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  • Is Donald Trump Illiterate? (No, but He Deserves a Conspiracy Theory)

Is Donald Trump Illiterate? (No, but He Deserves a Conspiracy Theory)

November 01, 2016

  •  We here at What’s Trending are not above indulging the occasional conspiracy theory. It wasn’t too long ago that we were speculating that Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston’s brief relationship was fake as hell, or that Katy Perry was ripping on Taylor with her song “Rise,” or that Drake and Taylor might be a new couple. (Why are all our conspiracy theories Taylor Swift-related?)  This one, though, is especially juicy. (And has nothing to do with Taylor Swift.) On a recent episode of her show Full Frontal on TBS, Samantha Bee targeted Donald Trump’s frequent repetition of insane conspiracy theories — which he usually excuses with the phrase “people are saying”, as if that makes it any more okay to claim that his opponent is a lizard person — by making one up about the candidate himself.  Here’s the original video:

  • Source: www.youtube.com / Via: www.youtube.com

  •  In the segment, Bee lays out an incredibly convincing case that Donald Trump, billionaire, Presidential candidate, Paul Ryan’s monkey paw wish made manifest, cannot read.  Now, obviously, Donald Trump is not actually illiterate: he reads off of a teleprompter sometimes, he reads headlines about himself, and presumably he’s blown through a Zoobook or two. But that theory only holds water if you look at all the facts and judge based on reason. If you do what Trump and so many of his supporters have done, though — i.e., string together a bunch of mostly unrelated YouTube clips over dramatic music — you get something as compelling (and false) as any other conspiracy theory.  As someone who was thoroughly convinced by Loose Change for a solid eight minutes back in 2006 (before my dad yelled at me for being a dumb teenager), I see what Bee and her team are doing. Conspiracy theories are almost all bullsh*t, but there’s a reason people fall for them. Let’s just hope less than 270 electoral votes worth of them believe in nonsense next week.  What do you think? Can Donald Trump read? Let us know in the comments below or @WhatsTrending on Twitter!