A big part of Don the Con's self image is his belief that he can say or do anything he wants without consequence. He's above all that. Every time he tells a lie and gets away with it, his delusion is reinforced.
Republicans will have answer for a WHOLE lot. Enablers all.
A dream is to have a Nuremberg II scenario to deal with all of these people who have been (and are) intent upon wrecking the country, our rights, democracy, and the constitution.
Donald Trump is a counterfeit president. As far as I’m concerned his presidency is not legitimate. You can be different or you can do things differently but if you don’t follow the rule of law then you’re counterfeit.
The orange felon has never been constricted by anything like "decorum" or "manners." He doesn't even know what those words mean. The uproar to his "quiet, quiet piggy" should be much bigger than it is. It also shows his misogyny and sexism. To him - and just about all of his followers - women are just not humans, they are second class citizens at best. Which makes every woman who supports him traitors to their own sex and complicit in his behavior.
Appreciate your splitting these hairs, Jeff. It's a sad thing when we have to separate a man's natural misogyny from his agenda to make sure no one ever reads a bad thing about him ever again. At base, that's the driving force of the narcissist. On a wider scope, the destruction of the press's power to reduce a man's power is the driving force of a sociopath. Trump is both.
We need to have a serious public discussion in America about how to spot these types of mental impairments and how lethal they are to elected office.
When you think about it, police and corrects officers have to pass a mental / psychological exam. So your idea is not so far fetched. It should be required by any candidate who runs for president.
This is a VERY insightful article, explaining in layman's terms the power of words and their misuse to subtly but effectively sway how a large portion of the populace can be manipulated at the behest of an authoritarian leader - Trump in this case. The time has come to forcibly (legally) apply the brakes to such use of language, particularly when it comes from Trump or any of his many lackeys - J.D. Vance, Steven Miller, Michael Johnson and others ad-nausea. Peter J. Mancuso, former Chairman of the Social Science Department of the NYC Police Academy and the NYPD's Assist Dir. of Training
Thank-you! I just wrote how we subject police and corrections applicants to psychological testing - maybe it's time to make this a requirement for those who run for POTUS. Sadly it must be put into law - did we ever get Trump's tax returns?
Yes, these are bleak times as the president becomes more unhinged ny the minute. Yesterday he called for the execution of six Democrats who had dared to remind the military that they do not have to, and should not, obey illegal orders. Where i find hope, though, is in recent election results and polls that show trump is deeply unpopular. And we also have great columnists like Jeff who keep our attention focused. You do us and the country a great service.
I sincerely hope that Trump's infantile impulsiveness will work against him in the long run, as more people are exposed to this behavior that they would not allow in their own 6-year-olds. There will always be a similarly infantile minority who eat it up, but most people are rightly revolted.
Thank you for your observations and comments. Nearly 30 years ago my late cousin's widow bestowed upon me a class survey my late cousin had conducted with his high school honors civics class. It was what a rating of what traits his students deemed as most important for a presidential candidate. The students, collectively through individual private surveys, selected "honesty" as the single most important trait. Peter
I just watched an interview with ABC News's Jonathan Karl. He said that WH journalists have (sadly) become accustomed to Trump's insults and rude behavior. According to Karl, they ignore it. Nothing will keep a good reporter from getting the story. But what Mr. Nesbit is describing here is the IMPACT on everyday citizens when then constantly see this belittling of reporters. Let's face it, Hollywood has put forth a mixed message about reporters. Some are portrayed as those who speak truth to power and protect the vulnerable. Others show them as insensitive and only concerned with their own byline. It's important for Americans to know that reporters aren't in it for the money and they go into the business with good intentions. They are very human. Americans also need to learn the difference between the reporters working hard to get the truth out to the public, and the corporate honchos who are sadly all too often sitting at the top of the network/publication and calling the shots.
You seem to separate the misogyny out from the purposes. From my perspective as a woman, this is impossible. The misogyny is dehumanizing. Trump gets away with it because our society is misogynistic. Yes, he is undermining democracy, but we must also see that women are part of that democracy, but like other groups struggle for their place as fully respected citizens.
Please don’t tell me this is about more than misogyny. Only someone who doesn’t viscerally feel the assault of misogyny as I and many other women do can say this. To attack Black people and women and immigrants as Trump does, in different ways, is to attack democracy.
Will Trump do this to a white male journalist?
There is a direct through line from racism, misogyny, antisemitism, anti-LGBTQ, etc to the purposes Trump wants to achieve.
This is a good and important piece of writing but I hear you saying that by focusing on the misogyny I’m missing the more serious something that’s happening.
