“This could never happen in America.”

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thingsthathappen

But it is.

I’m talking about the increasing feeling of unreality and foreboding under this new administration, run by a sociopath that even ten years ago wouldn’t have had a snowball’s chance in hell of becoming president.

I sat, frozen in horror on election night, as I watched more and more states turned red, even states that have traditionally been blue.    I was upset, but I tried to talk myself down, almost convincing myself for a short time that maybe a Trump presidency wouldn’t be so bad.

But the days since his inauguration have been horrifying — and there have only been 7 of them.   One week of a four year reign.

Every day seems worse than the last.   As a nation, we seem to be on the fast track toward fascism, circling around  a looming black hole with little to no chance of escape.   Trump has been compared to Hitler. This is not hyperbole.  The comparison is being made even by intellectually respected sources who don’t usually stoop to sensationalism and fearmongering (or Godwin’s Law) to make a point.   If you doubt me, Google “Trump – Hitler.”    The similarities in both the men themselves and the tactics they are using to rise to power are chilling.

I’ve tried to stay away from the news, but I can’t.   I feel compelled to watch.  I know what this compulsion is:  it’s hypervigilance, a feeling I’m very familiar with.    I no longer feel safe here in America.   I feel like America no longer stands for what it once did, and its Constitution is being undermined a little more every day.  I am terrified, and feel like I have to scan the horizon for danger all the time.    But now I finally realize how someone like Hitler was able to rise to power.  I always wondered how that could have happened.  Now I know.  Along with the horror and feelings of dissociation, is a feeling of helplessness.   It’s incredibly triggering for someone already suffering from C-PTSD — only now it’s on a nationwide, maybe a worldwide, scale.

I can’t come home anymore and just relax.  Nothing is normal anymore.   I feel this NEED TO KNOW what Trump did or said.  During the day, I feel the same undercurrent of fear and hypervigilance I felt being raised by, and then married to, abusers.    And, like being married to an abuser, I never know what to expect.    With each new day, Trump seems to be getting bolder.  His outrageous comments, executive orders, lies, and hatred seem to know no bounds.   I’m very afraid.   I don’t think it’s exaggeration to admit that as a nation, America is in deep shit.

There seems very little that can be done.  We’re careening toward civil war, the removal of any civil liberties or even the right to protest, blatant discrimination and profiling of immigrants from “targeted countries,” even the possibility of nuclear war.   Information that has been freely available to the public is now being silenced, and facts are being denied.  We have a president who truly believes climate change is a myth and ordered the removal of climate change information, smack dab in the middle of the warmest winter on record — beating even 2016, which until this year held that record.

We have a president who lies constantly, who uses Orwellian “newspeak” to his own and his supporters’ advantage,  twisting language so that “lies” are now “alternative facts” and criticism and balanced reporting is “fake news.”    There’s no need for me to list all the insane, hate filled, and untrue things Trump has said, and all the unbelievably heartless and stupid things he is attempting to do, or wants to do.  He only seems to care about keeping his false self inflated, not at all about the American people or the country he’s systematically gutting from within as he claims to “make it great” again.   He is normalizing racism, sexism, authoritarian rule, and even the use of torture on immigrants under the guise of “rejecting political correctness.”

The man’s obvious malignant narcissism makes it possible for him to obsess over the small size of the crowd at his inauguration and then lie about it, and actually have the gall to order an investigation (paid for by the taxpayers) as to why was he didn’t win the popular vote.   Wah wah!   I guess winning the presidency wasn’t enough.   The man is an emotional ticking time bomb, and we should all be very concerned right now.

But I didn’t write this as a rant against Trump.   I don’t hate him because he is a mentally ill person who should never have come within 1000 yards of the presidency.   We allowed that to happen because of our complacency and apathy — and the way we have come to worship those who attained material wealth, no matter how they attained it.     I’m writing this because I’m scared to death. I know I’m not alone.   Every day I grow more afraid.  For all its faults, I never felt unsafe in this country before.   Like everyone else, I guess I took it for granted.  There were certain things that just wouldn’t happen in America — but they are happening now. Blatant fascism is becoming the new normal.   Things that would “never happen” are now more likely to happen than not.

Nothing can be predicted anymore.  Anything could happen.  There’s a new feeling of uncertainty and foreboding–and that awful helplessness–I never felt as an American.    There’s also a surrealness, a sense of dissociation and unreality.    It’s similar to the way I felt after 9/11, only this time it’s not an isolated event; it’s something that’s actually happening and will only grow worse if a miracle doesn’t happen, and soon.  This time we aren’t being brought closer together;  it’s a paradigm shift that will tear us even further apart.    Divide and conquer, is, of course, part of a malignant narcissist’s agenda to gain even more control and power. If 9/11 caused Americans to suffer nationwide PTSD,  a Trump presidency will cause a nationwide epidemic of C-PTSD.

We are so screwed.

51 thoughts on ““This could never happen in America.””

  2. Great article – and I’m right there with you – scared to death, and seeing direct parallels with pre-WWII Germany.

    I still do not BELIEVE how very many Americans are exhibiting clear signs of struggles with “cognitive dissonance.” (ie, the “I have to maintain that this is a good thing or I look like a fool for supporting it to begin with” reaction). I don’t know WHAT it will take from him to shake them out of it.

