This is a symptom of the much deeper problem: Donald Trump has planted authoritarianism across America and only his humiliation and conviction will pull it out by the roots
“We were wrong.” Those are the hardest three words to spit out in Trump World.
Another, it-goes-without-saying, baseline psychological trait of the authoritarian mindset, the most essential part of radicalized political, religious, and militaristic “reeducation” programs the world over, is an unwavering conviction that one’s esoteric revelations of outside reality are the correct ones despite empirical evidence to the contrary. “I have invested too much precious time and energy in developing my ideation; I simply cannot be wrong; it is the core of who I am.”
The bone-rattling shock of actually being wrong would make a zealot's entire identity, indeed their whole life, meaningless. An overwhelming sense of a righteous self cannot tolerate such a threat to the undying faith in one’s superior intelligence. Self-centered egoists and malignant narcissists cannot bear the thought of abandoning their belief systems for the truth staring them in the face. Authoritarian leaders and followers are always right, even when they’re wrong.
That’s Trump and Trumpism in a nutshell. According to Michael Cohen, his former fixer, and Mary Trump, his swindled niece, Donald’s biggest fear is to appear as the pathetic loser he is. That’s why he projects “loser” onto others who dare cross him. Whenever the dust settles on whichever problem du jour threatens his fragile ego, he must always emerge victorious, at least in his own mind, thinking himself the long-suffering hero surrounded by dolts while other vicious predators are out to get him. His major source of pride, his fuel, is an uncanny ability to convince others of his innate superiority, thus his heroin-like addiction to the cheering MAGA crowds, a true ego rush.
He is by nature a despicable, low-brow, money-grubbing grifter who should be locked up for a lifetime of debauchery and criminal behavior. Let the “stable genius” stew on what has become of his miserable life while languishing behind bars where he belongs. (And keep his cell-block TV tuned to MSNBC, blaring night and day.) To live stark, isolated lives and dwell on their crimes against humanity should be the ultimate fate of every top-tier autocratic leader in the world who violates their public trust and oath of office to such horrific degrees. That’s more fitting than execution. Living is harder than dying.
So there sits your great white savior: a sad, broken, angry old man muttering to himself over lost glory days, cursing the shattered pieces of his worthless life as the world moves on without him. It’s the unvarnished image of a washed-up has-been out of touch with reality — not quite the glistening, shirtless macho-man adorning the overlarge flags in the back of the obnoxious Trump trucks, rolling coal down Main Street; not quite the infallible leader his duped followers thought he was. A whiny, spoiled brat, he’s not even a worthy martyr. He's not someone your kids should look up to.
To be civilized, a society has to prove wrong those who think they can do no wrong, especially small-minded hucksters and carnival barkers, peddling hate and division for their own profit and glory, who rise to positions of influential they do not deserve.
This writing is "Exhibit A" on how to keep morale as we tire from our efforts to heave this nation (and perhaps humanity itself) from the wreckage of the permanent half-mast status it has fallen to.
As a former firefighter I can say there is a clear line of demarcation in character traits between law enforcement and ems/ fire personnel. Our missions do not align well. Who, what, where, when or why are only important in so far as their relevance to best care for patients/ victims. The cops certainly didn't share this view. They were mostly just an additional obstacle on already difficult scenes.
N.W.A. never did write a song titled: "Fuck the FD"...
The tax and financial cases have the best chance of piercing the entrancement of Trump's devotees. Criminal cases; especially politics-related, will be shrugged off as "witch hunts." But being exposed as broke: that will reset some of the mania. "House of cards;" "Feet of clay;" it's so American to see God's favor in "success," as Thom points out. I also suspect that the high percentage of authoritarians in white America is in the DNA of the early European immigrants. Hello, religious fanatics fleeing "persecution?" Irrationally devoted to a strong man? Ring a bell?
Perhaps Trump is not the planter, he is the fertilizer. It indeed seems every country has a percentage of people willing to revert to the dark ages. Once given "permission" the rude, the bullies and the criminals can't wait to see how far they can take things.
I'm in the midst of a book about the women of the Holocaust in Poland. What's striking is the generational rift; the oldsters didn't want to fight back in Warsaw. They were thinking, if they just followed the rules, they would be alright. But as we all know, the power drunk bullies and criminals in uniform just changed the rules to make survival impossible. That sounds all too familiar.
Also at first, the Warsaw elders would not accept what the younger people reported about the camps. We saw these old Republicans make dated excuses for Trump. Examples are it's "locker room talk" and the info given was from "disgruntled employees". Then gradually they stopped making excuses and just fell into his patterns and are now doing whatever stupid or brutal thing they choose. Trump thought he could do as he chose. They loved him when he did that, because he was rich and hateful to the left. Well his choices have been cut off one by one. His actions and their actions have already resulted in jail and prison time for many. Steady on, all the sh*t he used as fertilizer has not been exposed, but it's coming.
Glad you asked: The Light of Days : the untold story of women resistance fighters in Hitler's ghettos / Judy Batalion. It came out in April 2021. My rule is no comparisons to the Holocaust. Had to break it. We THINK we are surrounded by decent people, but it is amazing what they can do and how fast it will happen. The lesson is our side's version of your "we were wrong" comment.
