"When I watch this group move in unison toward this kind of partisan fuckery I think I am staring into the face of pure evil."
That would be because you are. Also the face of pure stupidity. People conditioned by TV to believe that Donald Trump is a "dealmaker." He is. A bad one. Anyone else would have been in prison by now. His father may not have loved him, but he certainly made a paternal commitment to bail Trump out of every stupid "deal" he made, even bankrolling another casino as the flames closed over the wreckage of the first. Trump adulation is the triumph of belief over truth, and it always ends badly. Scott Adams, creator óf Dilbert, believed that in Trump he had seen an influence skills wizard, followed that belief to the point where he didn't have a career anymore. Even the money from Dilbert couldn't keep newspapers on side, and he ended up as a Trump evangelist, pissing off most of his loyal readers on a variety of platforms. An irony, as Trump lacked a single percent of the talent that Adams had at his best.
I have a theory: for people like myself Trump is the antithesis of what we expect humans to be, but for others it's like discovering cocaine that you can mainline into your brain, then start gibbering about three-dimensional chess. He fills something lacking in these people, like the last piece of a psychological jigsaw puzzle. We will never understand it, because all we see is a fat guy with a preposterous haircut bullshitting. But if you look at all the enterprises people have stumped up cash to support him in (often to their own detriment) there is definitely some appeal there. God knows what it is, and the sooner it's gone the better. But remember this: like Jim Jones' followers these people are marked for life, and will always respond to the same stimulus. Whatever the fuck it is.
“The constituency that bought master dealmaker in 2016 has built its political identity around the proposition that they bought correctly. To accept that they bought wrongly would require them to revise their political identity. The revision is too costly. So the evidence is reframed instead. Already legendary is what the apparatus tells the constituency, and the constituency repeats it because repeating it is what membership in the constituency now requires.”
So timely, so spot on, and absolutely speaks to the utter frustration and anger so many people feel. And the conclusion is where we stand at this moment, without answers to why, why is this all so ignorant and without decency, what is the purpose and how can the believers still make excuses. Again this is a very timely piece that honestly was meant to land in my hands this morning for it says exactly what I feel.
I too grabbed that para to refer to later. It's absolute clarity. This and others like it from Mike have helped me understand what was previously frustrating and impossible to comprehend. I only hope I can articulate as well as he does to the people around me.
Totally understand your point. Sometimes I confess his knowledge is way beyond and I think dang I’m wading here, where’s he going, but then I persist in reading and I know clarity will come and as well I have such limited knowledge. And of course, like here it’s just so very much the truth and so perfectly stated. He is amazingly, prolifically dedicated to his mission, when does the dude sleep?
This is so concisely brilliant about something that should be the fundamental topic of all education: critical analysis of evidence to support, refute, or modify conclusions.
More tersely: thinking about thinking. Definitely including the assertion that some kinds of drawing conclusions are *wrong*.
Might this seem extremely anti-democratic and elitist? It shouldn't. Thinking clearly about evidence and conclusions doesn't require anything fancy beyond basic common sense logic, which is sometimes more available to people with less formal education.
I am reminded that, years ago, the Texas state school board made it an official criterion that textbooks could not include critical thinking, because it might cause students to question what their elders and betters told them.
It is generally acknowledged that whatever Texas chooses in its textbooks heavily influences the textbook industry, as Texas mandates the same books statewide. It doesn't make economic sense for a textbook manufacturer to produce texts that would not be purchased in Texas, even for sale in states with very different educational philosophies.
As is customary, I will try to end this on an optimistic note.
Who would ever have predicted that millions of people would be following every word of three history professors (Cox Richardson, Snyder, and Ben-ghiat) as one of the most practical ways to think about the current dilemma? People are obviously hungry for this.
Mike Brock adds to this pool of useful thinking tools, for which I am grateful.
I think what’s happened is the GOP has turned conspiracy theory into an ideology. In this make believe world, the absence of evidence is the strongest evidence of all.
