I'm reminded of the Bush administration using Colin Powell's sterling reputation to pass off its line about Saddam Hussein's Iraq possessing WMDs, being an imminent threat, and somehow being linked to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
As for Rubio, he's probably licking Trump's boot quite a lot given that he once accused his then-rival of having small hands.
This is a wonderful piece. I’ve never been able to manage a coherent response to the accusation of TDS… this puts the “syndrome” in proper perspective. Thank you!
Great piece with many memorable lines. "The relationships that couldn't stand contact with truth..." is a gut punch.
Trump is described as a zero-sum thinker, but he has a whole new spin on the game: everyone loses.
Ask anyone what of value Trump is actually creating or producing for America or the world (basically anyone not named Trump or one of his lackeys) and you'll get a whole lot of nothing in response.
Not as an analogy, but as a perhaps relevant history lesson:
While the pre-1938 German top generals were all into rearmament and nibbling territories here and there, they had a very clear opinion that for Germany, an another serious war, with France and UK as foes, would be ultimately a strategic calamity. Generals were in Hitler's bandwagon, enjoyed the ride, but imagined that they can steer the wagon clear of fatal potholes.
Hitler knew (der Fuehrer has the best understanding of strategy, while everybody else is a useful servant at best) that Germany can win forever and rule the world forever ("1000-year Reich"), so he, with a childish ease, falsely accused top generals of various improprieties and crimes, got them removed (some suicided as a result) and opened the now vacant top military positions to eager young talent, them all too happy for the opportunity.
The nice thing in the resulting setup was that now all (new minted) German generals KNEW they betrayed their elders and mentors, that they broke professional ethic and solidarity, in exchange for accepting those promotions. They all were effectively broken men now, though still formidable for their professional skills.
All this worked perfectly for Hitler, he could now drive Germany into the abyss unimpeded, with an impressive speed.
It’s a tragic trashing of almost everything that set the United States apart in the international arena. Most tragic of all is the trashing of pivotal relationships with rising powers that in a nonperverse strategic environment would be aligned (more or less) with us: India and Brazil being the top two. The problem is that our president is not even pretending to pursue the national interest but rather personal pique or vendetta or whatever he believes might put him back in the public eye for fifteen minutes of circus time. It’s called burning good will and trust with a blow torch. I fail to understand how anyone with half a brain can’t see this, including supposedly competent politicos like Marco Rubio who would be presumed to know better. What is one’s dignity worth? Is anything under the sun really worth selling your soul to the devil?
Though I must push back on the implied characterization of Rubio as the (once?) principled voice of conservative foreign policy. The man was, is, and always will be a professional windsock. He certainly inflated himself with the right words when the wind blew that direction, but I don’t think he’s ever had the conviction of his own words.
This whole article is extremely timely and well done - bravo! Money observation for me: "That’s how Trump corrupts: by making reality itself a loyalty test. What Trump does to friendships, he does to alliances: he makes loyalty to delusion the price of entry, and when reality intrudes, the relationship collapses." His NDAs!!
I've always thought that "Trump Derangement Syndrome" was the perfect formulation of self-deception, confirmation of ones' dementia. Absolutely nothing about the Trump agenda strikes me as serious, rational, or anything besides cosplay, the little kids playhousing and teapartying like they've seen adults doing, but actually thinking its' real. Even the cruel fascism is Keystone Kops Kruel Fascsm.
It's a massive extension of the everyday ethical issue in the ordinary workplace, where the boss requires misconduct in exchange for keeping one's job. Or, the horror of living in a family that requires acceptance of the father's (usually, but not necessarily, the father's) destructive authority in order to retain the security of one's belonging — even when one already knows, at some deep and painful level, that one may need the security, yet already does not belong. All fed by drunken power over presidential authority in Trump's case, and owning the libs and having all the heathens become just like them in the Trumpist's or Christians Nationalist's case.
“You can’t maintain genuine friendship with people who require you to share their delusions as the price of their company, who demand that you pretend not to see what you’re seeing, who treat clear-eyed assessment of obvious character flaws as psychological pathology.”
Puts words on difficult-to-define concepts. Much appreciate it - especially liked this:
"You can’t maintain genuine friendship with people who require you to share their delusions as the price of their company, who demand that you pretend not to see what you’re seeing, who treat clear-eyed assessment of obvious character flaws as psychological pathology."
When we refer to Trump/Rubio, we are also and essentially referring to the activities of international corporations.
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese's recent report about how the economy of occupation became an economy of genocide opened my eyes to some of their interrelationships.
I'm reminded of the Bush administration using Colin Powell's sterling reputation to pass off its line about Saddam Hussein's Iraq possessing WMDs, being an imminent threat, and somehow being linked to the September 11, 2001 attacks.
