How could anyone believe former president Donald Trump's claim that he, of all people, was chosen by God to lead America? It's a logical question to ask of a man whose voluminous and multi-faceted criminal behavior is hard to keep up with. Many criminals specialize: think of white-collar criminals dedicated to insider trading or Ponzi schemes. Not Trump. His
I'm always amazed by the phenomenon illustrated by Sarah Huckabee-Sanders here by how what we want affects how we experience the world. I don't know what's more frightening and impressive at the same time, our ability to take advantage or our ability to be taken advantage of.
There is such a strong comparison with Berlusconi but Professor Ben-Ghiat used the word kleptocrat which I learned back in the 1970s in political science. The rule of the "rip-off artist." It sounds "clever" but it is a very real thing, and the kind of comprehensive and indiscriminate vulgarity and corruption exhibited by Trump is truly all about himself, his self-indulgence and undisciplined venality. He is a kleptocrat. Trump has lived a life without rules, boundaries or empathy. The danger now is that Trump may morph from Silvio Berlusconi to someone more terrible such as Mussolini, or Papa Doc Duvalier or Anastasio Somoza. Trump could easily slip toward the kind of behavior we see in Putin and Mobutu. The Caligula Syndrome. The more we deify Trump the greater are the dangers to our culture, society and our lives. The rise of Trumpism--as with fascism--is surely a threat to democracy, but it is more. It is a threat to our culture, our society, our values and our happiness as people. Americans should imagine how an undemocratic social and political culture will look and feel.
Orange Jesus also has twelve disciples who follow in his footsteps. Follow their unholy actions with this infographic "Orange Jesus And His Twelve Disciples Are A Danger To Women"
If you take the quote you used as the last sentence in today’s blog, and substitute Trump for Hitler and the U.S. for Germany, as a devout, but certainly not evangelical, Christian, what’s taking place in the U.S. today, one could argue, is what Mary prophesied would happen to Trump and the Republican Party in her Magnificat over 2,000 years ago. See Luke 1:51-53, NRSV
Excellent, spot on! It’s bad enough that Trump says these things and even worse that there’s many who believe him! Some may not totally believe, but they say they do for power and control reasons!
Recalling my Catholic Catechism, Trump is an apostate. These so-called "Christians" are following the antichrist. This isn't original strategy, as Ruth pointed out. The Caligula comparison is spot on.
Thanks for this perspective, Ruth...next we'll see him on the cross, I'm sure! It would be funny if it weren't so dangerous.
I know there are people who need to idealize someone in order to feel safe in the world. We all have relative degrees of this idealizing need leftover from childhood. But I hope there are SOME previous Trump voters who will see that he has NO CONSCIENCE. A person with no conscience can "use and discard" people because he suffers no self-doubt, no regret, and no guilt about what he does and what he asks others to do for him. Suggesting that physically sick Iowans travel in below zero weather in order to caucus for him is a manifestation of this sociopathic trait. One doesn't need to be a psychiatrist to be trained to recognize that a person with no conscience has no morals or values guiding and limiting his behavior. A person with no internal limits will ultimately break all the rules until he's stopped by a society that sets the limit for him. Germans made a terrible mistake for the world and for themselves, when they set no limits on Hitler.
although i've long experienced Trump as a bloviating bombastic boring cringe-worthy disaster, i noticed that in past day or two, sneaky feelings such as, he likes Lays Potato Chips - like me, how bad could he be, oh that's just Uncle Donald and Anne Frank's, "In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart" have crept up in me - what's going on?? i've become subject to the wiles of the so-called strong [actually very weak] man who doesn't have a shred of self-restraint towards his appetites; he's gotten in though i'm fairly impervious - is it his relentless presence? - gotta go now to take a shower on the inside -
That last quote just might have some truth to it. Americans have long boasted that they are the light of the world. Then they chose Trump. That should be humbling, but it certainly is humiliating.
More voted against him in 2015 than for him, but that “best of all systems” put him in power anyway. Has it been fixed yet?
What a travesty that Trump is considered a modern day deity by so many fools who call themselves Christians. He is so profoundly corrupt and dirty and the antithesis of anything holy. We really have a mass psychosis happening right before our eyes
When segments of Christianity radicalize into Dominonism, they accept authoritarianism. Author Chris Hedges calls them Christo-fascists. Their mindset is steeped in radical Calvinism and they become obsessed with dominance and submission. They start hating groups in society that they view as inferior. Political fascism does the same thing. It's an easy alliance between the two groups.
Sociopaths like tRump view themselves as demigods and need to be worshipped to feed their grandiosity. tRump's needy followers are obsessed with his omnipotence and need to worship him. It's a kind of sick symbiosis. The world of reality is left far behind.
Prof. Ben Ghiat is always worth listening to.
