The recipe for American catastrophe: Narcissism, Dunning-Kruger and Dugin

[GliderGuider]

"Mad King Donald" is an aggressive narcissist with extreme Dunning-Kruger syndrome: a cognitive bias in which low-ability individuals suffer from illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their ability as much higher than it really is. This combination has created the calamity of a human being who is now in charge of America, her international relations - and her nuclear arsenal.

Realizing who and what they had in the bag must have sent Vladimir Putin and Aleksandr Dugin into an orgasmic rapture. They could not have obtained a better stooge if they had designed him themselves in a Manchurian mental hospital. Bagging Trump was probably the key to making Dugin's plan for disrupting the USA work.

Aleksandr Dugin is known as "Putin's brain." He devised the geopolitical approach that Putin has been executing for the last decade or more. By manipulating his "useful idiot" Trump, Putin was able to put his thumb on the scales of American democracy, and so realize Dugin's vision for the USA. In this vision it doesn't matter so much who's in power so long as the end goal as described in Dugin's book "Foundations of Geopolitics" is being achieved. They had already been working on this plan for quite a while; recruiting Trump (without him even being aware that he'd been turned) was the key to its ultimate success.

Dugin describes the technique in his geopolitical textbook (excerpted from Wiki)::

Russia should use its special forces within the borders of the United States to fuel instability and separatism, for instance, provoke "Afro-American racists". Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics."

In this case "special forces" are not Spetsnaz teams, but an army of hackers, trolls and provocateurs. Through them, Putin has been able to take advantage of a pre-existing and growing split in American society by driving a wedge into it, forcing it ever wider and preventing it from closing.

There is no question in my mind that Dugin's geopolitical recipe has been followed, with enormous success.

[Achilleaze]

1. Trump is Russia's "polezni durak" - Former CIA Chief

In an opinion piece in the Washington Post, just before the election, (Michael) Hayden called Trump “Russia’s useful fool.”

He says he came to that conclusion after analyzing what the Trump campaign had said and not said. The “polezni durak” or “useful idiot” was a concept from Soviet times, Hayden writes, some naïve soul who’s “manipulated by Moscow, secretly held in contempt, but whose blind support is happily accepted and exploited.”

https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-12-16/former-cia-chief-calls-trump-moscow-s-useful-idiot

[LunaSea]

2. Keep yelling!

This stuff won't fit on a bumpersticker. And if we don't focus our attention, we just might end up being part of the problem.

[kwassa]

19. How about "Trump is Mentally Ill"?

That will fit, and is the crux of the problem.

[secondwind]

3. KNR

[Nitram]

4. The irony is that we've been using the same methods abroad for decades.

[GliderGuider]

6. Yep. It's not so much fun when you're the target. nt

[absyntheminded]

32. Link to the Main OP? Or is it your's?

[GliderGuider]

33. It's my own analysis. nt

[GliderGuider]

5. From Aleksandr Dugin's Facebook Page

[Nitram]

7. They sure know how to get Trump's ear.

Just keep kissing his whale of an ass.

[GliderGuider]

8. So trivial it's terrifying. Just compliment him and point him in the right direction.

He has been virtually a self-turning agent.

[longship]

9. Read John Dean's book, "Conservatives without Conscience"

He dives deeply into Altemeyer's research into the authoritarian personality. It is a great and geeky read.

Conservatives without Conscience

Bob Altemeyer

We're in it now. Resist!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. +1 Bob Altemeyer. Found his stuff about 10 years ago to be the most incisive on the cons. problem.

[GliderGuider]

13. Yes, Bob Altemeyer called it

I read his book during the Reign of Little Bush. Putting the psychological profile he developed together with the contents of the Powell Memo, I knew the USA was cruising toward a world of hurt.

The cruise has now reached its destination.

[KittyWampus]

27. Well, history shows that these sorts of things eventually self-correct which is uncomfortable.

9/11 was literally a shock to our collective system.

We're due for another one. Perhaps learning our POTUS is a Russian asset for Putin with other agents in his inner circle will help us be more honest about who we are and how we got here.

[GliderGuider]

34. I hate to say it, but

IMO the USA is overdue for a social, political and economic enema.

Please wait here, your Russian nurse will be with you shortly!

[BlancheSplanchnik]

17. I didn't realize Dean's book resourced Altemeyer's

I read The Authoritarians during the bush the dumber days too. I'm always recommending it.

Now I need Dean's book.

[longship]

22. Dean is as sharp as a tack.

His book has copious footnotes. It is, by all measures, an academic book in a public accessible wrapper.

I bought my copy when Dean was on his book tour. He gave a wonderful (and lengthy) lecture at a SoCal bookstore, followed by a very long book signing line. He was as gracious as one could expect and would enter into even lengthy discussions, one-on-one, with anybody who wanted their newly purchased book to be autographed.To attest to this is the fact that nobody minded that the line was slow. Everybody got whatever time they wanted.

Dean is a very soft spoken, and very intelligent, person. He is one of these remarkable persons whose history does not reflect what he is about. Above all, his ethics are beyond question.

And yes, he is no dummy. Quite the contrary.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

37. More incentive to get the book. :) n/t

[mopinko]

20. i posted on another board that this should be required reading for journos.

this is not some mystery. he is a common authoritarian, common as mud over human history. his followers are the same. lackeys for their mean daddy.

and there is considerable evidence that it is all about how a child is raised. treat them cruelly, they grow up cruel.
remember that the 60's generation was raised w dr spock. respect and no spanking. we should try to do that again.

