John Pavlovitz: This Cruelty is the Trump Effect on America

[highplainsdem]

Link to tweet

https://johnpavlovitz.com/2021/09/08/this-cruelty-is-the-trump-effect-on-america/

-snip-

Though certainly not created then or by the man, for the first time in America’s history the latent ugliness in people was revealed and validated and celebrated by a sitting president—it was officially normalized. And what we’re experiencing now; this staggering, insensitive posturing in the face of so many people’s suffering, is the late-ripening fruit of something that has been set into the bedrock of half our nation. It is the malicious entitlement that MAGA was designed to nurture from the beginning.

-snip-

This quickly metastasizing moral cancer is something we’ve never experienced on this level in our lifetimes and it’s something we’re going to have to reckon with regardless of the political outcomes of the next four years. If the former president somehow takes that office again, these stories will surely grow exponentially more violent and more commonplace, but either way, the ugliness is here now.

The Trump Effect on America, is that once reasonable, rational human beings whose prejudices, fears, and phobias were all bound by some baseline decorum and common courtesy that kept them from intentionally harming others—have been empowered to revel in the worst of themselves. They believe cruelty is their birthright.

I’m not sure where we go from here, but I know that this version of America isn’t worthy of our or anyone’s children inheriting.

We’re going to need more good people becoming louder about what is and isn’t within the bounds of civilized society.

-snip-

[TexasBushwhacker]

1. I love John

He can be very moving, but also very funny. He and his family all had COVID-19 recently. He tweeted that he knew he was over it when his son let a big fart rip in the car and he could SMELL it!

He has a pretty scary surgery soon. He has to have a tumor removed from his pituitary. It's likely benign, but it's still brain surgery.

[leighbythesea2]

18. Me too

I was sad to hear he will miss the launch of his new book somewhat due to surgery and recovery. Great, kind thinker.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. He is warning and preparing us for the worst - sadism to come - so we can make plans, just in case

It could be a Dark Age. Lawlessness despite laws, sadism at will for personal pleasure, uncertainty at every turn. Hunker down with like minds and protect each other from the hoardes.

The words that chill: "They believe cruelty is their birthright."

Think about that for a few days. At least.

[Tumbulu]

5. I think they also think it is their job

to punish the society for going astray and the cruelty is one of the tools that they tell themselves that they must use to wake people up.

[bucolic_frolic]

11. THEY think the society has gone astray??

What about THEM?

[Tumbulu]

32. They believe that they are " serving the Lord"

or other crazy ideas.

It only makes them more righteous.

This nightmare just keeps getting worse.

[llashram]

3. +++

so true...hate, lies and distortions used to grift money from willfully ignorant people, for his pockets and probably legal defence, are obvious to me

[Irish_Dem]

4. "This quickly metastasizing moral cancer is something we've never experienced on this level "

"This quickly metastasizing moral cancer is something we’ve never experienced on this level in our lifetimes and it’s something we’re going to have to reckon with regardless of the political outcomes of the next four years"


We have become the ultimate Ugly American. The social contract that binds us together is dissolving.

[bullwinkle428]

6. Wish I could rec x 1000. Honestly, this is so pervasive an issue, I thought he

was going to open with the example of the kid at the school board meeting who was laughed at for talking about his grandmother's death from COVID.

[niyad]

7. He should watch Keith Olbermann's video from Friday about 9/11. KO points out

that cruelty, revenge, hatred, were normalized then during the bush/cheney/rumsfeld response to the attacks. Th f'n orange traitor** just magnified it.

[questionseverything]

23. Yes when no one was punished for torturing humans

Basically we said, evil is ok

[Jon King]

8. Even a cynical guy like me is shocked by how many hateful people there are.

I remember being 10 years old after church watching the adults who moments before had been nice, racing to their cars, honking, cutting each other off to exit. Thats when I started being fairly cynical that there were plenty of jerks in the world.

But man, the Trump era just brought it all out into the open. They no longer pretend, they are what they are, pure selfish, ignorant, arrogant, jerks. And there are more of them than I ever imagined.

[Sherman A1]

30. I'm not at all surprised

I worked Retail for 43 years and got a big dose of the hatefulness full of Karens and Chads. It wasn’t too bad in the 1970s, got more noticeable in the Reagan years and with the advent of talk radio really came into bloom. Trump is a symptom, not the cause as it was and always has been there.