Thanks. Sounds like a must read. Very recent too. Yup, it's truly alarming, the cruelty humans are capable of as they descend further into madness. But it's important to know the stories of those who fight back and to understand why it's so critical to do so.
Iam hopeful. But anyone republicans get to take his place will be just as bad, maybe worse. I believe Desatan is next in line for their primary. That’s a scary thought.
A comment on the flight attendant situation. I was one for 38 years. We are tough and we have laws to back us up. It is a federal law that passenger cannot interfere with our duties. The idiots who try it end up federally charged and convicted. You just don't see what happens after the plane activity. Add to that the image of the flight attendant has been problematic in spite of 40+ years of progress from the old image of being sexy, available babes. We won lawsuits all the way up to the Supreme Court that we have rights to chose how we manage our careers. We no longer have to retire at an age set by the companies, we can be married Moms too. Most of us are in a union that continues to serve us. There is a meme currently making the rounds of social media that says, "Don't mess around with that old lady who used to be a flight attendant". We've been through all the wars.
I used to wonder how people could follow a Hitler or a Stalin, but I understood after working in a few toxic environments where an authoritarian follower made life miserable for everyone else. Such a situation doesn't even need a dictator at the top, just a weak boss who tacitly leans on such followers. It is astonishing the damage these people can do, and they don't seem to realize it either. As far as I can tell, in their minds everybody else would act just the same if they could, and any perceived personal slight demands instant vengeance.
That brings us to Trump of course, and his habit of turning on anyone who trusts him. Apparently in his mind nobody is good enough to really trust back. So when they "fail" he will strike. His opinion of everybody (except maybe Kim and Putin) is really low, perhaps because he is a terrified little man. Put that way his followers are even more pathetic in their belief of him as a leader.
Along these lines Booker T. Washington said something very profound, that you can show strength either by pulling people up or by pushing them down. And somebody at The New Yorker once wrote that Trump can only see himself as big when he makes everybody else little. Put that mindset together with people who crave an authority to tell them what to do--and perhaps bring out their own worst instincts--and you have a very dangerous situation.
Still waiting for Trump to be charged but I don’t believe it will ever happen. The prosecutors in NY was a start for him to slither out from under any accountability. Or he’ll fine someone to throw under the bus.
“We were wrong.” Those are the hardest three words to spit out in Trump World.
Another, it-goes-without-saying, baseline psychological trait of the authoritarian mindset, the most essential part of radicalized political, religious, and militaristic “reeducation” programs the world over, is an unwavering conviction that one’s esoteric revelations of outside reality are the correct ones despite empirical evidence to the contrary. “I have invested too much precious time and energy in developing my ideation; I simply cannot be wrong; it is the core of who I am.”
The bone-rattling shock of actually being wrong would make a zealot's entire identity, indeed their whole life, meaningless. An overwhelming sense of a righteous self cannot tolerate such a threat to the undying faith in one’s superior intelligence. Self-centered egoists and malignant narcissists cannot bear the thought of abandoning their belief systems for the truth staring them in the face. Authoritarian leaders and followers are always right, even when they’re wrong.
That’s Trump and Trumpism in a nutshell. According to Michael Cohen, his former fixer, and Mary Trump, his swindled niece, Donald’s biggest fear is to appear as the pathetic loser he is. That’s why he projects “loser” onto others who dare cross him. Whenever the dust settles on whichever problem du jour threatens his fragile ego, he must always emerge victorious, at least in his own mind, thinking himself the long-suffering hero surrounded by dolts while other vicious predators are out to get him. His major source of pride, his fuel, is an uncanny ability to convince others of his innate superiority, thus his heroin-like addiction to the cheering MAGA crowds, a true ego rush.
He is by nature a despicable, low-brow, money-grubbing grifter who should be locked up for a lifetime of debauchery and criminal behavior. Let the “stable genius” stew on what has become of his miserable life while languishing behind bars where he belongs. (And keep his cell-block TV tuned to MSNBC, blaring night and day.) To live stark, isolated lives and dwell on their crimes against humanity should be the ultimate fate of every top-tier autocratic leader in the world who violates their public trust and oath of office to such horrific degrees. That’s more fitting than execution. Living is harder than dying.
So there sits your great white savior: a sad, broken, angry old man muttering to himself over lost glory days, cursing the shattered pieces of his worthless life as the world moves on without him. It’s the unvarnished image of a washed-up has-been out of touch with reality — not quite the glistening, shirtless macho-man adorning the overlarge flags in the back of the obnoxious Trump trucks, rolling coal down Main Street; not quite the infallible leader his duped followers thought he was. A whiny, spoiled brat, he’s not even a worthy martyr. He's not someone your kids should look up to.
To be civilized, a society has to prove wrong those who think they can do no wrong, especially small-minded hucksters and carnival barkers, peddling hate and division for their own profit and glory, who rise to positions of influential they do not deserve.
well said -thank you
That’s a great assessment. Well said.
This writing is "Exhibit A" on how to keep morale as we tire from our efforts to heave this nation (and perhaps humanity itself) from the wreckage of the permanent half-mast status it has fallen to.
