I do think there is something to this article. It’s not a tin-foil-hat joke. The author does seems to be qualified to write it:
But I think that such techniques, like all hypnosis, are more influential than compulsive. They can influence someone, but not get them to do something they are strongly opposed to. That may be all Barry needs. We’ll find out on November 4th.
Of course. That is the whole point. That they are obviously influential.
We can all agree that:
a. 0 has persuaded a lot of folks to support him.
b. His verbal arguments do not stand up to crtical scrutiny. They are logically flawed and inconsistent with enormous gaps. e.g. making ill-founded statements like we are going to spread the wealth around.
So, there is no argument about what he is doing and what effect it is having. The only question is why is he so effective when he should not be. The study of why someone like him is persuasive to large numbers of folks is what psychology studies.