I do feel like a lot of people do know this, but we're not the ones with the kind of power or platform like the traditional media. I and many folks I know have said from the beginning that Trump does not have the intellectual capacity for chess and it should not be attributed to him. He is a man-boy looking for attention because that's what narcissists survive on. What people call distraction is him getting bored and acting like a toddler jumping up and down for attention, although the malignant part is what's so effing scary.
I also don't think djt can stand that the Pope is truly who he is. You're spot on with his increasing attacks leveled at Pope Leo. Personally, I couldn't be prouder as an American to claim Pope Leo as our deeper, better 'Statue of Liberty' Leadership.
The mainstream media, DNC are mealy-mouthed. Mary Trump often says It's impossible to negotiate with a malignant narcissist. And, placation is like blood to a vampire. Count Dracula has nothin' on trump.
Some people take a lifetime to admit the disease they see in their loved ones. We are not geared to recognising it and then not geared to take evasive action - like getting the person the fuck out of our lives. For a long time it just looks like confidence. Fuck, fuck and more fuck.
💯 Bandy X. Lee et al. sounded the alarm years ago about Trump’s dangerousness. What is a related fact is that many of his sychophants are dangerous - not as dangerous for obvious reasons, but dangerous nonetheless.
A lot of people want to believe this is all "madman strategy", "3D chess" or whatever but then you see interviews with a lot of the people who've worked with rump, or work with him now and actually admire him, and even they will tell you: No, this is him, he's really an idiot.
And the "sanewashing" is not so much their attempt to say he is normal but their attempt to say it is normal for THEM to accept this.
I would say calling him merely an idiot is a form of sanewashing. You can be an idiot and be sane. It honestly doesn't take much intellect to be a good person in the world. Most of the basic moral lessons in life are things a 5-year-old can grasp. So idiot is simply the wrong category to place him in.
He is a malignant narcissist with ADHD, with no executive functioning (otherwise mentally healthy idiots still have executive functioning) who has nuclear launch authority.
Donald does, and has always only ever done, whatever he thinks is best for him in the moment.
(Also, Prevost isn't really a USAian Pope, not from the perspective of the cardinals who elected him. After he was ordained as a priest, he spent most of his working life either in Peru or Rome, with only a few years in the United States. It's very relevant to understanding his papacy that he hasn't been immersed in US Catholicism and has seen the Church from outside that bubble but is still from the US: see, eg, https://bsky.app/profile/rahaeli.bsky.social/post/3loqsfhswjk2r
I share your exasperation. The sanewashing is quite dangerous and pervades major media. Major media continues (11 years and counting) to struggle with its own cognitive dissonance, mostly born of convenience and laziness. Trump is transparent. Those who support him rationalize his behavior in order to justify their own beliefs and behavior, despite Trump’s obvious deviancy. So, it is an ecosystem functioning-- increasingly impermeable IMHO with each escalation.
I used to think there were more sane people in the world than deluded. Now, I think there are more deluded people than I ever imagined and a whole heap of folks who are perpetually dazed and confused. I'm worried.
Both things can be true at the same time, and [hear me out] I suggest they both are; It’s all part of the same broken neural pathways you correctly identify, and the high itself is a means of distraction — as is the distraction a means of the high — in multiple senses of the words.
In the reptilian midbrain of someone with an untreatable Cluster B personality disorder (e.g. malignant NPD or severe BPD with sadistic tendencies) the reaction to being cornered in the collapse of their sense-of-self is exactly as you described above—exactly as drug addicts react when the euphoria collapses and they’re cornered into the state of withdrawal—exposed for the self-destructive, meaningless, hollowed-out mess that they are.
They *instinctively* distract —both themselves and others around them— from their own worst addict behaviors & vulnerabilities. They deflect and shift blame. Their maladaptive behavioral excuse-making, insane rationalizing, and impulsive destructiveness directly corresponds: “splitting” and “idealization/devaluation” between best friends [enablers/suppliers/codependents] —vs— arch-enemies: [anyone who would stand in the way of that on-top-of-the-world high they get by numbing their internal pain again.]
It’s an instinctual distraction from having attention shown on their ugliness— by projecting their own ugliness outward, blaming every problem caused by their addiction on anyone / anything other than themselves and the addiction they are, deep down, singularly defined by.
That is indeed “distraction.” Not a thought-out, carefully calculated one, and certainly never a personally-beneficial one in any sense of long-term strategic advantage. It’s an animalistic, zero-cerebral-cortex-involved type of distraction…in the same way the euphoria of the next hit is distraction. It’s all reflexive reaction governed by the amygdala when the primitive brain shuts thinking off, switching into fight + flight … into lash-out/externalize + deflect/escape … into mug/steal/violently abuse + get that next fix…
The “distraction” is —in every sense— the same escapism-seeking cyclical impulse back to the bigger hit, the higher high.
I mean, I am a harsh critic of the Catholic church and organized religion, in general. But I do think the current Pope, if we were to poll Americans would come out as the most morally authoritative American alive today, yes. And yes, it's a popularity contest to hold that distinction.
One consistent, informed expert source we shouldn't neglect to mention is Mary Trump.
Your words validate that I am not insane, that what I see as true is reality, that my heartache is real.