[longship]

24. You may be right. Thanks! nt

[KittyWampus]

29. Yes, very often Trump supporters on FB post crap about how good it is to spank.

[certainot]

10. couldn't do it without the left's total ignorance

of talk radio

trump team listened to 1000s of hour of it to prep for election

instead, we let our universities support it!

[GliderGuider]

14. And talk radio wouldn't have happened without Lewis Powell's 1971 memo.

nt

[Bernardo de La Paz]

11. Kicked, Rec'd & Bookmarked . . . nt

[PatrickforO]

15. This is pretty incisive.

A right wing cancer from within, with the Powell memo for kindling, and a huge bonfire of faux news and hate-talk noise. Interesting that Trump's people listened to thousands of hours of talk radio so they could get the 'right' message.

Our window of opportunity seems to be closing pretty fast. Let Trump and his fascists consolidate and we might just have experienced the LAST US presidential election ever.

[KPN]

21. Scary isn't it? We all need to

commit to being active resistance every single fucking day to these fascists.

The window may have already closed -- maybe this last one wasn't an election afterall?

[BlancheSplanchnik]

16. K,R, Save.

Violins.

We're all Russia's violins now.

[GliderGuider]

26. Dugin is Putin's Rasputin

No further commentary, I just wanted to post that turn of phrase.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

38. :)

[GliderGuider]

18. The tripod of the coup

Of course, Dugin's strategy wouldn't have taken hold if the American soil had not already been fertile. How did America open itself up to such mischief?

IMO that process goes back to the 1971 Powell Memo. It provided the kindling for a wildfire of corporatism that has burned through the American landscape ever since.Think tanks like the Heritage foundation, corporate control of academia and the media, and especially the entire phenomenon of right-wing talk radio all appeared in the blaze. The right wing masterstroke of Citizens United owes its creation to the Powell Memo.

So the tripod of the coup is in place: a nation rendered receptive to authoritarian demagoguery by deliberate corporate manipulation of its social landscape; a clever Russian dictator complete with his own Rasputin; capped off by the appearance and capture of the "useful idiot" Donald Trump, along with his retinue of cynical, venal, power-hungry hangers-on. The three-legged stool on which perches a coup d'etat in democratic disguise.

[KPN]

23. Excellent summation!

[KittyWampus]

25. That strategy meshes well with the Republicans "Southern Strategy".

[GliderGuider]

28. Absolutely! Anything that fosters division becomes a tool to be sharpened. nt

[Turbineguy]

30. I always thought that Yassir Arafat was the perfect Palestinian leader.

For Israel. He was stupid, corrupt and as an added bonus, physically repulsive.

Trump does better on TV and in the US, that's an added bonus for the Russians.

[GliderGuider]

31. d'Ancona at The Guardian has figured it out too.

Putin and Trump could be on the same side in this troubling new world order

Russian hacking, White House warnings, angry denials by Vladimir Putin’s officials: we are edging towards a digital Cuban crisis. So it is as well to ask what is truly at stake in this e-conflict, and what underpins it.

To which end, meet the most important intellectual you have (probably) never heard of. Alexander Dugin, the Russian political scientist and polemicist, may resemble Santa’s evil younger brother and talk like a villain from an Austin Powers movie. But it is no accident that he has earned the nickname Putin’s Rasputin. His books and posts – often, it must be said impenetrable or plain madcap – are required reading for those who seek to understand the new landscape of Brexit, Donald Trump’s victory and the global surge of the far right.

Born in Moscow in 1962, Dugin is a ferocious champion of Russian imperialism, or what he calls Eurasianism. He supports tradition against liberalism, autocracy against democratic institutions, stern uniformity against Enlightenment pluralism. In The Fourth Political Theory (2009), he claims all this adds up to a new and coherent ideology, supplanting liberal democracy, Marxism and fascism – though he still seems pretty fond of fascism.

The purpose of operations like the hacking of the US election has been to destabilise the Atlantic order generally, and America specifically. And on this great struggle, Dugin is positively millenarian: “We must create strategic alliances to overthrow the present order of things, of which the core could be described as human rights, anti-hierarchy, and political correctness – everything that is the face of the Beast, the anti-Christ.”

[GliderGuider]

35. Dugin: Drain the Swamp

Crap! We misconstrued the word "swamp". We assumed it meant Washington. In Dugin's vocabulary it means this:

DRAIN THE SWAMP

What is the structure of the Swamp?

First of all, the Swamp is an ideology – Liberalism. We need a Nuremberg Trial for Liberalism, the last totalitarian political ideology of Modernity. Let us close this page of history.

Secondly, the Swamp is a special post-modernist culture. It is based on the decomposition of any entity through digitalization, obligatory schizomorphism, and so on. To drain it signifies restoring the Apollonian unity of art. Art should return to holism.

Thirdly, it is transnational global capitalism. This is the material motor of the Swamp. It is loans and the Federal Reserve System printing poisonous green bills. We need to end all of this and return to the real productive sector and mercantilist approach.

He's not just talking about destabilizing the West politically. He's promoting a moral cleansing of the planet.

Text and video at the link.

[Boxerfan]

36. This (above)post needs its own thread...

And I feel a little sick from the news of EPA and this that and and and...

But you are right-I've listened to RW radio for years. Stopped the day after the election BTW.

And yes we are the enemy in no uncertain terms. The language used is very specific & I keep harking to situations like Rwanda.

Can't happen here??. They hate us & probably have more weapons.