1. Since JFK, all USA presidents have used TV to one degree or another, but Trump is truly the first thoroughly television president.
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3. The flip side of being a TV president is that Trump is not at all a reader. As far as I can tell, the first post-literate USA president.
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4. Trump invites us to revisit the ideas of Marshall McLuhan, Walter Ong, Neil Postman & others about literacy as a state of mind.
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5. According to McLuhan et. al., print doesn't just contain information but also fosters mental habits: linear, analytical, logical thinking
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6. Pushing point further, McLuhan et al thought post-print electronic culture (not just TV but digital) fostering new mental habits.
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7. TV, by this view, had many features in common with orality: immediacy, primacy of personality, love of sharp outlines.
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8. One example: Trump's use of nicknames ("Crooked Hilary) comes from wrestling but also harkens back to to bardic warriors.
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9. I look at Trump as the triumph of a post-literate age here:https://newrepublic.com/article/144940/trump-tv-post-literate-american-presidency …
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End of conversation
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This all started when he saw his first episode of Lassie and his dad wouldn't let him get a dog, didn't it?
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Also, the electorate is majority generations raised by television. Tv people elected tv person.
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The prism through which Mr. Trump views the world: The white sheet… ttps://twitter.com/cnn/status/898401838646546432
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