exchange, or more simply put “interpersonal communcation” can fall into predictable patterns, ultiamtely resulting in people just sort of sauntering through conversations, hearing things but not really listening.

when you switch the words, and furthermore, when you do so in a way that makes things funny, you are able to override this autopilot mode, and cut through all the informational slop and actually get someone to meaningfully engage with your message.

not surprisingly this is also why the best posters are OG OC-producing shitposters. they have certain style that’s able to slice the noise on the timeline.

so, to wrap this biddie up…

>next time you hear a vague statement, understand that it’s just that; vague, a nothing, a void. clock it, note it, but don’t let it rule your emotions. that’s just silly.

>speaking of silly, you need to tactfully — tactfully, please — use humor in your communications processes. doing so both neutralizes any threatening subject matter, as is the job of comedy in general, and also keeps your audience engaged by zigging when they expect a zag.