Analysis: Off shore windfarms being abandoned in droves throughout wor...

12y ago Dec 5, 2013 at 8:28 PM

Off shore windfarms being abandoned in droves throughout world—too expensive to build &amp, operate—don’t work. (cont) http://t.co/YAm3DsC3lN

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AI Analysis

Machine-generated analysis of the post above on 2026-02-27. Not written by the author of the post.

Danger Level

None

Narcissistic State

Mixed

Authorship

Self-Written

Intensity

42%

This tweet is the second installment in a same-day chain revealing the psychological architecture of Trump's anti-wind campaign: a private financial and legal grievance — turbines near his Aberdeen golf course, with Court of Session proceedings having begun one month prior — rationalized into public economic concern. The claim that offshore wind farms were "being abandoned in droves throughout world" was false in December 2013; the industry was globally expanding at 30%+ annually, reaching 7.2 GW installed capacity that year. "Don't work" is similarly false — Vattenfall's Aberdeen turbines went on to generate power successfully from 2018 onward. The core defense mechanism is rationalization: opposition reached on self-interested grounds (Aberdeen turbines threatening golf course views, property value, and brand) is dressed as dispassionate economic analysis for mass consumption. The preceding same-day tweet naming Vattenfall and Salmond directly makes this motive transparent. The Twitlonger "(cont)" implies supporting documentation exists — a rhetorical move that performs evidentiality without supplying it. A same-day tweet ("Why is it when Warren Buffett uses bankruptcy laws...") projects financial failure anxiety onto an external target, suggesting multiple grievances active simultaneously. At narrative-identity level, Trump casts himself as the pragmatic truth-teller exposing establishment-endorsed waste. No danger indicators. This is baseline-consistent Trump for 2013: self-interested, rhetorically confident, and willing to deploy factual distortion as a litigation support tool. The pattern of laundering private grievance as public concern is a recurring signature.

Authorship Analysis

Self-Written

Indicators:

HTML entity encoding error (&amp, — comma instead of semicolon is authentic typo, not aide artifact)
Business hours timing (3:28 PM EST) is the primary aide-indicator
Direct emotional investment in actively litigated personal dispute (Court of Session hearing began November 2013)
Em-dash punctuation consistent with documented 2013 self-authored Trump posts
Chain tweet Twitlonger format consistent with Trump's 2013 posting habits

Psychological Profile

▶ State

Mixed State

Trigger: Narcissistic Injury — Defeat (Aberdeen Vattenfall wind farm receiving planning consent March 2013; Court of Session legal challenge begun November 2013)

Sentiment

-0.45

▶ Clinical

Malignant Narcissism:

Narcissistic

55%

Antisocial

48%

Paranoid

25%

Sadism

Defense Mechanisms:

rationalizationdistortionprojection

Cognitive Complexity:

Complexity

100%

Parasocial Techniques:

implicit invitation for followers to validate his legal/business position as public economic concernpositioning mass audience as co-witnesses to industry failureus-vs-them framing: pragmatic realists vs. ideological green energy establishment

Danger Assessment

None

Gaslighting Detected:

misrepresenting expanding industry as globally collapsing — stated as established fact
framing self-interested aesthetic/financial opposition as objective economic assessment
'don't work' — categorical dismissal of functioning technology deployed as common-sense truth

Reality Distortions:

'Abandoned in droves throughout world' — global offshore wind was in active expansion phase in 2013 (7.2 GW and growing 30%+ annually)
'Don't work' — offshore turbines were generating electricity at 35–45% capacity factors; Vattenfall's Aberdeen project went on to operate successfully

Fact Checks (3)

"Offshore windfarms being abandoned in droves throughout world"

Mostly False

Global offshore wind capacity was 7.2 GW in December 2013 and growing at 30%+ annually. The industry expanded 10x to 73 GW by 2023. No documented wave of mass abandonment was occurring; some projects faced cost pressures but characterization of 'droves' is unsupported.

"Too expensive to build and operate"

Mostly True

Offshore wind LCOE was approximately $150–230/MWh in 2013 vs. ~$80–100/MWh for onshore wind. Costs were high but declining rapidly. Characterization as prohibitively expensive requires context; the industry was scaling, not collapsing.

"Don't work"

False

Offshore turbines operated at 35–45% capacity factors in 2013, generating electricity as designed. Vattenfall's Aberdeen project specifically became operational in 2018, generating power successfully. The technology functioned as engineered.

Receipts

No contradictions with other posts detected yet.

Psychological Analysis: Trump Tweet, December 5, 2013 — Offshore Wind

Critical Context: Active Litigation Backdrop

This tweet is not merely opinion — it is public-facing PR deployed during active court proceedings. Trump's legal challenge against the Scottish government's consent for Vattenfall's European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (11 turbines, 3.5 km from his Menie Estate golf resort) had entered Court of Session hearings in November 2013, one month prior. The preceding tweet in the same-day chain directly tags @VattenfallGroup and @AlexSalmond, making the personal legal motive transparent. This post is the second link in a Twitlonger chain broadcasting his litigation position to a mass audience.

The Aberdeen wind farm context is essential for correct psychological interpretation. Opposition to offshore wind, for Trump in this period, is not primarily ideological — it is financially material and legally active.