Just rewatched Spike Lee's "BlackKklansman" last night, based on Ron Stollman's book but bookended by a clip in the last scene of real footage from the 2017 Charlotte, NC, Klan march and violence. My hair is still on end. Lee shows the obsequious Trump claiming there were very bad people on both sides--after we see the brutal murder by car of an innocent demonstrator.
Trump's ugly face, with his white tanning lines around his squinty eyes and his pursed mouth, so perfectly mirrors the inbred Aryans. Chilling, at the same time that the movie itself is riveting, humorous, and utterly well crafted. I'm sure both Lee and Stollman could not believe that this vile man was reelected. Real Americans want safety, security, and equality for all of us.
“ In his view, the press is there to amplify his message, and when reporters question it, they are not doing their jobs, they are disobeying his orders.“
Amplify his message like this headline in the NYTIMES?
“Trump Calling Reporter ‘Piggy’ Was ‘Frankness,’ White House Says”
Written by a white man. Published by a newspaper that recently initially thought the following headline was okay: Are women ruining the workplace? They then changed it to “liberal feminism” ruining the workplace—hiding behind what is for some (many?) a reviled perspective. I appreciated The Contrarian’s takedown of this article and Houser’s stating of the obvious—
“It (the question) implies that what you think of as the default form of democracy, or the workplace, didn’t include everyone to begin with, which is to reveal, as soon as you give the question any credence (by, say, hosting a discussion about it), that what you wanted was never democracy, or a workplace in which everyone belongs. Which is, of course, perfectly true of our nation’s many flavors of misogyny: They do not want women in the good jobs, the positions of power, with prestige and high remuneration. They do not want women taking what they think is rightfully theirs.”
When we read the NYT’s piggy article, we can see the normalization of anti-democratic leadership at work. What authoritarian needs state-controlled media when outlets like the NYTIMES are so obliging?
A big part of Don the Con's self image is his belief that he can say or do anything he wants without consequence. He's above all that. Every time he tells a lie and gets away with it, his delusion is reinforced.
Republicans will have answer for a WHOLE lot. Enablers all.
A dream is to have a Nuremberg II scenario to deal with all of these people who have been (and are) intent upon wrecking the country, our rights, democracy, and the constitution.
Donald Trump is a counterfeit president. As far as I’m concerned his presidency is not legitimate. You can be different or you can do things differently but if you don’t follow the rule of law then you’re counterfeit.
The orange felon has never been constricted by anything like "decorum" or "manners." He doesn't even know what those words mean. The uproar to his "quiet, quiet piggy" should be much bigger than it is. It also shows his misogyny and sexism. To him - and just about all of his followers - women are just not humans, they are second class citizens at best. Which makes every woman who supports him traitors to their own sex and complicit in his behavior.
Appreciate your splitting these hairs, Jeff. It's a sad thing when we have to separate a man's natural misogyny from his agenda to make sure no one ever reads a bad thing about him ever again. At base, that's the driving force of the narcissist. On a wider scope, the destruction of the press's power to reduce a man's power is the driving force of a sociopath. Trump is both.
We need to have a serious public discussion in America about how to spot these types of mental impairments and how lethal they are to elected office.
When you think about it, police and corrects officers have to pass a mental / psychological exam. So your idea is not so far fetched. It should be required by any candidate who runs for president.
"Make the messenger so repulsive or small in the eyes of the base, and the message itself evaporates."
It's time for the press to turn this very tactic on Trump. He and his message should both evaporate.
This is a VERY insightful article, explaining in layman's terms the power of words and their misuse to subtly but effectively sway how a large portion of the populace can be manipulated at the behest of an authoritarian leader - Trump in this case. The time has come to forcibly (legally) apply the brakes to such use of language, particularly when it comes from Trump or any of his many lackeys - J.D. Vance, Steven Miller, Michael Johnson and others ad-nausea. Peter J. Mancuso, former Chairman of the Social Science Department of the NYC Police Academy and the NYPD's Assist Dir. of Training
Thank-you! I just wrote how we subject police and corrections applicants to psychological testing - maybe it's time to make this a requirement for those who run for POTUS. Sadly it must be put into law - did we ever get Trump's tax returns?
Yes, these are bleak times as the president becomes more unhinged ny the minute. Yesterday he called for the execution of six Democrats who had dared to remind the military that they do not have to, and should not, obey illegal orders. Where i find hope, though, is in recent election results and polls that show trump is deeply unpopular. And we also have great columnists like Jeff who keep our attention focused. You do us and the country a great service.
I sincerely hope that Trump's infantile impulsiveness will work against him in the long run, as more people are exposed to this behavior that they would not allow in their own 6-year-olds. There will always be a similarly infantile minority who eat it up, but most people are rightly revolted.
