Two TV Entertainers and a Lawyer: The Quantitative Narrative Analysis of the Zelensky/Trump/Vance Debacle

The two metrics (NI, AF) are not precise, but they’re very accurate. When someone scores a ZERO for the NI and almost 4% for the AF you know he’s saying nothing. Even if he’s the Vice President.

THIRD WHEEL. The numbers don’t lie. All Vance was doing was taking shallow jabs, not presenting any real arguments. The other two have media brains. You can see it in their metrics. NI (Narrative Index) = BUTs/ANDs x 100 AF (AND Frequency) = ANDs/Total Words

Teleprompter. Scripted. That means written by Stephen Miller brain. Not Trump brain. Trump brain scores in the 30’s with near perfect AF of 2.5%. Miller brain is more cautious, scores in the mid-teens with excess ANDs. All revealed by the two simple narrative metrics (NI, AF).

OVAL OFFICE: TRUMP, ZELENSKY AND A NARRATIVE THIRD WHEEL

The first thing to note is that the president and vice president dominated the word count. They combined for over 1,000 words. Zelensky didn’t even get in half as many.

Second, look at the NI for Zelensky and Trump (which is the ratio of BUTs to ANDs multiplied by 100 to make it a whole number). A normal NI for a politician’s speech would be in the teens, in the 20’s if really good, and rarely -- if incendiary — all the way up in the 30’s. Their scores (100, 62) are crazy, yet accurate. They intuitively know how to argue.

Granted, the numbers are a little wonky because of the small sample size. Our usual criteria for analysis is at least 1000 words. Which means the scores are not at all PRECISE. But they’re accurate — both of them were arguing fiercely. If they had gone on for an hour, their NI scores probably would have leveled out in the 30’s.

And then look at Vance. Zilch for narrative content. Give him an hour, he’d probably score about the same.

MEDIA BRAIN VS LAWYER BRAIN

The lawyers in our ABT group will attest to this pattern. It’s the bane of bad lawyers — a pre-occupation with information, all the way into “The Land of And.” Look at Vance’s AF — almost over 4%. That’s a LOT of ANDs.

Then look at the two media-raised brains — both UNDER the optimum of 2.5%. They knew exactly what they were arguing. Few wasted words.

The bottom line is that we live in a “media-driven” society. Trump was pre-adapted to his current leadership role. The media landscape selected him — not just for the qualitative side of his communication (the anger and rage) but even more important, the quantitative side, meaning his grasp of narrative structure (meaning ABT structure). In a society where everyone can’t think straight anymore, he has the depth of narrative intuition that is being selected for. As I’ve been saying since 2015.

And that’s what it’s all about. Narrative selection.

ANOTHER STEPHEN MILLER SCRIPTED SPEECH

When Trump is unleashed, speaking without a teleprompter, his NI scores sail up into the 30’s. But when he is reined in by a Stephen Miller script, he’s back down in the teens. Or lower.

And look at the AF — as bad as his vice president when scripted. But then look at the Oval Office score — below the optimum. That’s the media brain in action.

To read more on this, here’s my whole collection of 25 blogposts on Trump over the past decade.