Trump and the Unspeakable [View all]

[H2O Man]

“Sociopaths are attracted to politics because the see it as a sphere in which you can be ruthless and step all over people. That fact that some politicians can tell such awful lies is another example of sociopathy. Sociopaths lie—they see nothing wrong with it.”
― Alexander McCall Smith, The Revolving Door of Life


Malaise posed two questions to start an interesting and important OP/thread two days ago Here is the link to it:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=16796605

As happens when I read something of interest, I found myself thinking about it last night, when I watched the second Committee hearing for a third time. Indeed, I was thinking about it this morning, while watching highlights of yesterday's hearing on various news reports.

Malaise asked how a self-absorbed individual could do so much damage, and how so many numbskulls could join forces with him? Those are serious questions, deserving serious answers. I'd like to take a minute to expand upon what I said there, which was "a sociopath with access."

Ancient DU readers know that I like to use models to illustrate human dynamics. Today, the reader can pick an atom or solar system. A sociopath is at the center, and their gravitational force frequently brings others into their orbit. Erich Fromm goes into amazing detail about this in his 1973 classic, "The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness." The closest beings to that center will be those who we know as having anti-social personality disorders. Let's just call them criminals, shall we?

The next layer will be potential criminals, usually men and women who are okay with what they often call "bending the rules," and we'll call lower level criminal behaviors. Then clusters of shit-dust entities, that want to wear uniforms and legally torture and kill human beings. These are those that stormed the Capital. Finally, there are Don, Jr. and Eric Trump, who enjoy killing defense animals on an African safari.

Having worked in forsensic mental health, especially in running the weekly county jail group, domestic abuse groups, and with some fellows released from state prison for a short vacation, I encountered a number of sociopaths. (Hint: they always try to disrupt groups.) They spanned the range from really fucking stupid to moderately intelligent. Yet they all shared an inability to really think ahead of the consequences of their destructive behaviors, something that led to not only self-destructiveness, but caused damage for the idiots around them. And for perfectly innocent people with the bad luck of being in their way.

Trump is really not much different that the fellows and one female sociopath I worked with. He might dress differently -- for now -- but the only real difference is that the social station he was born into allowed him to buy access. That included access to high society and to the media. Without the money, Trump is at best an inmate in the county jail. This, despite his uncle being a professor.

Much of high society rejected Trump as a buffoon. An obnoxious asshole. They were, of course, correct. This brings us to some of the republicans we witnessed providing testimony to the J6 Committee. Unlike in other countries, Trump did not have absolute power, such as his idol Putin has. Hence, when they witnessed his attempts to obtain that level of power, one of two things happened: they either quit or were fired.

But our system of government is distinct from Putin's Russia or Saddam's Iraq. It was preparing to eject the toxins from its system, based upon the 2020 election. The J6 Committee is documenting the multi-step effort of Team Trump to remain entrenched, despite the law. And we all know what happened as a result.

What we don't know yet is the extent of Russian influence. This isn't limited to what we know happened in thec 2016 presidential campaign. However, I shall reprise a lyric used in posts here back then ..... Trump and Putin are both white nationalists. Putin has the support of the white nationalists in Russia, which are para-military militias. And white nationalists in the US creamed their jeans when Trump was elected. He believed he could use them much like Putin does.

There are links, currently being investigated by the DOJ, regarding the linkages between the Russian and US white nationalist groups -- including "training" one of the Russian groups provided to at least one of the groups involved in the insurrection. I think at least one forum member posted about these connections recently.

If anyone has read this far, it should encourage you to work like hell to make sure we win the November elections. Our system of government is actually designed to prevent a Trump or his cult members from grabbing power. But our system depends upon the active involvement of its citizens.

Peace,
H2O Man