"Here are some questions I have about a post-Trump world"

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

Tweet text: Claire Berlinski.
@ClaireBerlinski
Here are some questions I have about a post-Trump world.
1. I would describe the Trump presidency as a national trauma. The trauma has involved *humiliating loss,* one of the most potent and destructive of human emotions--
1:12 AM · Oct 10, 2020

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https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1314841320851148800.html

Here are some questions I have about a post-Trump world.
1. I would describe the Trump presidency as a national trauma. The trauma has involved *humiliating loss,* one of the most potent and destructive of human emotions--
--and an emotion, many have observed, that often gives rise to deep clinical depression.

Among those who didn't support him, Trump has attacked our narcissistic pride. Our pride in being Americans; in believing Americans were immune to low-rent, third-world demagoguery;

our pride in believing ourselves, deep down, to be *serious* and *responsible* people; our pride in our system of governance--which wasn't supposed to create results like a Trump Presidency.

For Trump's supporters, the trauma is different, but will very much still be a real trauma. Many of his supporters entered the President's narcissistic delusions *with* him. At some point, they'll be forced to confront the truth: The emperor has no clothes.

That will be devastating. They will be devastated.

I'm not sure what revelation it will take for them to realize this--so far, nothing has, but perhaps a very strong electoral rebuke will do the job. Or maybe it won't.

For them, the narcissistic injury will come from the realization that the President made fools of them. This, too, is a humiliating loss.

We will be a wounded country, psychologically, no matter the results of the election.

We will be bitterly divided, sicker, poorer, permanently disabused of our cherished fantasies about ourselves, and confronting a hostile world with very few friends left.

Trump won't go away--he may no longer be the C-in-C of the military with the power to launch on command--

but you better believe he'll be sucking up media oxygen, feeding off the attention of his cult devotees, doing everything he can to undermine the Biden presidency and any initiatives it takes to try to make the country whole again.

What are the precedents for something like this in history? There is of course de-Nazification, but the US under Trump did not become Nazi Germany; it became something sui generis.

In other countries that have defeated a charismatic populist with a large cult following,
how have they re-integrated, afterward? What works?

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Personally, I don't give a hoot about these idiots that supported trump, after all, they didn't give

a hoot or care about former HRC supporters being crushed by the questionable trump win in 2016. We were wounded in 2016, but we survived regardless, without any help from literally anybody else except ourselves, while all of the trump supporters (trump and cronies too) were crowing about their 2016 win (and still are, pathetically).

Screw them. They put our Country and its values at risk.

[Nevilledog]

2. I want them to be shunned.

Unfortunately, they're not going to disappear, and most of them are living in an alternate reality.

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Yes, you're right, they'll slink back under the bridges and stuff, where they belong, but the stink

of them will still linger for some time. We have work to do ahead of us, but we will get it done, with Mr. Biden's help and guidance.

[kimbutgar]

4. Outside of Fox and the right wing media public

I think MSM is tired of him and won’t report on his antics. They want to move on and forget him. He’s no longer that shiny new candidate but one who has attacked them and out their lives In danger.

[BComplex]

9. And the rest of the legitimate media has got to start calling fox propaganda exactly what it is,

and we all need to go to war against fox.

[smirkymonkey]

5. K&R

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. We are going to need at least one of the following:

An equivalent to the deNazification of Germany that took place after WWII.

A version of Truth and Reconciliation Commission that happened in South Africa after Apartheid was ended.

There might be one or two other such things, but they are not coming to mind at the moment.

[crickets]

8. +1

We're going to need something, something meaningful. "Okay - movin' on!" is not going to work.

[nuxvomica]

7. We will need a truth and reconciliation commission

Or rather a truth and justice commission. There will need to be some body that sorts through all the destructive initiatives and criminal behavior in a dedicated manner. It would be too burdensome to leave to the congressional committees as they will have full plates. This will help with illuminating matters for the Trump supporters, many of whom actually aren't even aware of most of his misdeeds and may "see the light" if it shines brightly and in their faces. Based on the past behaviors of apocalyptic cults, a fair percentage, may be over a third, will abandon the madness once Trump is out of power and will say, often silently, to themselves, "What the hell was I thinking?" I have people I know in mind.