The Bible you claim to love so much has a lot to say about racism and the kind of deplorable behavior shown in Charlottesville, Virginia this morning. Maybe it’s time to admit you’ve been wrong about this, and a lot of other things.
And that’s just for starters.
You are no better than ISIS terrorists. They think they’re right too.
I think it’s pretty safe to say Donald Trump has a very malignant case of Narcissistic Personality Disorder and appears to fit all of its psychiatric criteria. Unfortunately, he’s only the tip of the iceberg, merely a symptom of America’s soul-sickness.
Trump has surrounded himself with a staff of other Dark Triad or Cluster B personality-disordered types. Congress and the Senate are also populated by people who appear to have no conscience or empathy, and only feel entitled to take from others to enrich themselves. Many of them appear to have antisocial or psychopathic personalities.
Narcissists like Trump become codependent and simpering in the hands of psychopaths, because of their emotional neediness. Vladimir Putin appears to using him to achieve his own nefarious ends of world domination or at least the destruction of western democracy. Trump, being a narcissist and therefore far more emotionally fragile than Putin, doesn’t realize he’s only being used and exploited.
I could go for pages speculating about the psychology of Trump, his enablers, and those who are using him for their own ends (and many have), and I feel pretty confident saying that almost his entire administration is made up of sociopathic and codependent types, the latter of which have mostly already left or been fired (Reince Preibus and Sean Spicer seemed more codependent to me than personality-disordered themselves).
I don’t see any obvious Borderlines in the Trump administration, although Trump himself appears to have a few Borderline or Histrionic traits. As far as I can tell, Trump is the only obvious case of NPD. The rest seem more like people with ASPD or psychopathy to me, seemingly emotionless and willing to use and enable Trump for their own ends.
How Trump brings out the worst in everyone.
Authoritarianism and racism are highly correlated with antisocial and narcissistic personalities, and we saw the worst of society become violent at the KKK rally and protest in Charlottesville, Virginia today. The undercurrent of hatred in this country runs deep, and our election of a black president in 2008 and 2012 did nothing to quell it — if anything, the hatred and racism that were always lurking beneath the surface became even deeper and more toxic than at any time since the Jim Crow days.
America is a sick country and only a sick country would elect a malignant narcissist for its president and psychopathic or antisocial people for high political positions. Trump isn’t the problem, since the problem would still be there whether or not he was president. He is the ugly symptom, and is now bringing all the darkness out in the open. We are finally seeing how deep this cancer runs and hoping against hope it hasn’t reached Stage Four.
In some ways this is a good thing, since now we can see exactly how sick our nation has become and how deep and dark the divisions between us really are. But Trump also has a way of bringing out the worst traits in everyone he comes in contact with, even indirectly — in his administration, in his supporters, in his enemies, and in his opponents. Even though I’ve never met the man, whenever he’s on TV I feel as if all the oxygen has been sucked out the room. He’s everywhere. You can’t get away from him.
Trump enables his cabinet members and sycophants in their lack of empathy, lack of conscience, and crass greed and selfishness. They use him for their own ends and they know he will never call them out if they just keep on flattering him and giving him the praise he wants.
Trump brings out the worst in his staff. He causes drama and chaos whenever his bottomless need for admiration and approval isn’t met — he will attack, devalue or discard whoever he believes isn’t giving him the approval he craves, even those who could benefit him. He always has a scapegoat, always — even among those who have been loyal to him, like Mitch McConnell or Jeff Sessions. Never in my life have I seen a White House so filled with drama and discord. Even the Nixon administration at the height of Watergate seemed like a sanctuary of sanity in comparison. Trump brings out the very worst in his staff, while anyone with a semblance of a conscience or a soul left has already resigned or been fired.
Trump brings out the worst in his supporters. He enables them to display their authoritarianism, racism, hatred, and ignorance — even to the point of violence, as we see happening today in Charlottesville. On social media, the rhetoric of his supporters has become increasingly hate-filled and ugly, to the point of threatening non-supporters with terrorism and even civil war against them. Trump appears complicit in all this, and acts as if it isn’t happening.
Trump brings out the worst in his non-supporters. Many people are suffering from PTSD or even C-PTSD that has been retriggered by his constant gaslighting, projection, threats, need for revenge, and denial of the truth. Depression, despair, feelings of dissociation and unreality, and dread are problems for many Americans right now, and therapists even have a name for it: Trump Traumatic Stress Disorder (TTSD). Anger is also being triggered in his non-supporters, though not in quite the same way as in his supporters. Righteous anger differs from hatred, and it may be the only good thing he’s bringing about. He’s forcing his opponents to expose the truth about what has happened in our country over the past few decades and demanding that we change course — drastically, if necessary.