As a former firefighter I can say there is a clear line of demarcation in character traits between law enforcement and ems/ fire personnel. Our missions do not align well. Who, what, where, when or why are only important in so far as their relevance to best care for patients/ victims. The cops certainly didn't share this view. They were mostly just an additional obstacle on already difficult scenes.
N.W.A. never did write a song titled: "Fuck the FD"...
The tax and financial cases have the best chance of piercing the entrancement of Trump's devotees. Criminal cases; especially politics-related, will be shrugged off as "witch hunts." But being exposed as broke: that will reset some of the mania. "House of cards;" "Feet of clay;" it's so American to see God's favor in "success," as Thom points out. I also suspect that the high percentage of authoritarians in white America is in the DNA of the early European immigrants. Hello, religious fanatics fleeing "persecution?" Irrationally devoted to a strong man? Ring a bell?
And he just got millions in a loan off one of his buildings recently. How the hell does that happen??
Perhaps Trump is not the planter, he is the fertilizer. It indeed seems every country has a percentage of people willing to revert to the dark ages. Once given "permission" the rude, the bullies and the criminals can't wait to see how far they can take things.
I'm in the midst of a book about the women of the Holocaust in Poland. What's striking is the generational rift; the oldsters didn't want to fight back in Warsaw. They were thinking, if they just followed the rules, they would be alright. But as we all know, the power drunk bullies and criminals in uniform just changed the rules to make survival impossible. That sounds all too familiar.
Also at first, the Warsaw elders would not accept what the younger people reported about the camps. We saw these old Republicans make dated excuses for Trump. Examples are it's "locker room talk" and the info given was from "disgruntled employees". Then gradually they stopped making excuses and just fell into his patterns and are now doing whatever stupid or brutal thing they choose. Trump thought he could do as he chose. They loved him when he did that, because he was rich and hateful to the left. Well his choices have been cut off one by one. His actions and their actions have already resulted in jail and prison time for many. Steady on, all the sh*t he used as fertilizer has not been exposed, but it's coming.
What's the title of that book?
Glad you asked: The Light of Days : the untold story of women resistance fighters in Hitler's ghettos / Judy Batalion. It came out in April 2021. My rule is no comparisons to the Holocaust. Had to break it. We THINK we are surrounded by decent people, but it is amazing what they can do and how fast it will happen. The lesson is our side's version of your "we were wrong" comment.
Thanks. Sounds like a must read. Very recent too. Yup, it's truly alarming, the cruelty humans are capable of as they descend further into madness. But it's important to know the stories of those who fight back and to understand why it's so critical to do so.
Yes. Just look at Ukraine right now. Defending their homes.
Iam hopeful. But anyone republicans get to take his place will be just as bad, maybe worse. I believe Desatan is next in line for their primary. That’s a scary thought.
Dear Thom,
I want to draw your attention to something that is going to destroy Medicare as it was first designed. Please read the following and watch the videos.
DCEs- Handing Traditional Medicare to Wall Street - PNHP 2.webloc
A comment on the flight attendant situation. I was one for 38 years. We are tough and we have laws to back us up. It is a federal law that passenger cannot interfere with our duties. The idiots who try it end up federally charged and convicted. You just don't see what happens after the plane activity. Add to that the image of the flight attendant has been problematic in spite of 40+ years of progress from the old image of being sexy, available babes. We won lawsuits all the way up to the Supreme Court that we have rights to chose how we manage our careers. We no longer have to retire at an age set by the companies, we can be married Moms too. Most of us are in a union that continues to serve us. There is a meme currently making the rounds of social media that says, "Don't mess around with that old lady who used to be a flight attendant". We've been through all the wars.
Another post to put into my Thom file. Thanks professor, I use your material a WHOLE lot. I play TAG YOUR IT.
Great Article, so true thank Thom see you inabout 40 minutes
I used to wonder how people could follow a Hitler or a Stalin, but I understood after working in a few toxic environments where an authoritarian follower made life miserable for everyone else. Such a situation doesn't even need a dictator at the top, just a weak boss who tacitly leans on such followers. It is astonishing the damage these people can do, and they don't seem to realize it either. As far as I can tell, in their minds everybody else would act just the same if they could, and any perceived personal slight demands instant vengeance.
That brings us to Trump of course, and his habit of turning on anyone who trusts him. Apparently in his mind nobody is good enough to really trust back. So when they "fail" he will strike. His opinion of everybody (except maybe Kim and Putin) is really low, perhaps because he is a terrified little man. Put that way his followers are even more pathetic in their belief of him as a leader.
Along these lines Booker T. Washington said something very profound, that you can show strength either by pulling people up or by pushing them down. And somebody at The New Yorker once wrote that Trump can only see himself as big when he makes everybody else little. Put that mindset together with people who crave an authority to tell them what to do--and perhaps bring out their own worst instincts--and you have a very dangerous situation.
Still waiting for Trump to be charged but I don’t believe it will ever happen. The prosecutors in NY was a start for him to slither out from under any accountability. Or he’ll fine someone to throw under the bus.