Trigger-Talking

Folks, Y'all

The other day in a post-court-appearance rally, ex-President Donald Trump broke out in a rash of folks.

            The wind had turned his teleprompters around. He improvised:

            "These teleprompters are just gonzo, folks! They're gonzo! I hate to use the word folks. Cross out the word folks. You ever hear Biden? Every other word is folks. 'Okay, folks.' It's like a nervous habit. I don't use the word folks."

            Let us stipulate, with all due reluctance, that Trump had a point: Joe Biden used the word folks twenty-one times (count 'em) in his recent State of the Union address. He reportedly exceeded that record -- notching over thirty folks's -- in at least one other recent speech.

            So the Trumpian outburst was on one level simply a chance to mock the incumbent. But wasn’t it also a sign of some drastic triggering?