I was involved in a discussion on Twitter about Trump’s fragile ego, and we agreed that he seems to be a collapsed narcissist, who knows it’s only a matter of time before the whole house of cards comes toppling down and he’s exposed, even to many of his supporters, as the criminal and fraud he really is. As he grows more desperate, he increases the volume on his endless demands for admiration and approval, holding more hatred-enabling rallies and even threatening nuclear war over a perceived insult from North Korea’s equally unhinged leader. That’s how bottomless Trump’s emotional void is: that he would be willing to send millions of people to their deaths — even the entire planet — just to save his fragile ego. It doesn’t help that many far-right religious leaders are stroking his ego even more by telling him he’s been anointed by God.
We can never begin to think of what he’s doing is normal, because it’s anything but.
****
Further reading:
The Soul-Sucking, Attention-Eating Black Hole of the Trump Presidency.
“Crown shyness” is a real term that means the pattern a canopy of trees make against the sky. They seem to avoid touching, which is responsible for the pattern.
One theory is this is due to branches rubbing against each other and then breaking off, leaving the jigsaw-puzzle like patterns. Another theory is that the growing tips are sensitive to levels of light, and stop growing as they near the branch tips of other trees.
They’re better at maintaining good boundaries than humans are!
I never noticed tcrown shyness before, but now I’ll be looking for it whenever I walk in a forest or under a grove of tall trees.
Photos not taken by me. Credit: unknown.
Comments are disabled. Please comment under the original post.
A training manual rests on a shelf in the library of my church. It claims there is no such thing as poverty in the United States. Evidence point? People defined as poor in the United States own and use cellular telephones and other modern conveniences. People who own such things cannot possibly be classified as poor. Therefore, no authentic poor people live in the United States. True Biblical poverty exists only in foreign countries, and it looks like this photograph:
This training manual was prepared and published by The Heritage Foundation, apparently for use in American churches. Some person unknown to me brought this despicable, God-hating training manual into my United Methodist Church and sneaked it onto a library shelf. Best I can tell from flipping through this training manual, it is designed for adult Sunday school teachers so they can teach the members of their Sunday school classes…
View original post 3,720 more words
AMEN!
Also please read this article from ThinkProgress: Why Christian Nationalists Love Trump
Comments here are disabled. Please leave comments under original post.
Why do so many American Christian fundamentalists and conservative evangelicals support Donald J. Trump and his Presidency—even though the man shows few signs of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and shows numerous signs of being a compulsive liar and immoral reprobate? There is a very good and highly detailed answer to this question. Author Jack Jenkins has begun laying it out in spades with a new article in a planned series at ThinkProgress. Basically, it has little to do with any sort of traditional faith in Jesus Christ per se and more to do with being spiritually deceived by an evil American theopolitical movement called ChristianNationalism.
Christian Nationalism has its deepest roots in three recent, man-made, heretical philosophies known as Christian Reconstructionism, Dominionism, and Theonomy—all being approximately synonymous with each other. Basically, these three philosophies call for turning the United States into a Christian dictatorship—based on Old…
View original post 416 more words
Some days it seems like they are winning. Now we even have State TV. The reason we had regulations were to keep something like that from happening. I feel like a character in Orwell’s 1984 and we are creeping closer to fascism every day.
Most days I feel hopeful. I want to think that goodness will always trump evil. I want to think most people have good hearts and can tell the difference between truth and lies. I want to believe there is a way out of this darkness and justice will prevail.
Other days I’m not so sure. They have so much power, so much money, and are taking over everything like a cancer. Today is one of those days. On days like this I feel like giving up. I feel like nothing will change and will only grow worse. I feel like I’ll never live to see my country as it used to be ever again.
I know that’s exactly what their intention is. To wear us down, exhaust us, make us give up, make us buckle under and become sheep who never complain, and just do as we’re told because we know there is no better choice.
I know I have to fight this malaise and negativity, but on days like this it’s so hard. I just feel so depressed and tired. I want to succumb to it, to let the darkness engulf me and take me down with it.
Maybe I should just ignore what’s going on, not read the news, but I can’t do that either. They want us to be ignorant. To ignore what’s going on is to become ignorant.
We are being threatened from the outside, and also from our own government. There is no safe place to retreat to, nowhere to run.
Somehow I have to maintain my desire to resist and push back against this assault on the people — their assault on me and everything and everyone I know and love feels so personal. But it’s getting so hard, and today I feel like nothing can be done and hope is gone. My C-PTSD has been retriggered by this president. It’s traumatizing to a lot of people, but especially those who have been through this kind of abuse on the personal level.
It’s only been 7 months and I feel numb. I feel like a prisoner on death row who is innocent of any crime but can’t get a fair trial, can’t get an appeal, so I just sit in my cell counting the days until they come to walk me down the green mile.