I do feel like a lot of people do know this, but we're not the ones with the kind of power or platform like the traditional media. I and many folks I know have said from the beginning that Trump does not have the intellectual capacity for chess and it should not be attributed to him. He is a man-boy looking for attention because that's what narcissists survive on. What people call distraction is him getting bored and acting like a toddler jumping up and down for attention, although the malignant part is what's so effing scary.
Yep. Mike, my observations, too...
I also don't think djt can stand that the Pope is truly who he is. You're spot on with his increasing attacks leveled at Pope Leo. Personally, I couldn't be prouder as an American to claim Pope Leo as our deeper, better 'Statue of Liberty' Leadership.
The mainstream media, DNC are mealy-mouthed. Mary Trump often says It's impossible to negotiate with a malignant narcissist. And, placation is like blood to a vampire. Count Dracula has nothin' on trump.
Thanks for your writing, Mike!
Some people take a lifetime to admit the disease they see in their loved ones. We are not geared to recognising it and then not geared to take evasive action - like getting the person the fuck out of our lives. For a long time it just looks like confidence. Fuck, fuck and more fuck.
💯 Bandy X. Lee et al. sounded the alarm years ago about Trump’s dangerousness. What is a related fact is that many of his sychophants are dangerous - not as dangerous for obvious reasons, but dangerous nonetheless.
The infinite escalation treadmill continues. Can’t wait to get off.
A lot of people want to believe this is all "madman strategy", "3D chess" or whatever but then you see interviews with a lot of the people who've worked with rump, or work with him now and actually admire him, and even they will tell you: No, this is him, he's really an idiot.
And the "sanewashing" is not so much their attempt to say he is normal but their attempt to say it is normal for THEM to accept this.
I would say calling him merely an idiot is a form of sanewashing. You can be an idiot and be sane. It honestly doesn't take much intellect to be a good person in the world. Most of the basic moral lessons in life are things a 5-year-old can grasp. So idiot is simply the wrong category to place him in.
He is a malignant narcissist with ADHD, with no executive functioning (otherwise mentally healthy idiots still have executive functioning) who has nuclear launch authority.
As you say, he's not exactly Forrest Gump.
Donald does, and has always only ever done, whatever he thinks is best for him in the moment.
(Also, Prevost isn't really a USAian Pope, not from the perspective of the cardinals who elected him. After he was ordained as a priest, he spent most of his working life either in Peru or Rome, with only a few years in the United States. It's very relevant to understanding his papacy that he hasn't been immersed in US Catholicism and has seen the Church from outside that bubble but is still from the US: see, eg, https://bsky.app/profile/rahaeli.bsky.social/post/3loqsfhswjk2r
https://bsky.app/profile/rahaeli.bsky.social/post/3m3eovdxmwk2z )
I share your exasperation. The sanewashing is quite dangerous and pervades major media. Major media continues (11 years and counting) to struggle with its own cognitive dissonance, mostly born of convenience and laziness. Trump is transparent. Those who support him rationalize his behavior in order to justify their own beliefs and behavior, despite Trump’s obvious deviancy. So, it is an ecosystem functioning-- increasingly impermeable IMHO with each escalation.
I used to think there were more sane people in the world than deluded. Now, I think there are more deluded people than I ever imagined and a whole heap of folks who are perpetually dazed and confused. I'm worried.
Hear❗️ Hear ❗️
Clearly ravings of a madman. A madman in control of the ultimate hit, thé nuclear codes😱
Both things can be true at the same time, and [hear me out] I suggest they both are; It’s all part of the same broken neural pathways you correctly identify, and the high itself is a means of distraction — as is the distraction a means of the high — in multiple senses of the words.
In the reptilian midbrain of someone with an untreatable Cluster B personality disorder (e.g. malignant NPD or severe BPD with sadistic tendencies) the reaction to being cornered in the collapse of their sense-of-self is exactly as you described above—exactly as drug addicts react when the euphoria collapses and they’re cornered into the state of withdrawal—exposed for the self-destructive, meaningless, hollowed-out mess that they are.
They *instinctively* distract —both themselves and others around them— from their own worst addict behaviors & vulnerabilities. They deflect and shift blame. Their maladaptive behavioral excuse-making, insane rationalizing, and impulsive destructiveness directly corresponds: “splitting” and “idealization/devaluation” between best friends [enablers/suppliers/codependents] —vs— arch-enemies: [anyone who would stand in the way of that on-top-of-the-world high they get by numbing their internal pain again.]
It’s an instinctual distraction from having attention shown on their ugliness— by projecting their own ugliness outward, blaming every problem caused by their addiction on anyone / anything other than themselves and the addiction they are, deep down, singularly defined by.
That is indeed “distraction.” Not a thought-out, carefully calculated one, and certainly never a personally-beneficial one in any sense of long-term strategic advantage. It’s an animalistic, zero-cerebral-cortex-involved type of distraction…in the same way the euphoria of the next hit is distraction. It’s all reflexive reaction governed by the amygdala when the primitive brain shuts thinking off, switching into fight + flight … into lash-out/externalize + deflect/escape … into mug/steal/violently abuse + get that next fix…
The “distraction” is —in every sense— the same escapism-seeking cyclical impulse back to the bigger hit, the higher high.
The man who holds all the cards... in chess game.
The Pope, the most morally authoritative American alive? Uh. No.
I mean, I am a harsh critic of the Catholic church and organized religion, in general. But I do think the current Pope, if we were to poll Americans would come out as the most morally authoritative American alive today, yes. And yes, it's a popularity contest to hold that distinction.