Quote:
Originally Posted by Yamer
Despite you reiterating that claim in your follow-up post, you definitely meant it desparingingly, perhaps abelit unconsciously. Saying this means that his only skill is the ability to memorize lines, and his only talent was to teach others how to memorize lines.
There's a reason that the best and brightest at any particular task or knowledge set aren't automatically the best at teaching. Gretzky was an unmitigated failure as a coach. It takes strength in many diverse characteristics to impart skill and knowledge to others, and in order to become and be successful as a teacher you need to demonstrate compassion, understanding, flexibility, empathy, communication, and a whole list of other things beyond the subject matter.
That statement is unequivocally disrespectful, no matter how you intended it.
I always appreciated his comments after Gord Downie's passing.
Sure, you can say that we knew for a while what was coming. Even if we did, think about how taken aback, as a fan (if you were one), you were when it happenned? How taken aback would a friend be? Trudeau, by all appearances, was both to Downie. Preparation falls away. In that clip he seemed very genuine and eloquent despite the situation.
You've done an effective job of summarizing the personality and rhetorical capabilities of pretty well every modern politician. If Obama is your bar then you have unrealistic expectations as that man was and remains outside of his time. We've now devolved into the dichotomy of one side pounding buzz words and dogwhistles, while the other tries to be as vanilla as possible in a lame attempt to stay above the fray.
Besides, I've never understood the value placed on a politician's, or anyone's really, ability to react on their feet deftly as if they were in an Aaron Sorkin political drama. If I sputtered out my initial thoughts to your response in real time it wouldn't have been this measured and composed. We have the benefit of a message forum, but even in the real world I have far greater appreciation for someone that takes the time to give me a thoughtful response.
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Alright, fair enough. As I said, I didnt mean to be disrespectful, but we're not going to agree on Trudeau.
At the end of the day though, can we at least agree that thankfully he slapped down some anti-abortion lunatic?
We probably need to raise the voting age.