Is it really meaningful to spend this level of resources and attention into something which has little practical value? Do I, as a reader, need to be informed of this information? Does it meaningfully inform me in any way?
Since the author doesn't disclose whether they are board certified or even in the US it's hard to tell if they are liable for defamation by giving such an opinion. The American Psychiatric Association reminded their professionals in 2016 to refrain from violating the "Goldwater Rule" by publicly diagnosing politicians.
The article doesnt claim he does or doesn't. It just looks at the data. The conclusion explains there isnt any conclusive evidence either way. Did you read it?
While it may seem “obvious” to some of us that Trump isnt the man he used to be in terms of cognitive or speaking ability, sussing out proof of this decline is harder than one might imagine. Although there are some clues, they are far from conclusive. By comparing Trump with Sanders, we see similarities in changes over time, perhaps with Trump’s changes being mildly more pronounced. Whether this means both Trump and Sanders have declining cognitive abilities is an open question. For now, it appears there isn’t enough of a change over time to find anything resembling conclusive evidence for Trump having dementia, Alzheimer’s or other cognitive decline.
How many things can a single article conflate?
'reading ease' amounts to applying a three-variable regression on a text and basically says "longer words and sentences make you sound smart." It's not the tool you want to use to measure "sophistication."
Even if we were to use such a crude metric, cognitive decline does not mean a person's speech becomes simpler or easier to understand. It's just the opposite (see word salad: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_salad).
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 14.8 ms ] threadhttps://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/08/13/4898074...
While it may seem “obvious” to some of us that Trump isnt the man he used to be in terms of cognitive or speaking ability, sussing out proof of this decline is harder than one might imagine. Although there are some clues, they are far from conclusive. By comparing Trump with Sanders, we see similarities in changes over time, perhaps with Trump’s changes being mildly more pronounced. Whether this means both Trump and Sanders have declining cognitive abilities is an open question. For now, it appears there isn’t enough of a change over time to find anything resembling conclusive evidence for Trump having dementia, Alzheimer’s or other cognitive decline.
Even if we were to use such a crude metric, cognitive decline does not mean a person's speech becomes simpler or easier to understand. It's just the opposite (see word salad: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word_salad).