In Chapter 19 of Voices of Freedom, there were a few passages written by Mao Zedong describing his opinions on foreign affairs post-WWI. The late dictator was known for his authoritarian regime that is largely credited for bringing communism to China. Mao was still young while writing these passages and was likely just learning about Marxism-Leninism. However, there are still some striking similarities between his early writings and Trump's tweets.
It's no secret that Donald Trump's twitter account is his main form of communicating his opinions to American citizens. He is infamous for criticizing world leaders, brushing his administration's ego, and releasing contradictory statements. However, the main similarity between him and Mao's writings is the subject matter and the formatting. As described in an article by Billy Pratt, the formatting of Trump's tweets seem to follow a basic set of guidelines. They consist of a "plain statement posing as fact with a brief reactionary conclusion intended to serve at the author’s opinion." One example of this is a tweet posted by the president on October 29, 2018. It reads - "CNN and others in the Fake News Business keep purposely and inaccurately reporting that I said the “Media is the Enemy of the People.” Wrong! I said that the “Fake News (Media) is the Enemy of the People,” a very big difference. When you give out false information - not good!" This tweet accurately follows the guidelines - complete with a reactionary statement at the end.
In Mao's Poor Wilson paragraph, he also states that Wilson behaved like "an ant on a hot skillet". This is posed as a fact due to the formal writing and how it is backed up with 'evidence' throughout the paragraph. It also ends with a reactionary statement meant to serve the author's opinion. Mao finishes the paragraph by saying "I felt very sorry for him for a long time. Poor Wilson!". This is clearly a jab at the late president, and it is also clearly a biased opinion.
Mao also repeatedly belittles Wilson's tactics with foreign affairs, which is similar to how Trump regularly belittles foreign leaders and/or tactics. And while I'm not saying that Trump and Chairman Mao are exactly similar, I believe that it is important to point out the similarities in the way they express themselves.
https://killtoparty.com/2016/03/25/how-to-tweet-like-donald-trump-smart/
I really enjoy the way that you connect Mao's and Trump's writings. Though they come from different time periods and political situations, their words are comparable and thus their characters are comparable. Considering Mao was an oppressive leader, does this perhaps signify that Trump follows that same model?
ReplyDeleteI think that this is an interesting comparison between two leaders that wouldn't normally be compared. I had no idea that Mao had written about Wilson and I think that this is a very topical and interesting subject. Trump's means of communicating through twitter to reach his people is certainly a very populist way of reaching his supporter base and it makes sense that this could be compared to Mao reaching out to his Communist supporters. Also It would be nice if you could standardize the font.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was great how you were able to tie together two different men from different eras to make a point. You did a nice job displaying their similarities.
ReplyDeleteYou make a very interesting connection that I hadn't considered before. Given how similar Trumps tweets are, I wonder if it is possible to train a neural network to imitate his style of writing.
ReplyDeleteI read the topic of your article and was immediately interested. I really enjoyed reading the connections between this dictator in China and our own president Donald Trump. I'm so shocked how similar they are.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your point that Mao's writings are similar to Trumps tweets. Though not 150 characters, that excerpt from VOF was short, used easy-to-understand words, and had a bit of emotion thrown in, which is the complete opposite of all the other documents in the book. This style of writing is very effective in appealing and inciting emotion in its audience, and I think that's why Trump and Mao use it.
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