Mike, in your article on Trump, the deal maker, you outdid yourself. It boggles the mind how the wealthy elite have brainwashed, rational human beings to give obedience to this destructive deal maker. I truly believe this always goes to the deep mystery of human evil that is the temptation to the lust to dominate.
The lust for power is both seductive and very dangerous and destructive. It is what we are witnessing today. We can only hope that those higher forces of wisdom/love/compassion that all the great spiritual traditions reveal will somehow triumph over this evil. Let us pray.
We're talking about the Dunning-Kruger Party and its fantasyland boss, all of whom were denied their humanity as children (neglect and abuse) and thus operate at a 2-year old version of grievance, needing every kind of conceivable attention more than anything. Trying to ascribe sense to this is a fool's errand. What's needed is their sequestration and compassionate therapy. Elected and led by a whole class of such sad victims, it should focus our attention on how to innoculate others or otherwise legislate restrictions on their participation in public life. Sorry, they've led us to planetary destruction, the 6th Mass Extinction and the transformation of Earth's climate beyond what we evolved in -- I can't be forgiving.
For some time I have seen Trump as the embodiment of banality. It's almost like spending time in his aura infects people and they become the worst version of themselves. Then Tucker had his NYT interview and said he felt it in person! (not that he is a trustworthy on most things) I am not a religious person but after reading into how the people followed along with Hitler and other times people have forgone their own morality for a charismatic leader I cannot help but feel there is a metaphysical force involved. For why people back Israel no matter what there is a huge faction on the American right that believes they won't bring Jesus back if they don't support them. It's a death cult leaving no room for rational thought or neoliberal technocrats.
My mother, as a teenager in Germany in the 30’s, attended a Hitler rally. She told us that she spent the whole time reminding herself that she was American and Catholic to counter the pull from the speech.
Far more tragic than any economic suffering inflicted on USAians (or anyone else in developed countries), or even, by sheer weight of numbers, the destruction inflicted upon Iranians, is the mass famine and death that will soon follow in the developing world due to the energy and fertilizer shortages that are now inevitable because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Donald and Bibi are every bit as responsible for those deaths as they are for the deaths in Iran resulting from the bombings.
“The one thing that you need to understand about Trump is that he is, at his core, a con man with no empathy. Therefore, he assumes that all other people are also con men with no empathy, and every exchange of goods and services that exists in the world is, on some level, a con. Trump assumes every transaction in the world — between people, businesses, nation-states, even between two different agencies of the same government — has a winner and a loser, a scammer and a sucker. He believes if you’re not ripping someone off, you’re getting ripped off. … This is why Trump will never, ever, be able to negotiate with the rest of the world. He doesn’t believe in mutual benefit. The second anyone tells him ‘this is your end of the deal’ he’ll rip it up. He believes only one party can have an end of the deal, and it shouldn’t be him.”
“And many Americans still believe this man is the kind of leader who will, by the sheer force of his manly strength, bring America’s adversaries to their knees and prevent international conflict.”
This is the important point, and the lesson. Trumps brand is rooted firmly in traditional ideas of manhood. A Masculinity that doesn’t care about details, or trust experts, or respect counterparts. Masculinity that relies on violence to achieve its goals, because violence itself is the goal.
Trumps public idiocy is revealing the inanity of this view of manhood. It is my great hope that when he falls he will finally take that stupid version of masculinity with him.
It would be fascinating to try to falsify your argument. Could we construct a right wing strongman who is harder than Anthony Blinken and opposed to big plans, but also competent and fully capable of implementing ruthlessly well thought out smaller ones? What would such a person do with the US if they were not fixated on narcissistic supply and generational hatreds?
"When I watch this group move in unison toward this kind of partisan fuckery I think I am staring into the face of pure evil."
