Of course you don’t take anything they say at face value, but keeping track of what they emphasise, what they downplay, and how that changes over time can give you some notion of where their weak points are. Don’t listen to what they’re saying, listen to what they’re trying to hide.
In the end, though, what we want is to keep the Americans talking, rather than shooting at us. Each diplomatic conversation buys time until they either course-correct or collapse into civil war. And if that requires some MPs to sit through a dramatic reading of Trump partisan trash while not visibly rolling their eyes, well, they’re being paid well enough for it. There’s a big difference between keeping someone talking and letting yourself be persuaded by them. (People like Danielle Smith don’t need to be persuaded over to the evil side—they were on that side from the get-go.)
Of course you don’t take anything they say at face value, but keeping track of what they emphasise, what they downplay, and how that changes over time can give you some notion of where their weak points are. Don’t listen to what they’re saying, listen to what they’re trying to hide.
In the end, though, what we want is to keep the Americans talking, rather than shooting at us. Each diplomatic conversation buys time until they either course-correct or collapse into civil war. And if that requires some MPs to sit through a dramatic reading of Trump partisan trash while not visibly rolling their eyes, well, they’re being paid well enough for it. There’s a big difference between keeping someone talking and letting yourself be persuaded by them. (People like Danielle Smith don’t need to be persuaded over to the evil side—they were on that side from the get-go.)