    The cognitive science on that concept is quite fascinating, actually. It’s clear on one thing: the more censure they receive, the more they will feel compelled to dig in and defend. And we need them on OUR side.

    Except for health care – which directly impacts Mental Health Awareness – I am still trying to keep my political opinions in the comments and off my articles, but I just might have to sneak in some carefully vague “Agent Orange” [AO] examples to illustrate a few points.

    I ONLY use various nicknames for him, btw. I refuse to even have his NAME linked with mine and as long as he holds the office, its name will never be capitalized!!!
    xx,
    mgh
    (Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMore dot com)
    ADD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder
    “It takes a village to transform a world!”

    Liked by 4 people

    • I felt the same way you did — until very recently, I shied away from posting anything political on this blog, realizing that some of my readers might be conservatives and voted for Trump. But I’m so triggered by this and so SCARED — I can’t help myself and need to a place to vent, and this blog is my venting space. Yes, I agree, the cognitive dissonance is almost incomprehensible, but shows you to what lengths people will go to avoid feeling “stupid.” Certainly not THAT many people believe Trump is an honest man really doing a good thing — and that Obama was so terrible? Cognitive dissonance is the only explanation.
      I refuse to call him “President.” I just can’t.

      Liked by 3 people

      • UNFORTUNATELY, not one single supporter of whom I am aware (or among my VERY few friends and acquaintances who insisted on voting for this unholy terror because they didn’t like Hillary) have changed their views.

        I can barely talk to them anymore, and have unfollowed the worst offenders (still yammering on about the supposed “sins” of Hillary and Obama).

        There is no talking to them, and I don’t not need to read anything from that camp to increase my fear. I don’t even want to see their post titles in the Reader.

        I’m reticent to post about politics on my blog, not because I’m afraid that the “conservatives” among my own followers will go away – if they are there, they are not reading often, commenting (or reading the comments), or they’d probably have unfollowed after the few posts I have written that ask folks to think carefully (mostly about the impact on Mental Health care/insurance etc.).

        I want the focus of my blog to remain EF support and Mental Health Advocacy – that seems to be what people have come to expect, and I still have much to say about those arenas. So I visit blogs like yours – where the authors use their blogs more to vent, as you do – and leave my comments there.

        SO FAR.
        xx,
        mgh
        (Madelyn Griffith-Haynie – ADDandSoMuchMore dot com)
        ADD Coach Training Field founder; ADD Coaching co-founder
        “It takes a village to transform a world!”

        Liked by 5 people

        • I’ve noticed the stubborn resistance of the Trump camp too. There’s a woman I’m friendly with, but who is still grousing on about “Hillary’s emails.” She also believes the “birther” lies about Obama. I can talk to her, but not about politics at all.
          I do think the cognitive dissonance is a powerful force, and people will go to almost any exteme to avoid admitting they had been wrong.
          On Twitter and Facebook though, I have seen accounts called “Trumpregrets” and the like, for people who voted for Trump but regret it now. Of course, most of these people weren’t staunch Trump supporters to begin with — they only voted for him as a vote against Hillary, or whatever. The real die-hards (who act as deplorable online as Hillary said they were) are racist, sexist white supremacist thugs who actually agree with fascist and authoritarian rule. Scary that there seem to be so many of them.

          Liked by 4 people

  4. The resistance I’m seeing is encouraging: all the “alt” Twitter accounts popping up in the past couple of days. It’s hard to say for sure if they really are members of the White House staff/FBI/DOD/etc. I keep hoping they are. 🙂

    And then there’s the resistance from the media, digging in and reporting despite getting chewed out for it. Then you go to foreign news agencies like the BBC and Der Spiegel, and they don’t care about being nonbiased. It’s not their country, not their politics, so they come right and say what they mean. Der Spiegel has been running all sorts of stories about Trump.

    I hope that if Trump does try to take us into fascism, there’ll be too much resistance to allow it.

    Liked by 4 people

    • Maybe we have finally hit bottom. In the substance abuse community, they talk about addicts and alcoholics not being able to quit until they hit bottom and realize their life is at stake. Maybe the pushback we are seeing in the face of possible consequences from the new regime is a sign that we have hit bottom and realize that the price is worth paying, because the alternative is even worse. I just wish all these brainwashed Trump supporters would see the light and stop believing all the lies they are being told. This man is evil. He makes Obama look like a saint, and in comparison, yes, he was. Hell, I’d even go vote for Bush right now, if that were an option. He seemed downright tame compared to Trump.
      I saw the Der Speigel articles. I remember a German magazine (it might have been that one) warning us about a year ago that we were in grave danger if we allowed Trump to become president. We didn’t listen. History seems to have taught us nothing.

      Liked by 3 people

  5. Wow, Lauren you totally nailed how I’m feeling. I actually spent this past week doing massive research about Central and South America as places to live. I’m telling people I’m doing research for retirement locales. If we need to leave we will. I never thought in my 58 years on this planet that I would feel this way. Every time I look at the news, my heart sinks a little more. I can’t believe this monster is in charge. I would like to think that all the people who voted for him can’t be that demented, but they knew what they were getting when they voted for him. He never hid who he truly was. Now all of us have to deal with the consequences. I’ve actually been sick since the election. It started out with a horrible cold, then I got Bell’s palsy on Thanksgiving, and am still dealing with that. The thought of just up and moving to another country terrifies me. I’m signing up for a Spanish class this weekend. I will do whatever I have to do to protect my family. Wasting taxpayer money on voter fraud? You won you idiot. More than half of the people who voted, voted for Hillary. I think the thought of having a woman in the White House was too much for these idiot savants to handle. I hope like hell the Democratic party gets their act together before its too late.

