When Wallace, Biden, and Trump talk over/interrupt each other, so do the interpreters. The interpreters are definitely committed to their individual assignments, in tone and expression. I wondered if they were even in the same room. The clamor in two languages is educational--and funny in an SNL kind of way. Listening to the Spanish speakers try to keep up with the circus the debate has morphed into is strangely entertaining. If only this was satire, but it's not. That's where the funny ends and the secondary embarrassment begins. It is teaching lessons nonetheless. It reminds that when people are talking at the same time— in any language— their points are lost, and listeners are at a disadvantage. It demands that rules and expectations be changed. It suggests that viewers need not be subjected to any more of this. It screams that sober, wise, mature, competent leadership matters.
Perhaps, though, that’s the mission of rudeness: to destroy any attempt at civil discourse, or revelation of facts. Maybe it's a desperate way to hide that one is woefully unprepared, or ill informed. When one person endeavors to monopolize or derail the conversation, and can’t or won’t abide by the rules, all that listeners learn about is their own patience, and character of the participants. Listeners get to see behavior that eclipses anything they can manage to hear.
If this is the way one behaves in public, and in the presence of their peers, the private show must be terrifying, cause for great concern, and stressful, on a daily basis, for anyone who either chooses to hang around, or is powerless to get away.
It wasn't a debate. It was exhausting and abusive. I have to admit, I didn't expect it to go any other way.
Posts
