Bill Nemitz wrote a delightful and entertaining – yet factually based – column May 25 regarding Gov. LePage’s misrepresentation of events and how he’s going to appeal for help from the federal government.
The column was informative and noted several things LePage has said and done, of which I was not aware; wow, and we’re stuck with this for several more years.
But Nemitz’s last sentence, “So we might as well be entertained,” bothered me. Framing LePage’s behavior and commentary as entertainment buys into the Trumpian framework that silly and stupid is entertaining. It isn’t.
Yes, it’s laughable, but not funny. We say to ourselves, “Did he really say that? Did he really do that?” and the item to which we are responding becomes the centerpiece of the news cycle for the next several days. It’s not entertainment; it’s manipulation.
It’s also called “defensive talking.” Basically it works because the speaker is thinking “if I say this, I don’t have to say that,” where “that” is a significant social, economic or political issue.
Nemitz entertains me from a fact-based platform; Donald Trump and Paul LePage don’t and, at their core, they flee from fact.
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