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evilgenius wrote: That person, or thing, doesn't necessarily have to be Trump. Somebody worse than him could come along. All of the pieces are in place. Death from within, you know.

Trump has something special though. Desalts and Abbot think they emulate him by enacting policy they think is as hair-brained as his but they miss the point. Trump isn't interested in policy. He is interested in trump.

His single-minded obsession with himself is his superpower. Acolytes vicariously thrill at him thumbing his nose at all the "elites" who look down on him and his guided wallpaper and trailer house chic. He bashes gold star families, POWs, "the generals" and whomever with equal gusto. I suppose all his supporters wish they had the balls and wealth and callousness to do the same, actually I believe he has given them license.

The irony lost on each or maybe not, is that trump is one of the elite himself; heir/millionaire, TV personality, deadbeat, tax cheat, philanderer, conman. The very things he rails against is the thing they obviously envy. It is a kind of political schizophrenia.

Whatever, it is indicative of a party and country in trouble. Trump could well win in '24, Rs are likely to win congress next year. Most forecasters think GW and PO will be along shortly. Bannon could turn out to be a right, the fourth turning is yet to come.
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Trump's primary impact is to give people permission, to exercise their worst fears. He is not helping them with them, though, but holding them under. He is not about releasing them from their fears. He is about getting them to function within them, thus giving the framework they exist within true power. He comes along and says there is an answer, if you just give over your affiliation to him. He knows what is bothering you. At least he knows that.

On a related note, Michelle Goldberg has an op-ed out that argues we know way too much about our neighbors. That what social media does by exposing us to every wacko idea of those outside our group is not like real life where we become more tolerant by actually meeting others. But instead, reading isolated tidbits on twitter, PO.com or whatever makes us less accepting of those with differing views.

It turns out that in a country as large and diverse as ours, a certain amount of benign neglect of other people’s odd folkways is more conducive to social peace than a constant, in-your-face awareness of clashing sensibilities. Little is gained when people in my corner of Brooklyn gawk at viral images of Christmas cards featuring families armed to the teeth. And people in conservative communities don’t need to hear about it every time San Francisco considers renaming a public school.

I've long been a fan of the Ignore button here. I use it for people who have either a limited range of responses "but they said we were running out in 1886!", "your ilk thinks everything is doom" , "Yeahbutt, Obama... ", etc.

I am limiting my horizon to an extent, there are likely ideas hidden in the FOX opinion stream. But if there are I would likely reject them out of hand so not watching Tucker is probably better. By the same token I don't read as much way left stuff as I used to either, Jacobin, VOX, Slate... NYT opinion is pretty left admittedly, LOL

Pops,

Not reading that stuff is probably a pretty good idea. For some reason I find Fox News less offensive that the left wing crap. Not that is a whit better it just bothers me less. There is very, very, very little “news” on Fox News. It is almost purely jingoism. Why it annoys me less is a bit of a mystery, I suspect has to do with that I internally am more Left oriented and feel more at risk when I see Left wing jingoism.

I have noted here before how bigoted and attacking I find my Left leaning acquaintances. They are frothing with vile hatred. I know you have a different experience and find the Right wing full of hatred. I suspect the difference is because we bump shoulders with different sets of folks.

Some time ago a friend turned us into a web site of a fellow who went deep down the rat hole of explaining this rising hatred. It is a long (10 part?) article that starts pretty far hack in our past and builds up to the current situation. It is unlikely he has a complete explanation, but is better than any other I have seen.

Here is the link it you are interested.

https://waitbutwhy.com/2019/08/story-of-us.html