    Liked by 2 people

    • I think Hillary being a woman has a lot to do with why she lost.
      I know someone who is moving to Costa Rica, which I hear is a great place to live. Unfortunately I won’t be able to move, can’t afford it and don’t have anyone to stay with –but if things get bad enough, I may just up and go somewhere — and see what happens. Maybe other countries will eventually offer asylum to refugees from the US.
      Trump won’t need to have his stupid wall. People will be fleeing to Mexico instead of the other way around. Oh, but wait….maybe his real agenda is to keep Americans IN. 😮

      Liked by 2 people

    • I’ve been researching Costa Rica, Panama and Ecuador. Much cheaper to live and possibly higher standard of living… great for retirees or for the self employed. Only problem is internet, most of central and south america uses dial up and unreliable cable connection with very slow speed. Only big cities in Panama have high speed internet, taxes are very low, and if your income is earned outside the country, then no income tax or even sales tax at all. Right now I’m watching alot of ex-pat videos on international living. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worse. Trump has just accelerated this country’s time line for collapse.

      Like

  6. The measures he took just today against anyone Syrian coming into the country except for Christians is horrifying. I watch daily all the while praying for people to wake up and see the horror that is coming..and coming soon. I pray the news people will continue to write about the obvious lies, the erosion of civil rights. I lived through the cuban missile crisis, the threat of nucks during a show down with Russia years ago..and neither of those events terrified me. This presidency terrifies me.

    Liked by 1 person

    • What is so baffling to me is that “Christians” are supporting this monster and his evil regime. They use one-issue red herrings like abortion or banning gay marriage as lures to garner Christian support. But their behavior is anything but Christian. In fact, it’s the opposite. And it’s ruining real Christianity, which isn’t all about greed and selfishness. It’s turning good people away from Christianity, which they’ve come to believe is all about judgment, authoritarian rules, disdain for the most vulnerable citizens, and loss of civil liberties. They are the modern day Pharisees. As far as Trump wanting to “keep out terrorists,” I wonder how much of that is PROJECTION. He is proving to be as bad as any foreign terrorist.

      Liked by 2 people

  7. Pingback: Sad in America | cornfedcontessa

  8. Thank you, thank you Lucky Otter, for this brave post, and to all the insightful commenters. Reading such rare (these days) evidence that others are actually aware of what is really going on makes me feel so much “less alone” tonight.

    As you know, I have been shouting out my “Duty to Warn” regarding Trump’s most likely sociopathic behavior since before he denounced Megan Kelly for having a menstrual period.

    His egregious anti-social behavior – justified, or at least minimized by enough voters to get him elected (which is even scarier to me) – screamed out red flag! red flag! to anyone educated by experience or profession in dangerous personalities. Maybe no one takes red flags seriously unless they have already been victimized by an abuser (and subsequently became self educated) or learned about such things in the psychiatric profession.

    But the “justifications” I’ve heard for Trump’s overt and objectively narcissistic behavior still has me shaken to the core. What have people become? Do they not realize what they are valuing as a political “weapon” of choice? Is this “mass dissociation” from reality a form of cultural anosognosia?

    And your remark “I feel the same undercurrent of fear and hypervigilance I felt being raised by, and then married to, abusers” is exactly how I feel.

    Re-traumatized.

    I have been feeling weepy, on edge, and humiliated, as if, in punishment for the ability to think, reason, and speak out articulately I’m inevitably going to get verbally abused, “shamed” or smacked in the face. Friends, or people I thought were my friends, have verbally stoned me, and I suspect questioned whether or not I, as a woman, must have “disserved” or “asked for” some of the abuse I got from my ex in the past.

    And when I speak out for mental health education and awareness on most social media pages – simply referring people to the DSM (they don’t keep it locked up for God’s sake) it is inevitable I will have a variety of personal insults, political slurs, vulgar assumptions and ridiculous assumed motivations hurled my way – by strangers, who do not even know me. To get Trump’s defenders to actually read and comprehend anything I write (which hasn’t been political or even a personal attack against Trump) is nearly impossible.

    I really appreciate learning the term “cognitive dissonance”. Thank you, Madelyn Griffith-Haynie.

    I’ve sensed that the Trumpsters I’ve talked to can’t reason, or dissociate rather than listen to what I’ve said, much as when I used to try to reason with one of my seriously delusional relatives. But I did not know the term for this condition.

    One female friend from church with absolutely no provocation from me at all (we hadn’t even talked recently) went out of her way to “defriend” me in person, saying never to contact her again, and if I didn’t vote for Trump it must be because I’m a “man” like Hillary.

    Hullo? She knew I didn’t vote for Hillary either, and I hadn’t been contacting her, except once or twice to ask if she needed anything because she was sick. She reacted on her own, as if just thinking about me and my very existence would convince her of something she did wrong.

    I re-heard my mother vowing to destroy and kill me, because she had aborted my sibling.

