How quickly the unthinkable becomes the new normal

[cali]

The new normal is that Donald Trump is a major figure, not just in American politics but in world politics. I don't need to launch into how weird that is, how unfit he is. We here all know that.

Humans are amazingly adaptable and amazingly persuadable. Millions of Americans have been persuaded or persuaded themselves to see Trump as the American Savior. Millions more have adapted to his actually being the Republican nominee. We may be appalled by it, but it's still become the new normal.

I have to keep reminding myself that there's nothing normal about this whole mess. There's nothing normal about Trump or the response to him by his supporters.

When hate and fear become the new normal, we're in deep shit. And that's true even though I don't think the vulgar talking yam stands much of a chance of winning.

[metroins]

1. He's going to get security briefings

I can't believe the Republicans nominated him.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

23. That was my first "unthinkable" when I saw the headline. There must be a test he can fail.

If he gets those briefings, he is going to blab. He will think he is not directly saying something, but he will indirectly leak enough information to do damage.

Probably more damage than Manning and Snowden ever did. They are paying a price. Make Trump pay, and not just money.

[jpak]

2. That is why I will be staying home Election Day

I refuse to have anything to do with this "New Normal"

yup

[PJMcK]

3. Votin' absentee, are ya? (wink, n/t)

[jpak]

8. Tattletail

[csziggy]

25. I'm doing you one better - I'm leaving town!

Have a seminar to attend.


















So I'll be voting early.

[gollygee]

4. I could not agree more

If someone had told me 25 years ago that someone like Trump could become a major party nominee, I would have laughed and thought they were crazy.

He's said and done lots of things that, in earlier times, would have made him lose all support.

But stuff like this can happen now.

[PatSeg]

27. If someone had told me eight years ago

I would have thought it was the script for a bad satirical movie. Even four years ago when all the sideshow grifters started to join the GOP circus, Trump as the nominee wasn't a believable concept. Whenever Trump talked about running for president, I figured he was just trying to get free publicity. Now Will Ferrell looks very presidential in comparison to Trump.

[MH1]

5. I haven't adapted to it at all. It's scary as shit.

Not just the idea that this narcissistic whackjob could become President - I actually think that's unlikely, although possible and we shouldn't be complacent. The REALLY scary shit, to me, is that there are enough republican primary voters - people organized enough to get their asses to vote in a primary (which is more organized than a substantial slice of the eligible American public) - who actually wanted this whackjob to be the republican nominee. Now subtract some portion of the vote for the non-supporters who were trolling the process, but that leaves a fairly large number of our fellow Americans who actually think that "President Donald Trump" is a fine idea. THAT scares the shit out of me. Then add the constant reminders of how awash in guns this country is. And that these people are exactly the ones that would feel justified in using guns to get their way. (See: Ammon Bundy; Malheur Refuge standoff.)

Fucking terrifying. I don't see myself adapting to the concept. I just want the nightmare to end.

[cali]

7. That's a good and admirable thing.

And I couldn't agree more with your last sentence. The next few months are going to be nightmarish.

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

9. Well, that being the case . . .

. . . "Then add the constant reminders of how awash in guns this country is. And that these people are exactly the ones that would feel justified in using guns to get their way. (See: Ammon Bundy; Malheur Refuge standoff.) . . .

I confess I don't understand the thinking of those who, simultaneously, are (i) frightened at the direction this country is going, politically and socially; and (ii) advocating that people be deprived of the means to defend themselves and their liberty. "Choose no more than one."

[cali]

11. Are you saying that you oppose gun control measures?

[alarimer]

16. Defend themselves from whom exactly?

These paranoid gun-toting freaks who are afraid of everyone? Yeah, I think we should be afraid of paranoid gun nuts. Everyone who is too fond of guns as a solution IS someone to be avoided.

Or are you seriously advocating that we need to be afraid of the government? Which has tanks and sidewinder missiles, among other things.

We would be a lot safer if no citizen was allowed to own weapons. The easy access to guns IS why we are unsafe. They are the problem, not the solution.

[scottie55]

20. Gun Owners Far More Likely To Shoot Themselves Of Family

Than using their guns to defend anything.

If you "carry" your odds of shooting yourself go up even more.

If you can have a gun, why can't I have a tank?

[sulphurdunn]

21. I heard some clown

of a gun nut on the radio while driving yesterday. He said there are 3 kinds of people: sheep, wolves and sheep dogs (I am not making this up). He went on to declare himself a well armed sheep dog whose purpose was to protect the sheep from the wolves. He was obviously not literate enough to recall that wolves masquerade as sheep to deceive sheep dogs.

[Surya Gayatri]

32. ^^^This!^^^

The REALLY scary shit, to me, is that there are enough republican primary voters - people organized enough to get their asses to vote in a primary (which is more organized than a substantial slice of the eligible American public) - who actually wanted this whackjob to be the republican nominee.

[smirkymonkey]

6. K&R

[FSogol]

10. How is Trump any different than Reagan?

Trump is just more vulgar and crass.