Authorship Attribution

UTC 20:28 → approximately 3:28 PM EST (New York or in transit; a same-day tweet announces departure for California). Business hours timing is the sole aide-indicator. Counter-evidence is substantial: a raw HTML encoding error (&, — comma instead of semicolon is an authentic slip, not an aide artifact), em-dash punctuation consistent with Trump's 2013 self-authored posts, direct personal grievance chain (preceding tweet names Vattenfall/Salmond explicitly), and the Twitlonger "(cont)" format consistent with Trump's documented 2013 self-posting habits. The emotional investment in a personally litigated issue further supports authentic authorship. Assessment: authentic Trump, possibly dictated. Medium-high confidence.

Level 1 — Dispositional Traits (Big Five)

Low Agreeableness (0.18): Dismissive of industry expertise, scientific consensus, and government-approved projects
Low Openness (0.18): Values rigidity; pre-formed conclusion filters evidence selection entirely
High Extraversion/Assertiveness (0.72): Declarative confidence — "abandoned in droves," "don't work" — no hedging, no uncertainty
Moderate Neuroticism (0.44): Grievance-driven urgency, though restrained relative to later-period Trump rage posts
Moderate Conscientiousness (0.42): Goal-directed and purposeful, but reckless with factual accuracy

Level 2 — Characteristic Adaptations

The operative motive is unambiguously agency/power — specifically, protecting the aesthetic and financial integrity of Trump-branded golf properties and his active legal position. This tweet converts a private financial and legal grievance into a public economic argument for mass consumption.

The schema at work: wind energy advocates are ideological fools wasting money on something that demonstrably fails — the pragmatic businessman sees through it. The audience is cast as potential validators of a claim that serves Trump's litigation narrative.

The "(cont)" Twitlonger continuation implies supporting evidence exists — a rhetorical move that performs documentation without actually providing it.

Level 3 — Narrative Identity

Protagonist role: The clear-eyed pragmatist who sees through establishment-endorsed waste while experts and governments refuse to acknowledge failure
Contrasting other: Environmental bureaucrats, Vattenfall, Scottish government, green energy consensus
Identity claims: "I understand real-world economics; ideologues do not"; "I see what others are paid to ignore"
Narrative sequence: Contamination — a once-promoted technology has been globally abandoned as a failed experiment; Trump presents himself as having always known this

Level 4 — Clinical Indicators

Malignant Narcissism Assessment:

Narcissistic features (moderate, 0.55): Using a large public platform to fight a private business/legal dispute; treating personal interest as universal truth; no acknowledgment that his opposition is financially self-interested
Antisocial features (moderate, 0.48): Deployment of demonstrably false claims — offshore wind capacity was globally expanding in 2013 (7.2 GW installed, growing at 30%+ per year) — in service of personal interest; no evident concern for accuracy
Paranoid features (low, 0.25): Not prominent in this post specifically; more visible in the Aberdeen-specific tweets directly targeting Salmond
Ego-syntonic sadism (minimal, 0.08): No pleasure-in-humiliation; tone is aggrieved pragmatist rather than sadistic

Defense Mechanisms:

Rationalization (neurotic): Economic/technical argument ("too expensive," "don't work") functions as post-hoc justification for opposition reached on self-interested grounds
Distortion (pathological): "Abandoned in droves throughout world" grossly reshapes global industry reality — the offshore wind sector was in active expansion in December 2013
Projection (immature): Accusing wind energy of financial failure and dysfunction while a same-day tweet ("Why is it that when Warren Buffett uses the bankruptcy laws...") reveals Trump's own active bankruptcy grievance, displacing financial failure anxiety onto the external target

Rhetorical Analysis

Rule of three: Three sequential indictments (too expensive to build / too expensive to operate / don't work) create rhetorical momentum and false comprehensiveness — each claim reinforces the others without requiring individual proof
False definitive claim: "Abandoned in droves" stated as established fact; global capacity was growing 30%+ annually
Appeal to economics as ideology-laundering: Pragmatic framing ("expensive," "don't work") obscures self-interested aesthetic opposition
Twitlonger performative documentation: The "(cont)" implies supporting evidence is forthcoming, lending false weight
Hyperbole doubling: "in droves" + "throughout world" — two amplifiers on a claim that was false even without them
Compression of complex policy into folk wisdom: "Don't work" reduces a functioning technology to a three-word dismissal

Fact Verification

Claim	Verdict	Evidence
"Offshore windfarms being abandoned in droves throughout world"	Mostly False	Global offshore wind capacity was 7.2 GW in December 2013 and growing at 30%+ annually. The industry expanded 10x to 73 GW by 2023. No documented wave of mass abandonment was occurring; some projects faced cost pressures but characterization of 'droves' is unsupported.
"Too expensive to build and operate"	Mostly True	Offshore wind LCOE was approximately $150–230/MWh in 2013 vs. ~$80–100/MWh for onshore wind. Costs were high but declining rapidly. Characterization as prohibitively expensive requires context; the industry was scaling, not collapsing.
"Don't work"	False	Offshore turbines operated at 35–45% capacity factors in 2013, generating electricity as designed. Vattenfall's Aberdeen project specifically became operational in 2018, generating power successfully. The technology functioned as engineered.

Overall Veracity: 33%