    Yes, this whole thing is horribly retraumatizing.

    Long since healed (or so I thought) from my own complex PTSD, that the public in general chooses to remain willfully ignorant of such dangerous personalities and reacts with barbarianism to those who without judgement would educate them – former victims and or professionals who would help them see reality for what it is – is truly re-frightening to me. Stockholm? Identifying with the abuser? Empathy for the abuser? (I’ve even heard Trump’s supporters say such thing as “give the man a chance to grow up already”. Uh….he’s in his seventies.)

    I don’t think it’s about politics anymore. It’s like a line has been crossed, and the acceptance of brutality as a means to an end will only result in more brutality until we name the enemy: brutality – untreated sociopathy – itself.

    Stay healthy and happy Lucky Otter.

    Let’s not let the sociopath mesmerize us or suck happiness out of our lives. He cannot control us, nor can anyone gag me with ignorant insults. I still say there is freedom in a loud, honest, and fearless voice, no matter how much we are mischaracterized for doing so. We were always in God’s hands all along (not Trump’s) and guess what – we still are.

    But I do have one more question. Does anyone know why there are not mandatory and comprehensive mental health exams for incoming presidents? He has the highest security clearance in the country, and access to the nuclear codes. Is it simply because our broken mental health care system goes all the way up to the top, or because politicians implanted exemptions for themselves into the way government works?

    Liked by 1 person

    • This is an excellent read, and so much truth. Thank you. It gives me a little hope.
      I agree with you that incoming presidents should have mental health screenings before being allowed to take office. Trump is not only a narcissist, he is most likely a psychopath too. That’s a recipe for disaster.

      Like

  10. O.k. you’re going to hate me, but…

    Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t see him as an evil fascist with a terrible scheme to oppress and hurt people up his sleeve. I think he saw America get marginalized and emasculated and do stupid self destructive things under Obama, and he thought that was stupid because America is a pretty darn good country when you compare it to others. I guess that’s debatable but I buy it. So he decided to do something about it.

    Very flawed guy, brash and textbook image of a narcissist, but his kids seem healthy and happy (especially Eric) and I can’t spot a badly damaged black sheep, so maybe he’s not pathologically narcissistic in a malicious way? O.k.maybe he’s narcissistic, but to call him a psychopath? Whence psychopath?

    He knows how to trust his gut and has great instincts but apparently not very cerebral. (Understatement) He comes off as kind of primitive sometimes. But his actual positions aren’t that stupid. He just articulates them on a fourth grade reading level. Whereas Obama was the long winded patronizing bombastic professor. I won’t miss Obama’s lectures.

    I don’t think his ideas / policies are that crazy, really. I like them more than Obama’s, I think he was off the rails. He was very eloquent though. And I still think he’s the lesser of two evils compared to Hillary. I peg her as a totally unprincipled covert narc / compulsive liar which triggers me more than he does. And I think she’s actually a worse liar than he.

    I would grant that his reaction to slights and criticism come off as those off an infantile narcissist oftentimes. And he tells blatant lies sometimes. That’s really bad. How anybody can say Ted Cruz’s dad was part of the conspiracy to assassinate JFK and never apologize about it blows my mind.

    And he does seem potentially erratic, or maybe demonstrably so.

    And his rhetoric can be needlessly inflammatory.

    But he is trying to get his ideas past a leftist biased media that is simply not objectively reporting on him, they have taken sides against him from the start and they don’t reflect the views of the majority of Americans. So he is feisty and calls them out. Frankly I think he’s hilarious sometimes.

    His policies are a lot like Reagan’s, but he’s not going to unite people like Reagan did, and that bums me out. Polarization will get worse under him, but I don’t think that is remotely all his fault. His opponents will never give him a chance. They hate him and everything he stands for. Don’t believe everything you hear on the news about him. Everything is spun to imply the worst, and oftentimes blatant lies are told about him.

    And until he starts hatching a plan to murder six million people, I think comparisons to Hitler are absurd. The biggest similarity I see is they are both seemingly very sure of themselves, and are nationalists as opposed to globalists. But that doesn’t mean they are both mass murderers. That’s a big leap. Lots of people act sure of themselves. Hitler was a basket case from his youth, his dad beat the crap out of him regularly, his cousin committed suicide because of his affair with her (he disturbed her so much), he was very into sadomasichism and would condemn himself and grovel while having sex, and he used to take dumps on his girlfriend Ava Braun’s head for thrills. Trump seems to have a pretty nice family.

    Maybe he’ll turn out to be a monster, but maybe not.

    Is it that crazy to give him a chance?

    Liked by 3 people

    • I respect your views and your right to have them, but I disagree with most of your points. I do agree he has a nice family, however. He doesn’t deserve them and he treats his wife terribly.

      Liked by 1 person

    • Jim, we know this is all people like you see. But “your” political arguments do not cancel out what’s written in the DSM and what psychiatric professionals see.

      Three (one from Harvard) wrote a letter to Obama prior to the election warning and requesting Trump be forced to undergo intensive evaluation so he could be impeached if he actually won. There is not just concern he is a malignant narcissist, but has demonstrated all the traits of sociopathy and other unpredictable conditions.

      His children do already demonstrate all the classic vulnerabilities. Sociopaths treat family members like commodities based on whatever the sociopath values, whether it be looks or sexuality. No one is seen as a “real” person or not expendable.

