04-26-2020, 07:47 PM
(04-24-2020, 06:45 PM)Nately120 Wrote: The cynical part of me understands why Trump lies about democrats and immigrants and stuff, but I can't fathom why he would say so many things that can harm or bankrupt his actual supporters. What is the point of doing that?
It's one thing to say "Vote for me or the other guy will take your guns" but to tell people to defend their rights by going out in public and exposing themselves to a pandemic is just...it's just baffling.
Also, it's interesting how Trump will occasionally say something so incriminating or stupid that his supporters won't believe it, but will instead immediately leap into defense mode to tell non-Trump supporters what he really meant or that it was a joke. It's quite amazing.
It all falls into place if you adopt the mental health assessment of the 27 Harvard Psychologists and Psychiatrists in The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump (2017).
They broke the "Goldwater rule" to discuss the "malignant normality" of his life in dealings with business, family, and the public. Back in 2017, they were already reading his impulsive, uninformed judgment and petty cruelty, along with the manner in which he positions himself at the center of every issue, dismissing every contradiction to satisfy his need for praise, as "malignant narcissism."
He says things which are destructive to his own allies in part because he is not looking at social consequences of behavior the way most normal people do, just as he is not able to really foresee the consequences of his foreign policy actions--except as how they might affect his electability. He is quite simply borderline psychotic, or perhaps moving back and forth between neurosis and psychosis. E.g., he pushes us to the brink of war with Iran and then "sobers up" to pull back, then pushes us there again, in a rhythm he cannot fully control by soberly assessing future consequences and constructing rational alternatives. He
He is rarely thinking in terms of coherent policy built in stages with Congressional allies, but always acting ad hoc, responding with what works in the moment--targeting Iran and the Democrats in the same gesture. Which is why he can call COV-19 a "Dem hoax" on one day and call himself a "wartime president" fighting the virus another, or affirm social distancing guidelines one day and cheer on people who protest them the next. It's why he can call for defunding the primary international clearing house of pandemic information during a pandemic. This only makes sense from within a mindset at once praise-needy and vindictive, which exists in an eternal and intensely egotistical present, brushing aside contradictions between present and past. From "in there," it is not possible to understand, and therefore to worry about, the appearance created by firing and otherwise punishing whistleblowers--especially when he pays no price for it.
Yes, his supporters jump in and claim he was joking about injecting bleach, as if that were ok during a Coronavirus briefing while people are trying to sort out information from disinformation during a national emergency. He did not really mimic a reporter with a physical disability. He did not present Ukraine with a quid pro quo. Ordering someone to alter evidence was not criminal obstruction. All that defense protects the narcissistic worldview, deflects the kinds of challenges necessary to control Trump's bad judgment.
So the most important figure in the world now, in the sense that no individual has more potential power to combat the Coronavirus worldwide, is someone who does not recognize what he does not know, will punish anyone who points that out (especially on his own team), and is set on intervening in the judgement and policy of medical professionals with his "gut feelings." He genuinely thinks his recommendations to doctors about bleach and internal ultra violet rays are sound inferences from factual claims about how they kill the virus on external surfaces. Why shouldn't a "genius" be adding his thoughts to a Coronvirus briefing with medical professionals struggling to push back without losing their jobs.--cure very soon, gone by fall anyway, etc. etc.?
We are in this tragic situation in large part because of a "base" which has learned to read their politics through a "red good blue bad" filter, explaining away logical and professional critique of Trump's actions as "fake news" and celebrating when he insults reporters who speak truth to power. They too are unable to track the logical inconsistency and flat ignorance displayed in his national "leadership" at the moment--"Trump banned travel from China; Why can't people admit when he makes the right call?" The media mob twists what he means when he calls women "pigs."
https://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Case-Donald-Trump-Psychiatrists/dp/1250179459
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