As for Rubio, he's probably licking Trump's boot quite a lot given that he once accused his then-rival of having small hands.
This is a wonderful piece. I’ve never been able to manage a coherent response to the accusation of TDS… this puts the “syndrome” in proper perspective. Thank you!
Great piece with many memorable lines. "The relationships that couldn't stand contact with truth..." is a gut punch.
Trump is described as a zero-sum thinker, but he has a whole new spin on the game: everyone loses.
Ask anyone what of value Trump is actually creating or producing for America or the world (basically anyone not named Trump or one of his lackeys) and you'll get a whole lot of nothing in response.
Not as an analogy, but as a perhaps relevant history lesson:
While the pre-1938 German top generals were all into rearmament and nibbling territories here and there, they had a very clear opinion that for Germany, an another serious war, with France and UK as foes, would be ultimately a strategic calamity. Generals were in Hitler's bandwagon, enjoyed the ride, but imagined that they can steer the wagon clear of fatal potholes.
Hitler knew (der Fuehrer has the best understanding of strategy, while everybody else is a useful servant at best) that Germany can win forever and rule the world forever ("1000-year Reich"), so he, with a childish ease, falsely accused top generals of various improprieties and crimes, got them removed (some suicided as a result) and opened the now vacant top military positions to eager young talent, them all too happy for the opportunity.
The nice thing in the resulting setup was that now all (new minted) German generals KNEW they betrayed their elders and mentors, that they broke professional ethic and solidarity, in exchange for accepting those promotions. They all were effectively broken men now, though still formidable for their professional skills.
All this worked perfectly for Hitler, he could now drive Germany into the abyss unimpeded, with an impressive speed.
It’s a tragic trashing of almost everything that set the United States apart in the international arena. Most tragic of all is the trashing of pivotal relationships with rising powers that in a nonperverse strategic environment would be aligned (more or less) with us: India and Brazil being the top two. The problem is that our president is not even pretending to pursue the national interest but rather personal pique or vendetta or whatever he believes might put him back in the public eye for fifteen minutes of circus time. It’s called burning good will and trust with a blow torch. I fail to understand how anyone with half a brain can’t see this, including supposedly competent politicos like Marco Rubio who would be presumed to know better. What is one’s dignity worth? Is anything under the sun really worth selling your soul to the devil?
Hear, hear!
Though I must push back on the implied characterization of Rubio as the (once?) principled voice of conservative foreign policy. The man was, is, and always will be a professional windsock. He certainly inflated himself with the right words when the wind blew that direction, but I don’t think he’s ever had the conviction of his own words.
This whole article is extremely timely and well done - bravo! Money observation for me: "That’s how Trump corrupts: by making reality itself a loyalty test. What Trump does to friendships, he does to alliances: he makes loyalty to delusion the price of entry, and when reality intrudes, the relationship collapses." His NDAs!!
I've always thought that "Trump Derangement Syndrome" was the perfect formulation of self-deception, confirmation of ones' dementia. Absolutely nothing about the Trump agenda strikes me as serious, rational, or anything besides cosplay, the little kids playhousing and teapartying like they've seen adults doing, but actually thinking its' real. Even the cruel fascism is Keystone Kops Kruel Fascsm.
Krugman has a pertinent phrase which goes something like “Bessent’s Law”.
It's a massive extension of the everyday ethical issue in the ordinary workplace, where the boss requires misconduct in exchange for keeping one's job. Or, the horror of living in a family that requires acceptance of the father's (usually, but not necessarily, the father's) destructive authority in order to retain the security of one's belonging — even when one already knows, at some deep and painful level, that one may need the security, yet already does not belong. All fed by drunken power over presidential authority in Trump's case, and owning the libs and having all the heathens become just like them in the Trumpist's or Christians Nationalist's case.
“You can’t maintain genuine friendship with people who require you to share their delusions as the price of their company, who demand that you pretend not to see what you’re seeing, who treat clear-eyed assessment of obvious character flaws as psychological pathology.”
💯
Puts words on difficult-to-define concepts. Much appreciate it - especially liked this:
"You can’t maintain genuine friendship with people who require you to share their delusions as the price of their company, who demand that you pretend not to see what you’re seeing, who treat clear-eyed assessment of obvious character flaws as psychological pathology."
The hollowness is spectacularly breathtaking indeed.
In a way, those that accused others of "TDS" are more deranged than any critic they care to name.
When we refer to Trump/Rubio, we are also and essentially referring to the activities of international corporations.
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese's recent report about how the economy of occupation became an economy of genocide opened my eyes to some of their interrelationships.
👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