      The sociopath’s goal is just to “win” and will destroy anyone who gets in their way. Ivanka is the obvious victim of emotional incest. Trump was talking about the potential for her to have “superstar” “value” and her boobs to have them, the day she was born. (Hmm…who else only valued “superstar genetics” in political history…)

      Your remarks minimizing Trump’s behavior and equating diagnosable psychiatric disorders like sociopathy and psychopathy with necessary “moral culpability” (“therefore, it can’t be true!”) is a good example, in my opinion, of why sociopaths like Hitler got elected. And it sounds exactly like the way brainwashed people would talk about my own mother.

      She was a genius, sociopathic jealous schizophrenic, who committed the most devious business fraud against me and tried to “destroy” me in my sleep shortly after she came home from open heart surgery. (I had saved her life.)

      I was told her condition by professionals many years ago, and had become very educated in psychiatric disorders. However, to most, Mom was a devout Catholic, kindly and very humble little old lady who could quote from papal encyclicals, loved children and told them Jesus loved them too.

      Some of her own relatives still talk about her like you do Trump, even though she physically assaulted one of them and almost killed me, in recent times, and when I was just five.

      I’m 51 today. Mom carries a cane now, not because she has trouble walking as a poor, innocent older person, but for special effect.

      Or.. to hit the home health nurse I hired with.

      This nurse had also warned me Mom was exttemely dangerous and unpredictable , and said in a psychiatric ward she’d be the patient they’d have to bind in white sheets to calm down.

      Watch out for the cane – you’ve got cognitive dissonance.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Maybe you’re right and maybe he is like your mom, I don’t discount the possibility. And I am honestly sorry you had to grow up with her. She sounds like an especially nasty, cruel one. And it’s the most maddening / disempowering when “everybody” (not really everybody- I guarantee she made some people’s spidey sense go off) thinks they’re “good”. She sounds like a Pharisee.

        However, “people like me”?

        I’m pretty sure you don’t know me well enough to put me in that category, whatever it is. That does not seem fair to me.

        Liked by 1 person

        • Dear Jim,

          I do not know you personally, nor did I attack you or “people like you”.

          Please note, I only referred to your “remarks”. Please do not be offended.

          “Remarks” means your methods of reasoning, and all arguments that emphasize a sociopath’s “reasons” ,”motivations”, “political positions” (and, I might add, whether or not one particular sociopath is “particularly” more nasty and cruel) as if this line of reasoning (this cognitive dissonance, this personal “opinion”, this chosen dissociation from provable facts) has anything at all to do with the very real potential danger posed by someone who objectively presents as a sociopath.

          The unaware emphasize these things because they do not believe in or understand what sociopathy is. It is difficult for a person of conscience to imagine a person without a conscience, but with enough “spidey sense” (more than us) to convince us they indeed have one, is it not?

          Not all sociopaths “win” by collecting a string of murder victims, showing off the dead bodies as “trophies”, referring to the menstruating ones with the dehumanizing term “bleeders”. Those sociopaths that rise to political power commonly just collect a “trophy” wife, some “trophy” kids, and dehumanize their articulate opponents as “bleeding” out their – whatever. These political sociopaths typically use fear tactics, threats imposed by slightly less than human illegal alien “invaders”, and the apocalyptic pending threats to national “security” should their opponent win, rather than them.

          From a clinical standpoint, none of us have any idea what Trump will do.

          His platform is totally irrelevant, as when he’s not reiterating that he really means his expressed brutalities (that shock the nation, but not him, because he can’t really imagine what it’s like to possess a conscience) he is lying. Brutality IS his personality.

          But he is just as likely to tweet out the nuclear codes as he is not.

          Not all sociopaths “win” by becoming serial killers, but we do know Trump has specifically rationalized unprovoked terrorist tactics against innocents (not people carrying ticking time bombs) in countries connected to terrorist attacks against us. He is building a wall to keep out “bad guys”.

          Or is it to keep us in?

          We just don’t know what Trump will want to “win” next…

          But we can know (with a bit of critical thought and a quick peek a boo at the DSM) is that TRUMP is the real ticking time bomb. People should never wall in their brains to protect themselves from objective reality.

          Liked by 1 person

          • You put me in a category called “people like me”, and said “we” (actually you were speaking for yourself, but implying “we” is some kind of authoritative entity you belong to) “know” that “that is all people like (me) see”. That felt like a dis to me. And I still don’t appreciate the way you’re talking to me.

            If you want to persuade people that he has ASPD I would simply make your case and stop the disparaging ad hominems such as “people who wall in their brains to protect themselves from objective reality”.

            Liked by 1 person

            • Jim (and Lucky Otter), would you not agree, context is everything?

              Are we really at the point in time where we chop a benign expression out of a sentence, and react to an imagined tone of superiority, but ignore full context?

              Is the country in such a volatile state?

              “Let’s reprimand her – because I feel triggered by that expression.”

              Sorry, but I committed no sin here, and “dissed” no one, regardless of what you “felt”.

              “We” refers to people who have had such experiences as having their faces bashed in when they were five by a sociopath, people “who” in recent times, barely escaped the devious plotted destruction of an elderly Sociopath Mom who went off her meds. “We” simply means “we” (who unfortunately) KNOW through experience what sociopathy IS, and now want to warn “others” – the “others” who do not want to be warned.