Thank you for your observations and comments. Nearly 30 years ago my late cousin's widow bestowed upon me a class survey my late cousin had conducted with his high school honors civics class. It was what a rating of what traits his students deemed as most important for a presidential candidate. The students, collectively through individual private surveys, selected "honesty" as the single most important trait. Peter
I just watched an interview with ABC News's Jonathan Karl. He said that WH journalists have (sadly) become accustomed to Trump's insults and rude behavior. According to Karl, they ignore it. Nothing will keep a good reporter from getting the story. But what Mr. Nesbit is describing here is the IMPACT on everyday citizens when then constantly see this belittling of reporters. Let's face it, Hollywood has put forth a mixed message about reporters. Some are portrayed as those who speak truth to power and protect the vulnerable. Others show them as insensitive and only concerned with their own byline. It's important for Americans to know that reporters aren't in it for the money and they go into the business with good intentions. They are very human. Americans also need to learn the difference between the reporters working hard to get the truth out to the public, and the corporate honchos who are sadly all too often sitting at the top of the network/publication and calling the shots.
...and shills like Michael Wolff siphoning money off of the stories of vile individuals.
You seem to separate the misogyny out from the purposes. From my perspective as a woman, this is impossible. The misogyny is dehumanizing. Trump gets away with it because our society is misogynistic. Yes, he is undermining democracy, but we must also see that women are part of that democracy, but like other groups struggle for their place as fully respected citizens.
Please don’t tell me this is about more than misogyny. Only someone who doesn’t viscerally feel the assault of misogyny as I and many other women do can say this. To attack Black people and women and immigrants as Trump does, in different ways, is to attack democracy.
Will Trump do this to a white male journalist?
There is a direct through line from racism, misogyny, antisemitism, anti-LGBTQ, etc to the purposes Trump wants to achieve.
This is a good and important piece of writing but I hear you saying that by focusing on the misogyny I’m missing the more serious something that’s happening.
What should journalists say back, when Trump declares facts are “fake news”?
What should journalists say back, when Trump belittles them or their news organization?
If they immediately object to either, won’t Trump just ban them from his presence?
What are their options?
This so called administration has been sinking further into Nazi territory. And ICE are the brown shirts. Frightening!
Just rewatched Spike Lee's "BlackKklansman" last night, based on Ron Stollman's book but bookended by a clip in the last scene of real footage from the 2017 Charlotte, NC, Klan march and violence. My hair is still on end. Lee shows the obsequious Trump claiming there were very bad people on both sides--after we see the brutal murder by car of an innocent demonstrator.
Trump's ugly face, with his white tanning lines around his squinty eyes and his pursed mouth, so perfectly mirrors the inbred Aryans. Chilling, at the same time that the movie itself is riveting, humorous, and utterly well crafted. I'm sure both Lee and Stollman could not believe that this vile man was reelected. Real Americans want safety, security, and equality for all of us.
“ In his view, the press is there to amplify his message, and when reporters question it, they are not doing their jobs, they are disobeying his orders.“
Amplify his message like this headline in the NYTIMES?
“Trump Calling Reporter ‘Piggy’ Was ‘Frankness,’ White House Says”
Written by a white man. Published by a newspaper that recently initially thought the following headline was okay: Are women ruining the workplace? They then changed it to “liberal feminism” ruining the workplace—hiding behind what is for some (many?) a reviled perspective. I appreciated The Contrarian’s takedown of this article and Houser’s stating of the obvious—
“It (the question) implies that what you think of as the default form of democracy, or the workplace, didn’t include everyone to begin with, which is to reveal, as soon as you give the question any credence (by, say, hosting a discussion about it), that what you wanted was never democracy, or a workplace in which everyone belongs. Which is, of course, perfectly true of our nation’s many flavors of misogyny: They do not want women in the good jobs, the positions of power, with prestige and high remuneration. They do not want women taking what they think is rightfully theirs.”
When we read the NYT’s piggy article, we can see the normalization of anti-democratic leadership at work. What authoritarian needs state-controlled media when outlets like the NYTIMES are so obliging?
We need a whole analysis and discussion of the psychology of headlines. Azza? Jeff?
"Why Trump wants to disempower institutions that protect the truth"
This article is more than 8 years old
Lawrence Douglas
Lawrence Douglas
"The US president is attacking the very institutions that are meant to expose lies: universities, the media and the judiciary. Democracy is impossible without them " https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/07/trump-disempower-institutions-protect-truth
Thank you, sir, for your insightful history and observations, showing us the through-line.