That would be because you are. Also the face of pure stupidity. People conditioned by TV to believe that Donald Trump is a "dealmaker." He is. A bad one. Anyone else would have been in prison by now. His father may not have loved him, but he certainly made a paternal commitment to bail Trump out of every stupid "deal" he made, even bankrolling another casino as the flames closed over the wreckage of the first. Trump adulation is the triumph of belief over truth, and it always ends badly. Scott Adams, creator óf Dilbert, believed that in Trump he had seen an influence skills wizard, followed that belief to the point where he didn't have a career anymore. Even the money from Dilbert couldn't keep newspapers on side, and he ended up as a Trump evangelist, pissing off most of his loyal readers on a variety of platforms. An irony, as Trump lacked a single percent of the talent that Adams had at his best.
I have a theory: for people like myself Trump is the antithesis of what we expect humans to be, but for others it's like discovering cocaine that you can mainline into your brain, then start gibbering about three-dimensional chess. He fills something lacking in these people, like the last piece of a psychological jigsaw puzzle. We will never understand it, because all we see is a fat guy with a preposterous haircut bullshitting. But if you look at all the enterprises people have stumped up cash to support him in (often to their own detriment) there is definitely some appeal there. God knows what it is, and the sooner it's gone the better. But remember this: like Jim Jones' followers these people are marked for life, and will always respond to the same stimulus. Whatever the fuck it is.
Thank you. I can’t metabolize any of it either.
“The constituency that bought master dealmaker in 2016 has built its political identity around the proposition that they bought correctly. To accept that they bought wrongly would require them to revise their political identity. The revision is too costly. So the evidence is reframed instead. Already legendary is what the apparatus tells the constituency, and the constituency repeats it because repeating it is what membership in the constituency now requires.”
So timely, so spot on, and absolutely speaks to the utter frustration and anger so many people feel. And the conclusion is where we stand at this moment, without answers to why, why is this all so ignorant and without decency, what is the purpose and how can the believers still make excuses. Again this is a very timely piece that honestly was meant to land in my hands this morning for it says exactly what I feel.
I too grabbed that para to refer to later. It's absolute clarity. This and others like it from Mike have helped me understand what was previously frustrating and impossible to comprehend. I only hope I can articulate as well as he does to the people around me.
Totally understand your point. Sometimes I confess his knowledge is way beyond and I think dang I’m wading here, where’s he going, but then I persist in reading and I know clarity will come and as well I have such limited knowledge. And of course, like here it’s just so very much the truth and so perfectly stated. He is amazingly, prolifically dedicated to his mission, when does the dude sleep?
This is so concisely brilliant about something that should be the fundamental topic of all education: critical analysis of evidence to support, refute, or modify conclusions.
More tersely: thinking about thinking. Definitely including the assertion that some kinds of drawing conclusions are *wrong*.
Might this seem extremely anti-democratic and elitist? It shouldn't. Thinking clearly about evidence and conclusions doesn't require anything fancy beyond basic common sense logic, which is sometimes more available to people with less formal education.
I am reminded that, years ago, the Texas state school board made it an official criterion that textbooks could not include critical thinking, because it might cause students to question what their elders and betters told them.
It is generally acknowledged that whatever Texas chooses in its textbooks heavily influences the textbook industry, as Texas mandates the same books statewide. It doesn't make economic sense for a textbook manufacturer to produce texts that would not be purchased in Texas, even for sale in states with very different educational philosophies.
As is customary, I will try to end this on an optimistic note.
Who would ever have predicted that millions of people would be following every word of three history professors (Cox Richardson, Snyder, and Ben-ghiat) as one of the most practical ways to think about the current dilemma? People are obviously hungry for this.
Mike Brock adds to this pool of useful thinking tools, for which I am grateful.
I think what’s happened is the GOP has turned conspiracy theory into an ideology. In this make believe world, the absence of evidence is the strongest evidence of all.
Pure evil, absolutely. Comic book evil. That we are living this, is surreal.
Mike, in your article on Trump, the deal maker, you outdid yourself. It boggles the mind how the wealthy elite have brainwashed, rational human beings to give obedience to this destructive deal maker. I truly believe this always goes to the deep mystery of human evil that is the temptation to the lust to dominate.