              Sorry, if that “sounds” divisive or offensive to you.

              Jim, did you read all of my comments here?

              Psychiatrists are also recognizing those who voted for Trump as long abused by a political and media “elite”, thereby ripe for a narcissistic sociopath’s love bombing techniques. Now, locked in Trump’s embrace, “these people” (for lack of other words) exhibit symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome, which is empathy and identification with the abuser – and fear of “authority” figures – all those who could convince them they are brainwashed.

              Though you imagine a “superior” tone or attitude in me, you do not imagine an EARNED authority to speak on the subject of sociopathy, that most do not possess.

              I do not put credentials after my name, if only to emphasize that “people who get their faces bludgeoned in by sociopaths” once were ALL like the rest of us once, people “brainwashed” “who just want to wall in their brains”. We ALL do not want to look at ugly realities. This is human nature. We think THIS is going to protect us.

              (And I’m not “shouting” by using caps. I just don’t know how to use italics here.)

              As a child growing up, I used to wall in my brains, in fact, this is always the demand of the sociopath, so we don’t see – or accept – what is obvious on its face.

              And I think it’s a great modern literary analogy for brainwashing, particularly since Trump says he’s building a wall, to “protect” this country.

              Finally, “we” (if you notice my context) referred directly to people (who unfortunately) really understand now what sociopathy is, who read thorough remarks like Jim’s, and the fact that “people like me” have already had arguments “like his” preached to us over and over again.

              Yes, as I said, I have already heard such arguments, reasoning and remarks like yours Jim (and I probably agree with most of your “political” points) and have had them preached to me not only on social media, but in person, even while I had to forego my own home to sleep in at night, take the dogs and sleep on the cold (barn) floor of my business, to avoid Mom ending me, before the last sermon was preached to me over a closed funeral casket.

              Yes, people who reason like Jim reasoned to me that my mother could not be a serious danger the same way, as if I pointed out what was obvious – a knife aimed at my chest – and potentially their own – they still had empathy only for my abuser. Who was I to say Mom was a danger? What “authority” did I possess to say something so “offensive”?

              I only wish my Dad had been even more “offensive” with me when he tried to warn me, tried to wake me up, when I was still just a young teenager.

              He repeatedly spoke to me of the very real danger I was in if I didn’t identify Mom as a danger. But I didn’t appreciate it when he said she purposely targetted me – I couldn’t believe it, didn’t want to believe it, even though my nose still bore the broken impression of a baseball bat.

              Her sociopathy (that I didn’t want to see because I was walling in my brains) was as obvious as the nose on my face.

              But I remember being “offended” for Mom, saying “Oh no! I am really the bad person who does bad things. Mom is just strict.” I WISH my father had shaken me then, raised his voice even louder, to snap me out of the brainwashing my childhood under her direction had been.

              I wish he had said “Stop walling in your brain Judy – because that never protects one from reality!”

              So hate me if you will, consider me a condescending, superior thinking literary snob. But I will always speak truth to defend the innocent, no matter how much that innocense is offended.

              Liked by 1 person

            • Jim, I have done you the courtesy of responding at length to your accusation that I am condescending, and shown you that my use of the word “we” was both not a “poor choice of words” but in context, not offensive at all.

              I have accused myself of having “put up walls in my own brain” at one time or another – as it is the natural impulse when faced with sociopathic behavior.

              As of yet you have not even acknowledged receipt of my direct reply to you and talked only to Otter (apparently about me) as if I am not even worthy of further communication, but a third person in the room. In clinical terms this is called “triangulation”.

              Do I get to be offended now?

              To tell you the truth, I really do not get “offended” anymore – just saddened. Wishing you the best Jim.

              Liked by 1 person

            • This is not directed at you, LSG, or at Jim, but I just want both of you to know that although I allow healthy debate and disagreement here, I refuse to get in the middle of this argument or take sides. I’m too old and tired for that anymore.

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            • So funny Otter – I keep telling myself (whenever on social media) be kind / – be kind – maybe so and so dissociated from what you actually wrote and therefore didn’t understand your context. Skimming is the new “read” after all.

              It is very difficult for me, because every time someone minimizes malignantly narcissistic or sociopathic behavior, or justifies it for political reasons, I feel “triggered” to fight and flight, for myself, for them and for others.

              In my mind’s eye, I see my mother aiming a kitchen knife at my chest (emotional flashback) and my brother on the phone saying to me, wearily, his voice slurred with intoxication, “oh Juuuudy, surely you’re imagining things – or exaggerating. Have you been arguing with poor mom over money issues? Did you even give her a birthday card? Don’t you think that was hurtful and offensive if you didn’t give Mom a birthday card? You know, she can “tell” your “tone”

              And who are you Judy and the in home nurse to say she’s dangerous?

              Your voices don’t count.

              You can’t be a “we”!

              At some point the victims want to scream out “Shut the f**** up! Shut the f**** up! Been there done that, thought that, tried that and hullo? Do you get this? The threat is NOW. So, run for the hills! Mama’s coming to get you next ! Don’t forget to feed my dogs after I’m deeeeeaaaaadddd!!!!!”