[KS Toronado]

9. One way to fight their cruelty would be free higher education

Educated people tend to have critical thinking skills and are less prone to starting/promoting violence.
Plus they tend to vote Democrat, and yes it'll take years to see the fruits of free college, but worth
it in the long run.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

28. Critical thinking needs to be nurtured LONG before university education

"Teaching to the test" leaves no room for real education.

Too many people think that education consists of shoveling facts into skulls to prepare them to be worker droids. The result is sedated manipulable consumers, which makes business and RepubliQons happy.

True education includes the "how" of thinking, not just the "what".

[KS Toronado]

31. I agree

[North Shore Chicago]

10. Been an adult for a while now.

When I was a kid, we were taught to respect our elders, respect police officers, clergy.... parents never said why. So I made believe the reasons such as one is now mature, helped others, protected the weak and helped turtles across busy stretches of road.

Boy oh boy was I ever disappointed!

So called adults push the weak around and take advantage, so called adults take advantage of some children, and so called adults purposely run over animals who attempt road crossings.

My disappointment weighs heavy on me. It has changed my world view.

[2naSalit]

12. K&R

[Mysterian]

13. The inevitable result of pervasive fascist propaganda on radio and TV

is the election of a fuhrer who will destroy our democracy. Trump was a warning that "it can happen here." Loyal Americans need to fight these fuckers from town council meetings to the halls of Congress.

[LakeArenal]

14. I will never except such cruelty as "normalized"

It just isn’t normal.

[Grins]

15. Ummmm.... Yes and no. Trump is a product of the GOP...

…going back to Newt Gingrich. And Tom Delay. And Cantor, and Ryan, and Armey, and Graham, and Livingston, and Hastert, and Dornan, and Ailes(!), and Hyde. Not to leave out Falwell and Robertson and a crap-ton of “Christian” evangelicals.

Without all of them and more, there would be no “Trump Effect.”

[calimary]

16. Newt Gingrich is the poisoned apple.

It all got started after HE got started. He was first to shove civility out the top floor window. And cheered loudly as he watched it smash to the ground in a thousand pieces.

And when he broke things and got no punishment for it, that set a new template for all his power-hungry little buddies. And no, he got no punishment for it. What he got was power and authority and eventually the highest position in the House of Representatives.

Of course, when you fall from THAT height, it’s either tragic or richly deserved. And thankfully, it was the latter, for that bastard.

[BigmanPigman]

22. Ditto!

[monkeyman1]

27. tax church's - billion dollar industry !

[The Unmitigated Gall]

17. Cruelty is the defining hallmark of the fascist character structure.

[Boomerproud]

19. My heart hurts.

[orangecrush]

20. Time for the Justice Department

To start applying foot to Trumper ass.

[NBachers]

21. Trump- the Slobodan Milosevic of America. It ends in rape camps and throat-slashing pens.

[TrogL]

24. Welcome to authoritarianism

https://theauthoritarians.org/

[drmeow]

25. The cruelty has been the defining characteristic

of Republican policies since at least Nixon. The Republican voters used the ballot box to pretend decorum and common courtesy cause they couldn't use the N-word in public anymore. The cruelty was ALWAYS there and the decorum and common courtesy were always a thin veneer. The only difference now is that they are not limiting their cruelty and hatred to POC.

[andym]

26. Cruelty has always been part and parcel of American culture

The southern gothic stories of the 20th century capture it well: Faulkner and Flannery O'Connor are good examples. Similarly the midwest gothic of authors like Sherwood Anderson. There are many others.

The roots have been there, but they've been nurtured and focused politically by some on the right to create a modern blight of self-serving contempt for others. Rush Limbaugh comes to mind using mockery to build a large following of self-identifying dittoheads who basked in his overflowing faux superiority. Fox News became a pied piper for identifying targets for their contempt. Men like Trump tapped into it. Trump is a less-intelligent, but more dangerous Limbaugh successor, because Trump craves power and more importantly idolatry, achieving success unimaginable to the older generation of fellow travelers like Pat Buchanan.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

29. "Cruelty is the point" of the tRump attempted authoritarian power grab. It's how dictators operate.