The lust for power is both seductive and very dangerous and destructive. It is what we are witnessing today. We can only hope that those higher forces of wisdom/love/compassion that all the great spiritual traditions reveal will somehow triumph over this evil. Let us pray.
We're talking about the Dunning-Kruger Party and its fantasyland boss, all of whom were denied their humanity as children (neglect and abuse) and thus operate at a 2-year old version of grievance, needing every kind of conceivable attention more than anything. Trying to ascribe sense to this is a fool's errand. What's needed is their sequestration and compassionate therapy. Elected and led by a whole class of such sad victims, it should focus our attention on how to innoculate others or otherwise legislate restrictions on their participation in public life. Sorry, they've led us to planetary destruction, the 6th Mass Extinction and the transformation of Earth's climate beyond what we evolved in -- I can't be forgiving.
For some time I have seen Trump as the embodiment of banality. It's almost like spending time in his aura infects people and they become the worst version of themselves. Then Tucker had his NYT interview and said he felt it in person! (not that he is a trustworthy on most things) I am not a religious person but after reading into how the people followed along with Hitler and other times people have forgone their own morality for a charismatic leader I cannot help but feel there is a metaphysical force involved. For why people back Israel no matter what there is a huge faction on the American right that believes they won't bring Jesus back if they don't support them. It's a death cult leaving no room for rational thought or neoliberal technocrats.
My mother, as a teenager in Germany in the 30’s, attended a Hitler rally. She told us that she spent the whole time reminding herself that she was American and Catholic to counter the pull from the speech.
What an amazing experience. Was she able to leave Germany before things got ugly?
Yes! She had spent a year studying in Germany - it would have been 1935-6.
Far more tragic than any economic suffering inflicted on USAians (or anyone else in developed countries), or even, by sheer weight of numbers, the destruction inflicted upon Iranians, is the mass famine and death that will soon follow in the developing world due to the energy and fertilizer shortages that are now inevitable because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Donald and Bibi are every bit as responsible for those deaths as they are for the deaths in Iran resulting from the bombings.
Excellent.
There’s no way to make rational sense of this. Or at least no way for me to do it. But valiant and worthwhile try.
Whenever somebody talks about Trump as a Master Dealmaker, I keep going back to this twitstorm by writer Matthew Chapman: https://twitter.com/fawfulfan/status/1002502139367837702
“The one thing that you need to understand about Trump is that he is, at his core, a con man with no empathy. Therefore, he assumes that all other people are also con men with no empathy, and every exchange of goods and services that exists in the world is, on some level, a con. Trump assumes every transaction in the world — between people, businesses, nation-states, even between two different agencies of the same government — has a winner and a loser, a scammer and a sucker. He believes if you’re not ripping someone off, you’re getting ripped off. … This is why Trump will never, ever, be able to negotiate with the rest of the world. He doesn’t believe in mutual benefit. The second anyone tells him ‘this is your end of the deal’ he’ll rip it up. He believes only one party can have an end of the deal, and it shouldn’t be him.”
“And many Americans still believe this man is the kind of leader who will, by the sheer force of his manly strength, bring America’s adversaries to their knees and prevent international conflict.”
This is the important point, and the lesson. Trumps brand is rooted firmly in traditional ideas of manhood. A Masculinity that doesn’t care about details, or trust experts, or respect counterparts. Masculinity that relies on violence to achieve its goals, because violence itself is the goal.
Trumps public idiocy is revealing the inanity of this view of manhood. It is my great hope that when he falls he will finally take that stupid version of masculinity with him.
It would be fascinating to try to falsify your argument. Could we construct a right wing strongman who is harder than Anthony Blinken and opposed to big plans, but also competent and fully capable of implementing ruthlessly well thought out smaller ones? What would such a person do with the US if they were not fixated on narcissistic supply and generational hatreds?
https://substack.com/@theverticaldispatch/note/p-196720300?r=1pgr4n&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action