              Can you imagine how those in the Intelligence and Secret Service fields (who can decipher body language and know psychiatry) feel having Trump as a boss? Ofcourse they should protect his life, and not start a national panic, but to be unable to give voice to the dangers they see in his own behavior, because if they do, they’ll be considered a traitor?

              As a matter of fact, what really sounded like a threat to silence any voiced opposition to me was Trump’s promise to utilize the police forces more fully, to his own purposes.

              Liked by 1 person

            • I think the entire Republican party probably hates his guts but is scared — or are getting favors from him. He definitely has an agenda. I found a video last night, from 2/10/14 interview on Fox and friends. Unfortunately it was on Twitter and I can’t link to it, but it might be on Youtube somewhere. In it, Trump actually said the only cure for the nation’s ills is to cause mass rioting and the economy crashing. Yes, he actually says this. Today, he projects onto John McCain (a real hero) and blames him for wanting to start WW3. Trump possesses every trait of malignant NPD and in spades, and people can’t see this???

              Also, Steve Bannon has been running the show apparently, and is a huge admirer of Lenin and his tactics for control. What he says in this article is very similar to what Trump said in the Fox interview (and talks about his Leninism also) :
              http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/22/steve-bannon-trump-s-top-guy-told-me-he-was-a-leninist.html

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  11. Just when we most need unity, we are fighting amongst ourselves. Look at all the progressives who panned the woman’s march on Washington for being too mainstream. Anyone who wants to fight fascism should be in solidarity with others fighting fascism. I can’t help being reminded of Dumbledore’s warning of how Voldemort’s talent for spreading discord.

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Totally do not agree. Both Trump and Hillary are complete narcissists. Difference is Trump is self made, Hillary has done underhanded favors for many to get where she is today. Her husband was the true sexual predator that was impeached as president, but stayed in office. I am not a super Trump fan, but I really hate Hillary, because I see what she really is and have seen the stunts she has pulled in the past as first lady. Little things that were unethical and if you put all her unethical behavior together since the start of her career, you have a horrible person that cannot be trusted. Trump is a baffoon, granted, but hopefully he will be an honest president, despite his ego. I find it disturbing that no one had a problem with Obama and his arrogance. I am not really sure if race has something to do with it or the fact that our mainstream media’s propaganda to hate Trump and love Hillary no matter what. The human mind is so predictable that most want to sign up for the team that is popular or winning. No one wants to be with the “put-down” that everyone makes fun of. Me? I have no problem believing in the under dog until I have an actual reason to doubt them. I have never seen such mainstream fascism as our current liberal left that controls all the media on television right now. They are proving to be dangerous because most minds are very easily controlled.

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    • I’m sorry you have been brainwashed. Of course, you will think the same of me. Whatever. I don’t like arguing, so I’ll just say thank you for your comments.

      I will say this, however. I just took a look at your blog, and you are a Christian who believes we should follow Jesus’ example. I agree with that. But what Trump is doing and wants to do is the opposite of what Christ taught on so many levels I don’t even know where to begin. Many right wing Christians have twisted his words into something that resembles real Christianity as much as a black resembles white.

      I’m no Hillary fan either, but she would have been the lesser of two evils.
      Obama did the best he could in the face of almost overwhelming opposition and hatred from the white, and it’s my belief that the hatred stemmed fromt he fact he was black — and educated. For the first time in years, I can afford health insurance. Now I, along with tens of millions of others, are likely to lose that. Your party would rather see people die than get healthcare. Please don’t tell me “it’s your responsibility to pay for your own health care.” That’s the sort of heartlessness and lack of empathy that is destroying this country, along with a lot of other things.

      Your president is also fomenting discord between two friendly nations (Mexico and us) and is denying and ordering the removal of scientifically proven information about climate change. He is a science denier. The irony here is that I read something on your blog talking about how Jesus wants us to respect the environment and take care of the earth.

      Okay, I’m doing what I said I wouldn’t do, which is arguing with you, so I am going to end this now.

      Liked by 2 people

      • I so appreciate your emotional and intellectual insight Lucky Otter. I cannot say it enough. You and a few others I see as stars in a huge dark night of national ignorance, taunting those of us brace enough to stay awake.

        What saddens me is that this way, your way, of thinking SHOULD just be “common” sense.

        I did not agree with most of Hillary’s political views either, and thought of her psychologically as a little bit sadist. But what creeped me out beyond compare is how Trump’s methods of overt brutality were not compartmentalized (as Hillary’s were) that is – isolated to only certain aspects of his personality.

        Destroy – destroy – lie – lie – dehumanize- dehumanize- anyone who gets in the way of what he wants – is who Trump IS. And the final blow of the sociopath is to Trump their very supporters.

        When Megan Kelly was referred to by him as “bleeding out her whatever” (simply because she posed to him an articulate question he could not answer) on internationally televised media, it was a new low in political history.

        It was a new low because IT WAS TOLERATED.

        FOX News at first issued statements of defense for their female employee, than basically went on to endorse the brute.

        Some in social media claim Trump must have been referring to her nose (cognitive dissonance not?) or Trump’s sexual harassment slur was actually justified because Kelly had “pushed him” too far, and he had “no other” choice.

        I can imagine when Hitler first started dehumanizing the Jews as worthy of being treated with the same human dignity in public, the German citizens rationalized the same way.

        As all abusers say after “just” beating the victim they eventually kill, “She made me do it.”