[cali]

13. I think he's quite different. His narcissism certainly

is more notable. He's running far more openly as someone who would use Presidential power as a tool to strike at his personal enemies- like using anti-trust laws to try and get back at Bezos. I don't recall Reagan banning news outlet after news outlet from his events. I couldn't stand Reagan and shit like his Philadelphia, Mississippi speech were abhorrent as hell, but he was never the provocateur that Trump is. I'm speaking only of candidate Reagan in 1980. It's impossible to compare Reagan as President with Trump the candidate, of course.

And frankly, that Trump has NO experience in government, is also a notable difference

[Bluenorthwest]

18. Reagan 1980 had Ron's history of horrible quotes as context....

May 5, 1970: Reagan on Kent State: ‘If It Takes a Bloodbath, Then Let’s Get It Over With’
http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a050570reaganbloodbath&scale=0#a050570reaganbloodbath

Video: Ronald Reagan's Press Conference After 'Bloody Thursday'

An angry governor shows no patience for his critics following a confrontation between Berkeley students and the National Guard.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/02/video-ronald-reagans-press-conference-after-bloody-thursday/284045/

[Boomer]

19. Trump is mentally unbalanced.

No matter how much I may have disliked Ronald Reagan's policies and positions, at least he was sane. Even with the onset of Alzheimer's he was more fit to be president than Donald Trump.

Opposing Trump based on what he says or what he claims he'll do as president is missing the elephant in the room. Nothing Trump says matters, because it's his NPD speaking, not a rational, thinking person.

[kairos12]

12. From Goldwater through Raygun to Shrub:

For 50 years Reich wing leaders gradually immersed the rethugs into a boiling vat of hate infected oil that now threatens the entire country.

[First Speaker]

14. God, it seems as if we can't sink any further...

...but I've been feeling this ever since Reagan. Who would have thought I'd feel nostalgic about *Richard Nixon*? But so I do...Tricky at least was sane, and recognized reality--at least, until the end, when he went over the edge. This nightmare we're in has precedents in the GOP's 50-year long descent into the sewer; but it also has caught me totally by surprise. I mean, who would have thought their "base" was *this* crazy? And the worst part is, it can get worse. When Donald gets whacked this November, Ted Cruz will probably be the Heir Apparent. And we'll look back nostalgically to Trump...

[RazBerryBeret]

15. So Crazy!

I will admit to being slightly obsessed with the first 3 seasons of "The Apprentice".
It kinda changed my opinion of the Donald, I always thought of him as an unscrupulous dick with lots of money. I saw he had a sense of humor, could sort of laugh at himself, and had a good business sense. BUT if you would have told me at that time that he would be the Republican Nominee for POTUS; I would have said you were f'ing crazy!!!

His supporters are so behind him, even if they realize he is a little crazy. I just don't get it. it scares me as well. I live in the center of Ohio, and there are lots of Trump supporters here.

[Vote2016]

17. I read the title and I assumed this thread was going to be about campaign finance. LOL!

[scottie55]

22. All That Hate Is Paying Off - Thanks Fox/Rush Your Lemmings Are Restless

Trump = everything wrong with America in one person.

[lunatica]

24. The Banality of Evil

or, as it would be titled today, How to Create The Banality of Evil.

It takes effort to go along with it, but that effort is far less compared to what's needed to resist it.

But in all seriousness, this Presidential campaign has much in it to study and reflect on and learn when it comes to persuasive methods used to control massive groups of humanity by tapping into the reptilian brain.

Trump is quite good at it. So far he's proven himself to be a master manipulator.

[cali]

28. yes. and something like the ridiculousness of evil too.

Evil as a vulgar talking yam as Charlie Pierce dubbed Trump some months ago.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

26. The scariest thing about Trump

is the number of people who actually think that boorish, ignorant, narcissistic demagogue is qualified to be president.

[tex-wyo-dem]

29. I agree with your analysis, however...

By your theory, people could also be easily persuaded to understand that democratic socialism is a better system than the neo-liberal trickle-down hyper-capitalism that is currently the CW, it just needs the right voice behind it. Agree?

[cali]

31. no, not easily. Persuasion of the political variety is

dependent on many things- timing, delivery, history, the messenger, etc. I've long thought that most humans are persuadable to awful things with greater facility than to positive ones. That's a pretty pessimistic viewpoint and yes, overly generalized, but a perusal of history offers some pretty stark evidence.

People, when supporting, well, bad shit, invariably believe that what they are supporting is good, even noble.

How were neighbors in Bosnia persuaded that killing their neighbors and former friends was the right thing? Any genocide or oppression is often easily justifiable to those engaging or supporting it.

And we don't seem to learn much from the past.

[Martin Eden]

30. Collectively, we are the proverbial frog in a pot of water on the stove

The water eventually heats to the boiling point, but the temperature increases so gradually that we accept it as the normal environment and we never jump out of the pot.