Donald Trump is getting crushed by the laws of physics
Whenever the laws of physics have been overturned or improved upon, they have been done so by scientists who were magnificently prepared. Galileo, Newton, Einstein and other such revolutionaries always had one thing in common. They comprehended the physics of their time very, very well. Their new and stunning insights into the physical world sprang from a well of deep understanding. Such deep insights never come from ignorance or superstition.
For example, people who think that the earth is flat (and I employ the word “think” in its most generous sense), claim they are misunderstood in the same way Galileo, Newton and Einstein were misunderstood in their day. They see themselves as revolutionaries, and the rest of us are ignoramuses of the same stripe as the naysayers of yore. But you don’t have to listen to them very long before you realise they are lacking an essential ingredient of those great innovators. They don’t know what the hell they are talking about.
They commonly confuse speed with velocity, they confuse density with a force, they misunderstand the forces involved in angular momentum, they make rudimentary errors that would embarrass an English major reluctantly enrolled in Physics 101 as a requirement. This is a feature of the Dunning Kruger effect, of course, a study from the 1990s that exposed a common cognitive bias, where people with very little expertise or ability assume they have superior expertise or ability. In short, they don’t have enough knowledge to know they don’t have enough knowledge.
This tendency is overrepresented among Republicans. For example, some MAGAs, who are barely monolingual, insist that others — especially foreigners — should speak English, because English was good enough for Jesus and the disciples. I’m not making that up. Such wondrous instances of ignorance really aren’t all that uncommon.
Then there’s Donald Trump. Trump recently posted a photo of an enthusiastic crush of supporters crowded around Air Force Two. He further exposed his deep insecurity (stemming from deep inadequacy) when he crowed: “Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport? There was nobody at the plane, and she ‘A.I.’d’ it [i.e., used artificial intelligence to “fake” it], and showed a massive ‘crowd’ of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST! She was turned in by a maintenance worker at the airport when he noticed the fake crowd picture, but there was nobody there, later confirmed by the reflection of the mirror like finish on the Vice Presidential Plane.”
Snopes.com has tested this particular photograph and confirmed there are no telltale artefacts suggesting it’s AI. But this blather by Trump betrays a fundamental ignorance of how light works, and it’s parroted by his equally ignorant followers. “Angle in equals angle out.” That’s how light works. That is, the reflection from the mirror-like engines in the plane shouldn’t reflect the crowd in the photo, it should reflect whatever is not in the photo to the far right of the plane. Because the engines are off to the right of the photo, and the angle from the camera to the engine is oblique, it is clearly reflecting a part of the tarmac where there is no crowd.
That should be immediately obvious to anyone who has ever thought about how light works, or has studied the physics of light. But the explanation requires time and thought, two quantities MAGAs have very little of.
Of course, just about every Trump accusation has its roots in projection. Trump and his cultists are well-known for abusing artificial intelligence. We all know about the Trump cards for sale, with Trump as cowboy or astronaut or superhero. We’ve all seen the AI photo of Trump praying in church — complete with six fingers.
Anyway, my favourite part of what Trump had to say on the subject of Kamala’s Air Force Two picture comes next. Trump further wrote: “She’s a CHEATER. She had NOBODY waiting, and the ‘crowd’ looked like 10,000 people! Same thing is happening with her fake ‘crowds’ at her speeches. This is the way the Democrats win Elections, by CHEATING.”
How pathetic Trump is, Trump and his crowd sizes. Freud must be grinning somewhere. Well, I don’t know how you can “cheat” an election by exaggerating your crowd sizes. After all, it didn’t work for Trump in 2020. But I don’t care. The trick here is to let them think we’re exaggerating crowd sizes, or using AI to alter photos. If they think that then maybe they’ll get comfy, and if they get comfy maybe they won’t work so hard.
Sometimes the Dunning Kruger-style ignorance of your opponent can be useful. This may be one of those times. Let’s use their ignorance against them. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.