        Liked by 1 person

        • And please Christians, do not insult your own intelligence by claiming at least Trump is pro life.

          As self stated, like Adolf Hitler, he is pro life only for those unborn with the potential to become “superstars”.

          Until people learn to think critically instead of “reacting” to perceived threats and evils, society remains largely unaware of what they are doing, repeating political extremes that simply swing back and forth like a bipolar reaction.

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          • Single-issue points (homosexuality, abortion, school prayer, gun rights, etc.) are used by the alt-right to win over Christians, who are brainwashed into believing that any amount of human misery is okay, as long as the candidate they support is “pro-life” or “pro school prayer” or whatever it is. They don’t look at the big picture or long reaching consequences, just the single issue. This is because they are not using critical thinking — they are usually either ignorant, uneducated, or brainwashed. Of course, the same thing happens on the left too, but it seems to me, the left is a lot better at critical thinking and less likely to launch into childish ad-hominem attacks and less likely to vote for someone based on a “single issue.”

            Single issues are the reason why so many poor whites (many who are religious fundamentalists) voted for Trump, whose policies go against their own interests (repeal of Obamacare, tax cuts for the rich, etc.) They also like his racism. That’s because, feeling like failures in life, racism allows poor uneducated whites feel like they are above SOMEONE. Better to forgo healthcare and their civil rights than acknowledge they are really at the bottom of the food chain. For that reason, uneducated whites with narcissistic personalities are the most likely to be Trump supporters.

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            • I do think that certain issues are higher on the scale of urgency. For example, if one can justify abortion for the socioeconomically oppressed, or sickly, or as “good” for women (murder of the innocent), it is inevitable that that leader is going to also justify eliminating healthcare for those who have been born, but are most in need, presenting a “financial drain” on the system.

              After all, those suffering from terminal or mental illnesses or who are “unwanted” have already been labeled as “expendable.”

              Trump has this view.

              That being said, it kills me when people think just because Trump SAID he is pro life, SAID that about that single issue, that means he really is pro life. You are right. I mean for God sake, is his life, is his behavior, his issues across the board, pro life? Does he treat all individuals like they have the right to be recognized with equal dignity? Absolutely not.

              And didn’t he even try, at the convention, to get the pro life position stricken from the Republican platform because he was, in fact, pro abortion?

              Yes, he did.

              That people think these realities are not relevant but their personal opinion of him is, or gosh, garn golly, we should just give the poor little sociopath a chance to prove himself, it just blows my mind.

              Liked by 1 person

            • I think after this disastrous first week (much worse than even his detrractors like me imagined), that a lot of people are realizing there are no more chances. He’s already done more damage than most presidents in their entire terms.

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  13. “Oh-ee-oh, yo, ho! Oh-ee-oh, yo-ho…” (repeat ad-nauseum…)

    The reference to ‘Oz’ is deliberate. However, this isn’t even close to a movie.

    I normally don’t follow ‘politics/social gamesmanship’ because most of what’s happening goes completely (in real time, anyway) over my head. This situation, however… this situation (re: bandersnatch) is closer to a replay of history.

    It’s also described ***perfectly*** by a still-in-development collection of theories I’ve been working on titled ‘a treatise upon the nature of Normies’. Exaples include ‘there is one true correct way of being’; ‘all truth is defined, and all rules are arbitrary’; much to do with ‘Normalistic instinct;’ and, how what truly ‘runs’ Normdom amounts to a species of ceremonial magic/ Hinduism.

    One of the chief matters, however, is that Normdom ***knowingly*** regards those ***blessed*** with psychopathy as its ‘priests, kings, and gods’; and that ***all*** Normal people have the precise same instinctual capacity as those they ***worship*** as gods. More, all Normal people wish to become such themselves, that ***they*** might usurp that same position and take that same worship as ***their*** due.

    Namely, (as you’ve noticed, among others) that we’ve gotten ***precisely*** the person we actually ***want*** as a Leader; that this particular God is who we all most-desire to become, and hence wish to imitate in all possible ways; and that anyone who does not wish to similarly worship this God is a traitor to the human race. (Irrespective of why, also – that does *not* matter.)

    Traitors need to be tortured, so as to season Hell with their screaming prior to being sent there. Hence there will be death camps under the N.S.A.A.P; there will be a ***domestic*** ‘protection echelon guarding them; there will be a domestic ‘secret state police’; and, of course, there will be another outbreak of ‘the great chain of being’ with proper *white/Nordics* at its (magical) pinnacle.

    Note: ‘NSAAP’ -> National-Sozialistische Amerikanische Arbeiter-Partei, i.e. the true name of the alt-right, as evidenced by their observable behaviors.

    Finally, I suspect that any ‘Christian’ who regards ‘our Leader’ with anything remotely close to favor is in truth, of ‘the synagogue of Satan’; and such ***will*** be dealt with in the next world. However, this does mean persecution in this world for those not of his camp – oh, and redoubled persecution for those ‘racial traitors’ named autists.

    Hadamar, anyone? Hartheim, perhaps? Perhaps Grafeneck, or the other three major places under Aktion T4? Perhaps 14f13? No, you’re not ***good enough*** to dirty up a Birkenau crematorium. No, you need to die right here on ***this*** Lynching tree, and by this Normie lynch-mob.

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