With Each Briefing, Trump Is Making Us Worse People

[Celerity]

He is draining the last reserves of decency among us at a time when we need it most.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/04/each-briefing-trump-making-us-worse-people/609859/



There has never been an American president as spiritually impoverished as Donald Trump. And his spiritual poverty, like an overdrawn checking account that keeps imposing new penalties on a customer already in difficult straits, is draining the last reserves of decency among us at a time when we need it most.

I do not mean that Trump is the least religious among our presidents, though I have no doubt that he is; as the scholar Stephen Knott pointed out, Trump has shown “a complete lack of religious sensibility” unique among American presidents. (Just recently he wished Americans a “Happy Good Friday,” which suggests that he is unaware of the meaning of that day.) Nor do I mean that Trump is the least-moral president we’ve ever had, although again, I am certain that he is. John F. Kennedy was, in theory, a practicing Catholic, but he swam in a pool of barely concealed adultery in the White House. Richard Nixon was a Quaker, but one who attempted to subvert the Constitution. Andrew Johnson showed up pig-drunk to his inauguration. Trump’s manifest and immense moral failures—and the shameless pride he takes in them—make these men seem like amateurs by comparison.

And finally, I do not mean that Trump is the most unstable person ever to occupy the Oval Office, although he is almost certain to win that honor as well. As Peter Wehner has eloquently put it, Trump has an utterly disordered personality. Psychiatrists can’t help but diagnose Trump, even if it’s in defiance of the old Goldwater Rule against such practices. I know mental-health professionals who agree with George Conway and others that Trump is a malignant narcissist. What I mean instead is that Trump is a spiritual black hole. He has no ability to transcend himself by so much as an emotional nanometer. Even narcissists, we are told by psychologists, have the occasional dark night of the soul. They can recognize how they are perceived by others, and they will at least pretend to seek forgiveness and show contrition as a way of gaining the affection they need. They are capable of infrequent moments of reflection, even if only to adjust strategies for survival.

Trump’s spiritual poverty is beyond all this. He represents the ultimate triumph of a materialist mindset. He has no ability to understand anything that is not an immediate tactile or visual experience, no sense of continuity with other human beings, and no imperatives more important than soothing the barrage of signals emanating from his constantly panicked and confused autonomic system. The humorist Alexandra Petri once likened Trump to a goldfish, a purely reactive animal lost in a “pastless, futureless, contextless void.” This is an apt comparison, with one major flaw: Goldfish are not malevolent, and do not corrode the will and decency of those who gaze on them.

snip

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. And this is why we all *must* stop watching his "briefings."

Daily, Trump’s opponents are enraged by yet another assault on the truth and basic human decency. His followers are delighted by yet more vulgar attacks on the media and the Democrats. And all of us, angry or pleased, become more like Trump, because just like the president, we end up thinking about only Trump, instead of our families, our fellow citizens, our health-care workers, or the future of our country. We are all forced to take sides every day, and those two sides are always “Trump” and “everyone else.”

Perhaps to call this daily abomination “therapy” is unfair, because therapy has a healing goal. As Jennifer Melfi, the psychotherapist for HBO’s fictional mob boss Tony Soprano, realized at the end of the series, when she finally threw him out of her office, counseling someone incapable of reflection or remorse is pointless; it makes the counselor into a worse person for enduring such long exposure to the patient.

Likewise, Trump’s spiritual poverty is making all of us into worse people. We are all living with him in the moment and neglecting the thing that makes us human beings instead of mindless fish swimming in circles. We must recover this in ourselves, and become more decent, more reflective, and more stoic—before Trump sends us into a hole from which we might never emerge.

Trump is living rent-free in all of our heads and it has to stop.

[Celerity]

2. We stopped watching his daily rants/virtual campaign rallies last week, it was a waste of time

and just served as a massive distraction from other vital things.

[Wounded Bear]

4. I switch out when the Presidump tunes in...

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. I did, too, a long time ago.

But every time he has one of these briefings - which has been every day, lately - there are multiple posts about the deranged nonsense he's spouting again, how awful he looks, how terrible he is, etc., and it's always the same and it doesn't help. My plea to everyone is, do not watch those briefings, do not watch his press conferences, don't let him get in your head! He's like a Dementor from the Harry Potter books; he sucks all the goodness and happiness and decency right out of you.

[rurallib]

8. Responsible media must stop carrying them also

Record them and play back only parts that contain valid and truthful information.

[bluedye33139]

3. The overdrawn checking account fee metaphor is perfect nt

[Girard442]

6. At some point you have to realize that Trump et al have passed an event horizon of depravity.

There is no way for them to find a way back to decency and it's best to stop hoping they will and turn your energies elsewhere.

[3catwoman3]

7. That photo perfectly captures his "I don't give...

...a shit" facial expression.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. Indeed.

[2naSalit]

13. Indeed...

there's still some sunlight breaking through.

[MFGsunny]

9. "Political glossolalia" - that's an inspired description - tragically so.

We must step away - every day - lest we burn ourselves out.

Great read.

[Celerity]

10. ...

[MFGsunny]

12. This! n/t

[Buns_of_Fire]

14. Just like a goldfish... hmmm...

Mostly orange... lives in a bubble... no discernable hands... fishy lips...
Yep, she's got him pegged.

[Celerity]

15. ...

[Buns_of_Fire]

16. So it was never Putin who sent him -- it was Neptune.

(Not to be confused with Uranus, which takes us down a whole 'nother track.)

[Takket]

17. very nicely said..........

this is exactly why the media has to STOP these campaign rallies (which is what they are). there is no reason that the media cannot record and play back anything that is informative or relevant later, but live coverage is a waste of their airtime and a disservice to america. Of course his supporters will say that the media is the problem and they just hate drumpf.... but they are going to say that ANYWAY, so why waste our time with them?

His supporters want to wallow in a pig's pen of ignorance and hatred. there is no reason to make everyone else come to their level. ignore them and their demands.