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2024

'Seeking a better high': Linguist theorizes why Trump's talking about genitals and swaying

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American linguist John McWhorter doesn't think Donald Trump is losing his mind as some have claimed. Instead, McWhorter thinks the former president is simply bored with himself.

Writing in the New York Times, McWhorter confessed, "I’m not even sure that turning a rally over to 40 minutes of swaying to music is a sign of disinhibition..."

Trump is breaking the rules of "polite society," he said, and while many might think that it's an indication of dementia or other forms of confusion, that's not the case.

It's "because your past transgressions, however much they appalled the keepers of order, no longer give you the cheap thrills they used to," he wrote.

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It goes back to Trump's overall desire for the presidency. Trump never wanted the actual job; he wanted the attention, and he wanted to use the campaign to promote his brand, recalled the Washington Examiner.

"Trump seeks the presidency not to serve the people, a job he clearly finds onerous and unengaging, but to serve, in various ways, himself," said McWhorter.

The linguist cited a gradual increase in Trump's use of outlandish language like "truly, very, really, and actually" as an example of extravagance.

"Everything we’re seeing more of in Trump — the cussing, the going on too long almost as if seeking a better high, the exaggerating, the recreational name-calling, the references to genitals — makes sense as someone turning up the volume to keep himself entertained. His audiences have remained loyal, so it’s not them he’s worried about; this is about what’s in his own head," said the Columbia University professor.

McWhorter said his fear isn't that Trump will end up suffering from a degenerative brain disease while in office, but instead, Trump would be sane.

"What many see of late as crazy is just him champing at the bit to get into office so that he can use it for his mentally maleficent ends," he closed.

Read the full column here.