Trump’s puppet masters are banks, media companies and hotel and casino investors. The Putin meme is a bit tired - unless you really have evidence that the Russian government controls Trump’s access to money, it needs to be given a rest.
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I have little doubt that Trump has some form of mental illness - NPD is the most commonly bandied about, but sociopathy is probably on the table as well. That said, I’m not a psychiatrist.
I see no reason I can’t have empathy for the many people who suffer from the myriad of mental illnesses in our world, and at the same time have no qualms about disparaging the mentally ill man who has just won the presidential election.
I had an uncle who was mentally ill. He was a really nice guy and I loved him, but would have made a terrible president, His mental illness would have had him making terrible decisions based on concepts and information that existed only within his own mind. Sound familiar?
I also work in the mental health field, after a fashion. Every single person I work with has an absolute right to equal dignity and the best life they can possibly have. I spend a lot of my working life trying to make that happen for them - and help them make it happen for themselves. None of them should have access to weapons of any sort, and not one of them would make a good president.
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Why would you think I’m saying that the Russian government has access to Trump’s money? No one else does…certainly not his creditors, and probably not even Trump himself.
No, Putin got what he wanted: a President he can manipulate completely. That’s what a puppetmaster is.
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First, “madman” doesn’t bring to mind personality disorders like sociopathy and narcissism; it’s much more evocative of someone who is psychotic, or schizophrenic, or otherwise irrational. I don’t think Trump is irrational: I think his problem is that he doesn’t care about anyone but Trump.
Second, by using a pejorative term for someone whose mental illness makes them irrational, Cory is stigmatizing those with such mental illnesses. So, while insulting Trump might be acceptable, using a term with such a stigma shouldn’t be.
Finally, I have no objection to restricting those with mental illnesses which affect their perception of reality from being given the opportunity to harm others. However, such arguments, since the mental illness is beyond the control of the person, should be presented respectfully.
The reason Trump shouldn’t be given power isn’t any mental illness: it’s because he’s a bigoted, self-aggrandizing asshole. He could become a good person, worthy of the office he’s been elected to, if he cared to, but he doesn’t. And if you want to offer insults along that line when arguing against his ascent to power, I have no objection.
But calling him a “madman” is not productive, it’s not accurate, and it’s not helpful to those with actual mental illness.
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Trump is not, in my view, a madman at all. He’s rational, but has a set of values that I can never accept or agree with, That said, I completely agree with the idea that this is not the kind of person I want to have the “keys” to the surveillance apparatus that’s been created after 9/11. In fact, there is no such person; that apparatus should be recognized as the emotional reaction it was and gradually deconstructed. What I don’t know is how to go about accomplishing that.
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cit.n.?
I can find nothing to disagree with in what you’ve written.
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“May”.
I like how you subtly tied that into the nefarious Prime Minister of the UK, Theresa May. That was neat.
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This is what I’m most afraid of. I don’t think he has the ability to read two paragraphs let alone study a multipage report provided to him. He’s fucking dumb. As bad as Bush, probably worse. And the kind of assholes that he’ll have around him will likely be much, much worse. Fucking room full of Cheney’s is what’s in store.
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I think worse of all, this guy suffers from arrested development. Have you seen pics of his apartment in NYC?
He’s a fucking man child, and a dumb one at that.
One of the things I was most offended by when it came to electing Bush is that people knowingly voted for a coke head alcoholic. 12 step folks should be given all they need to be productive in life - but not a chair in the fucking oval office.
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Cheney may be evil, but I have no doubt that he’s intelligent.
Room full of the Dunning-Kreuger poster-child Newt Gingrich is more like it.
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The most useful question to ask when considering a proposed government activity is: Would I trust my worst enemy with the power?
You should think of it before granting the power.
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Oh, I know. That’s my point - Trump will HAVE to surround himself with people to actually run the country more than any president we’ve ever had. And given our luck with that, we’ll wind up with new Cheney’s. And Newts…
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That’s part of it, and is the traditional American response.
The other part of it, which is not so much a part of American political tradition, is structuring your electoral system so as to reduce the power of extremism. And this part of the equation is more in line with recognising the reality that a modern government requires dangerous powers in order to function.
You can’t make the state perfectly safe without also rendering it impotent.
So you need to acknowledge that, no matter how you structure your state, letting an extremist gain control of the executive and legislature is a Bad Thing. And you need to take steps to make that less likely.
For example: prevent the disenfranchisement of racial minorities and the poor. Prevent gerrymandering. Get voter turnout up to a reasonable level. Get some proportional representation in the system somewhere. Make the removal of a rogue executive less difficult, and structure the rest of the system so that it can tolerate mid-stream changes in the executive. Etc.
I know: those things are virtually impossible to achieve in present-day America, but they aren’t impossible. Countries all over the world manage it.
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…would have preferred Godzilla.
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What worries me more if smart people like Cory start using a language that is not that far from Trump. What is the point of this simplified, fear-inducing, overtly exaggerated statement?
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How? It’s unclear to me how Putin is supposed to manipulate Trump, whereas it’s perfectly obvious to me how his investors could do so.
To convince me of your thesis, you need to provide a credible link from Putin to controlling Trump. Vague stuff about Russian hackers doesn’t do it, because after all the revelations about Trump he still won the election (partly due to the flawed electoral college system, but still.)
look a little bit to the west, Deutsche Bank is one of the last financial institutions willing to give Trump money
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Personal communication, sorry. My source is credible to me.
