Deflection

Another day, another hateful statement by the current occupant of the White House. I'll leave it to others to discuss whether some of his more recent outbursts were racist in nature, but will look at how these pronouncements deflect from other issues.

A common tactic used by children when caught doing something that they shouldn't be doing is to point the finger at a sibling or classmate. A co-worker from several years back, who had experience as a school principal, told me that the way that he handled these distractions was to calmly say: "That may well be, but we're not talking about them, we're talking about you." Any objective observer of Donald Trump will recognize this childish strategy.

The most recent rage tweets by Trump concerned Rep. Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House Oversight Committee. Cummings has been holding Trump's feet to the fire since the 2018 midterm elections put the Democrats in the majority, and most recently, grilled the head of the Department of Homeland Security regarding conditions at the border. What then, precipitated the attacks of the last few days against Rep. Cummings and the apocalyptic descriptions of parts of his district? Why, our old friends Fox News. https://www.theroot.com/the-president-was-up-early-rage-tweeting-about-rep-eli-1836754360

The picture then, combines deflection with the disturbing tendency of the President of The United States to set his priorities based on what he sees on Fox News. But let's get back to deflection.

While I would never ascribe logic to anything that Trump does, deflection, in the manner that he employs it, is an egregious logical fallacy. Primarily, it's what's called a red herring, which is trying to redirect the argument to another issue which the re-director can more easily address. His methods also have elements of ad hominem, where the character of the opponent is attacked as a method of undermining his argument. But despite the illogic of Trump's approach, he continues to do it because, in a sense, it works. While we were talking about the horrific conditions in which we are confining people, including citizens, at the southern border, now we're arguing about the conditions in inner-city Baltimore, whether a member of Congress is responsible for it, and whether Trump is a racist.

This isn't the only instance of deflection. A particularly relevant example was (and still is) the obstruction of the Mueller investigation. Trump's deflections in that case involved recurring and almost constant attacks on Mueller's character, the integrity of his team, and suggestions of deep state conspiracy theories. Trump achieves his goal, his idiot supporters believe it all while his detractors spin their wheels debunking the ridiculous.

Don't get distracted!