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In a speech that was equal parts celebration and self-congratulation, regularly punctuated by applause from the crowd, the president recalled his longtime support of tariffs, as well as his early criticism of free trade agreements like Nafta and the World Trade Organization.

The Academy Awards are not just an evening of self-congratulation.

Maybe she naturally understands that nobody wants to walk away from this self-congratulation fest with a bitter taste in their mouths.

We evaluate that rhetoric through a dense thicket of perceived context and self-congratulation, either by how we claim it makes us feel or by our semi-informed guesses about how it makes other imagined listeners feel, those of course less savvy and more easily swayed than ourselves.

That view prefers to fast-forward to triumphalism and self-congratulation rather than acknowledge the truth behind it: We have been here all along.