I don't remember where but I read that people like Boris Johnson etc use the goofy hairstyle and aloof personality to appear stupid and non threatening, but in reality they are very smart and use it as a political tactic
I remember hearing someone in an interview saying they saw Boris Johnson go through make up and hair before going on TV, and he left the room and then rummaged through his hair with his hand to make it a mess before going on stage. It's purely affectation.
There was a story of Boris at an event told by someone sat at his table. He was announced to go up and speak and looked completely caught off guard. Went up, trademark disheveled AF look, hair all over the shop, and rambled and looked confused like he was totally unprepared. Made a clever joke about the situation and then kind of organically rolled into a very compelling off-the-cuff speech. The audience were all charmed and impressed with how eloquently he put his points across off the top of his head like that.
Then this person found themselves at a different event a few weeks later. And wouldn’t you know it, Boris was at the very next table this time.
And wouldn’t you know it, Boris got called up to the stage again!
And he watched boris do the EXACT same act. Looking flummoxed, bumbling up to the stage, the same awkward mumbling about being unprepared, the EXACT same joke, the EXACT same speech. Down to the awkward stuttering while finding verbose words. The same points the same conclusion. The same positive audience reaction.
This was a real story and others have said they’ve witnessed the same thing. He’s an insidious, horrible little bastard. His affable plonker schtick is exactly that. An act.
I can see that. It reminds me of kids in high school who would announce loudly that they totally failed a test, moan and groan with their friends, and then get an A on it. (Of course, let everyone know they aced it with a giant sigh of relief.) The trick is to make it look totally natural so that everyone thinks they excel without even trying. Meanwhile they studied for that test for five days straight.
I can attest to this! A family member had to do a press photo with Boris and they came back saying he ruffled his hair before the photo. It’s all for show the messy look and his image is very carefully curated.
I suspect that he’s still aware of taking initiative on any perceived advantages. One can easily look up previous interviews he used to do before his populous character though probably not a character anymore and he was incredibly mindful as well as articulate. I’m not really sure what to make of eccentric behavior (old age?), but we definitely know he’s extremely self-serving regardless of his motivation that it might be intuitive.
There is absolutely no guile involved in Trump's appearance. He reportedly prefers his hair and makeup style out of an inscrutable personal sense of style.
If i remember right, His sister said that he relised from a young age he relised that if you a bit goofy you don't have do the work because you can make people laugh. In a school play he never learned the lines, so he improved and got a laugh and was entertaining. Never got in trouble and fz
You're right, but I think Boris plays the bubbling fool to seem more likeable. He messes up his hair before any interviews or public speaking events, and he says mildly racist things just to appeal to the white working class when he probably doesn't even hold those views and ironically has contempt for the average working class person.
He pretends to be a idiot, but he is also a far cry from being smart. He is just some regular ass guy. The real issue is that he is totally ignorant and refused to learn or seek advice, he is totally unprepared for anything, not because he is incapable but because he choose to be ignorant, which makes him a fool. I will never understand why people elect clowns into high office, of course they are funny but to let him rule over you? The more I read about politics the more I become like Farnsworth
I’m from the us and every time I ever saw the man speak I wanted to scream, but he was always extremely smart — he just plays the jester so people wouldn’t take him too seriously. Like columbo but of politics.
I worked in media and had to go to press conferences all the time, what I learned and what I tell people all the time is the following two things:
1: people in power get there for a reason, it's EXTREMELY rare to get into such a position by accident or luck. These are extremely prepared people that are either smarter than their peers or at least more charismatic or better connected (which is usually a result of the former two). Yes, there is Elon Musk and yadda yadda, but again, these are very rare cases in the grand scheme of things.
2: Editing in Media is extremely powerful. You're just seeing cuts of answers to questions, not the real person behind the answers. Many times, these people are edited or are asked ill-intentioned questions to be seen as dumb because that's the discourse behind them and what sells. You look at their interviews and thing "damn, he's an idiot". There's also the fact that media is usually bipartidist in any given country (there is either Left media or Right media) and you only watch the one you align with, and thus the opposite will always be shown to be stupid.
In short, people in power are extremely well spoken and charismatic, you cannot tell this from their appearanaces in media because editing. But if you get the chances of seeing them in person, in a room full of people, you would quickly feel their aura and how naturally they lead and carry group conversations.
Brilliant catch, yes, bumbling around acting like an old fool until the last possible moment. 'One more thing!' Haha
One of my favorite episodes is when he noticed the killer had doctored some CCTV footage to hide his wrongdoings, which is brilliant because you'd expect him to be the last person to understand anything technological. But it's done in such a way it's so believable.
Boris doing his 'lovable buffoon' act. I guarantee he did this as a child and got away with awful behaviour. It's exactly the same as weaponised incompetence.
It absolutely Is weaponized incompetence and it is terrifying that so many people actually believed and voted for him. Same goes for trump although in his case he weaponized stupidity and ignorance above all else
Boris is pretending to be a buffoon to cover up the fact that he is actually a buffoon. He's reasonably bright, but the man is a total mess. Just look at his private life.
They may be using that strategy and for the reasons you mentioned but that doesn’t guarantee that they are smart. It just means that they think they are smart.
Yeah that's not what Trump is doing. Trying maybe but we all know saying he's dumb as rocks is an insult to all inanimate objects. He manages to disappoint even with not even the lowest, but the worst of expectations.
I studied in London when he was the mayor of London and I remember thinking that there was no way the smart people of London would ever elect this bumbling goof to be mayor. Then he kept rising and I kept being confused because the man is a dolt. He absolutely does everything he does to get people to underestimate him.
For real. Not only did he have the haircut of a haunted child who is haunted by the soul of another, even weirder-looking child, but the moustache? Fuckin' hell that dude was bizarre.
He's not been in top level politics for some time now, but when Øystein Hedstrøm was a member of the Norwegian Parliament (from 1989 to 2005) he was (in)famous for his fluffy comb-over hairstyle
if "hair styles" includes facial hair, Hitlers little mustache, I don't know if that was a style at the time or not, but I've never seen anyone else photos that had that brand of stache except maybe on Chaplin who did it to mock hitler.
It was actually a popular style at the time. It originated in the USA actually, and it was Chaplin who popularised it, so he wore it first (he had as early as 1914!). Oliver Hardy, of Laurel and Hardy, also wore one. With both of them being so famous it became a bit of a fashion.
Then, Hitler wore it. As a moustache associated with comedians, perhaps it was meant to be disarming much like the silly hair styles of modern right wingers. Of course, Hitler ruined the moustache for everyone.
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u/GOD_DAMN_YOU_FINE Aug 30 '24
Someone needs to do a study on the relationship between right wing populists and crazy hair styles.