It makes me sad that so many people are being duped. They just don’t want to see the truth.
I'm always amazed by the phenomenon illustrated by Sarah Huckabee-Sanders here by how what we want affects how we experience the world. I don't know what's more frightening and impressive at the same time, our ability to take advantage or our ability to be taken advantage of.
There is such a strong comparison with Berlusconi but Professor Ben-Ghiat used the word kleptocrat which I learned back in the 1970s in political science. The rule of the "rip-off artist." It sounds "clever" but it is a very real thing, and the kind of comprehensive and indiscriminate vulgarity and corruption exhibited by Trump is truly all about himself, his self-indulgence and undisciplined venality. He is a kleptocrat. Trump has lived a life without rules, boundaries or empathy. The danger now is that Trump may morph from Silvio Berlusconi to someone more terrible such as Mussolini, or Papa Doc Duvalier or Anastasio Somoza. Trump could easily slip toward the kind of behavior we see in Putin and Mobutu. The Caligula Syndrome. The more we deify Trump the greater are the dangers to our culture, society and our lives. The rise of Trumpism--as with fascism--is surely a threat to democracy, but it is more. It is a threat to our culture, our society, our values and our happiness as people. Americans should imagine how an undemocratic social and political culture will look and feel.
Orange Jesus also has twelve disciples who follow in his footsteps. Follow their unholy actions with this infographic "Orange Jesus And His Twelve Disciples Are A Danger To Women"
https://thedemlabs.org/2024/01/16/orange-jesus-and-his-twelve-disciples-are-a-danger-to-women/
Thank you!
If you take the quote you used as the last sentence in today’s blog, and substitute Trump for Hitler and the U.S. for Germany, as a devout, but certainly not evangelical, Christian, what’s taking place in the U.S. today, one could argue, is what Mary prophesied would happen to Trump and the Republican Party in her Magnificat over 2,000 years ago. See Luke 1:51-53, NRSV
Excellent, spot on! It’s bad enough that Trump says these things and even worse that there’s many who believe him! Some may not totally believe, but they say they do for power and control reasons!
Recalling my Catholic Catechism, Trump is an apostate. These so-called "Christians" are following the antichrist. This isn't original strategy, as Ruth pointed out. The Caligula comparison is spot on.
Thanks for this perspective, Ruth...next we'll see him on the cross, I'm sure! It would be funny if it weren't so dangerous.
I know there are people who need to idealize someone in order to feel safe in the world. We all have relative degrees of this idealizing need leftover from childhood. But I hope there are SOME previous Trump voters who will see that he has NO CONSCIENCE. A person with no conscience can "use and discard" people because he suffers no self-doubt, no regret, and no guilt about what he does and what he asks others to do for him. Suggesting that physically sick Iowans travel in below zero weather in order to caucus for him is a manifestation of this sociopathic trait. One doesn't need to be a psychiatrist to be trained to recognize that a person with no conscience has no morals or values guiding and limiting his behavior. A person with no internal limits will ultimately break all the rules until he's stopped by a society that sets the limit for him. Germans made a terrible mistake for the world and for themselves, when they set no limits on Hitler.
although i've long experienced Trump as a bloviating bombastic boring cringe-worthy disaster, i noticed that in past day or two, sneaky feelings such as, he likes Lays Potato Chips - like me, how bad could he be, oh that's just Uncle Donald and Anne Frank's, "In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart" have crept up in me - what's going on?? i've become subject to the wiles of the so-called strong [actually very weak] man who doesn't have a shred of self-restraint towards his appetites; he's gotten in though i'm fairly impervious - is it his relentless presence? - gotta go now to take a shower on the inside -
That last quote just might have some truth to it. Americans have long boasted that they are the light of the world. Then they chose Trump. That should be humbling, but it certainly is humiliating.
More voted against him in 2015 than for him, but that “best of all systems” put him in power anyway. Has it been fixed yet?
Excellent/necessary piece!
Christian Nationalism on display……
Thank you Ruth!
Orange Jesus! Good grief.
What a travesty that Trump is considered a modern day deity by so many fools who call themselves Christians. He is so profoundly corrupt and dirty and the antithesis of anything holy. We really have a mass psychosis happening right before our eyes
When segments of Christianity radicalize into Dominonism, they accept authoritarianism. Author Chris Hedges calls them Christo-fascists. Their mindset is steeped in radical Calvinism and they become obsessed with dominance and submission. They start hating groups in society that they view as inferior. Political fascism does the same thing. It's an easy alliance between the two groups.
Sociopaths like tRump view themselves as demigods and need to be worshipped to feed their grandiosity. tRump's needy followers are obsessed with his omnipotence and need to worship him. It's a kind of sick symbiosis. The world of reality is left far behind.