Trump is Antifragile

It occurred to me when speaking with a friend that most political pundits and folks in the blogosphere don’t understand Donald Trump. They don’t get why he is appealing to many, how he consistently resists attack, and how even the National Review’s pull-all-the-stops assault failed to even make a dent in his ratings.

The reason is what Nassim Nicholas Taleb calls antifragility. If you are not familiar with the term, it means exactly what it says on the tin, the opposite of fragility. Only this isn’t what most people think when asked what the opposite of fragility is. Most would say “strong.” But what is fragility? It is vulnerability, it is something that is lessened when struck with great force or chaos. Something that is strong would resist the strike. But something that is antifragile would gain with the strike.

And that’s the essence of Donald Trump’s entire campaign. The more you attack him, the more he gains. When the National Review runs an anti-Trump issue, they are benefiting him. When Megyn Kelly attacks him for his views on women and feminism, he gains from this. The more hate the media slings his way, the stronger he becomes....

But, fellow conservatives, you need to learn from Trump, no matter how unpleasant you may find this. This is how you play the game when the other side has rigged it against you. You don’t supplicate. You don’t play defense. You don’t cave in. You deliberately cultivate their attacks against you, and use their shrieking, shrill attacks as fuel for your campaign. This is what Republicans, for as long as I can remember, have failed to understand.