UNEās David Livingstone Smith discusses Trumpās political rhetoric on āKPFKā radio

On March 12, David Livingstone Smith, Ph.D., professor of philosophy, was interviewed for the program āThe Scholarās Circleā on radio station KPFK in Los Angeles. Smith was featured on a segment on the show dedicated to the issues of race, propaganda and ideology.
In the interview, Smith argued that President Donald Trumpās rhetorical style is very similar to the style employed by the Nazis and analyzed in āThe Psychology of Propaganda,ā a 1941 paper by R. Money-Kyrle.
Smith said of Trump, āHis rhetorical style, the approach that he used in his speeches, not just the first one but almost all the ones after it, really conformed to the analysis of Nazi rhetoric that is presented in that paper to an extraordinary degree.ā
Smith went on to describe how speeches by both Hitler and Trump seek to first evoke depression in the audience, then transition into a paranoid frenzy of blaming others and end with a manic solution. āItās a very, very powerful way of ensuring political persuasion,ā said Smith.
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