Today was a good day for my mental health. I spent the entire day not reading the news, not watching the news, and not even thinking much about the news. Believe me, I needed the break from that. Trump sucks the oxygen from you; the shitstorm of bad news coming out of the White House every day consumes my mind and most of my free time, and it all gets to be too much sometimes. Life does go on. Things need to be done. There are many other things in life besides Trump.
After going to church (I haven’t been to church in about 5 weeks), I came home and made French toast (it’s best using sourdough bread — it doesn’t fall apart). Then Zach came over with some more supplies and I sat on the porch and read a book while he worked on the porch. Today he finished enclosing it and put up the screening. It looks fantastic! It’s so much more inviting and is much cooler too. And hardly any bugs! I know I’ll be spending a lot more time out here than I did before.
All that’s left now is to paint the cement floor (it’s going to be a glossy dark charcoal grey) and put the finishing strips on the outside to hide where the screens had been stapled on. He’s also going to be building a small sheltered area to store the lawnmower and a small grill. All that’s left after that is the fun interior stuff — repainting the table and putting in a couple of area rugs and doing other small things to make the space look as inviting and cozy as possible.
In the very late afternoon, while he worked, I decided to go to the pool for about a half an hour. I like it best that time of day because the kids have all gone home and I get the entire deep end to myself!
A Trump-free day is always a good day.
Rock and pop music in recent decades (since the 1960s) have always had iconic songs and music styles that define the angst and existential concerns of generations that were coming of age when those songs and music styles were popular. For the Boomers, it was The Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, or The Who’s “My Generation” or “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” For “Generation Jones” (my own age group) — those straddling the Boom and Gen-X (who were born approximately 1956-1966) — their iconic music was punk rock and the new wave of the early 1980s. For Gen-X, it was Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” or Alice in Chains’ “Man in a Box.” For Gen-Y (those straddling Gen-X and Millennials), Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” or Blink 182’s music might be good examples.
What about Millennials? Since 2009 or so, rock music as we knew it seems to have died as a genre, at least on mainstream radio. It’s been usurped by EDM, hip hop influenced R&B, and pure pop. But there are still a few mainstream bands that retain rock sensibilities (even if they’re not exactly rock) and produce music expressing this generation’s own unique sort of angst. Twenty-One Pilots — a newish band that mixes elements of hip hop, rock, pop, and EDM — seems to get them best, and of course it doesn’t hurt the bandmembers are themselves Millennials.
I really enjoy the music of 21 Pilots, even though I’m way past Millennial age — in fact I have adult Millennial children. Their 2015 rap-rocker, “Stressed Out,” I think captures Millennial angst best: the feelings of pressure to succeed in a society that has made their entry into the adult world so incredibly difficult, coupled with a nostalgic longing to return to the childhood world of fantasy, when adults promised them they could be and do anything they wanted. The bleak economic reality that faces them as they enter the adult years has proven everything they were promised they could achieve as children was a lie. “Stressed Out” is an anthem that describes that frustrating experience that– to a lesser degree or another — affects my own kids and all of their friends. It’s also just a great song, well-crafted, with extremely catchy hooks and very listenable.
Dylan Thomas (1914 – 1953) wrote one of the most powerful and moving poems of all time, and this one has always been my favorite.
It’s been said to be about old age, but in these dark times, it has another meaning to me.
I never considered myself a patriot before, but now that my country seems to be broken beyond repair, I’m realizing I do in fact have a deep patriotic streak and am willing to fight for its survival. This poem brings out that part of me and has the power to move me to tears.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
I found two articles that I think many of you will find helpful and informative. I know I did! I completely agree with the author that our nation’s most vulnerable — immigrants, the poor, women, the old, the disabled, people of color, gay and transgender people, etc. — are being gaslighted and smeared by this administration so that WE are the monsters, while the real monsters paint themselves as the victims. This is a common manipulation tactic used by sociopaths called DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse the roles of Victim and Offender).
We have never had a president like Donald Trump before. This is NOT politics as usual, nor is it normal. You have every right to feel the way you do. You are not crazy.
What other administration acted the way these people do? What other president was hell-bent on destroying the truth? What other president waged a Twitter war against his predecessor and others who disagree with him? What other president was so obsessed with the number of people who voted for him or who showed up at his inauguration? What other president was so destructive, hell-bent on tearing down any and all agencies and programs that benefit and protect the everyday people, our environment, and democracy itself? What other president admired dictators and authoritarian regimes, and thumbed his nose at other western democracies as being “weak”? What other president used scare tactics and hatred to divide and conquer, the way Trump does at his rallies and on Twitter? Most politicians have more than average levels of narcissism, or they wouldn’t survive long in their jobs (or even be attracted to politics as a profession). But I think, in most cases, they had healthy narcissism, not the sort of malignant narcissism Donald Trump clearly suffers from. Nor do they surround themselves with equally sociopathic, destructive personalities.
It hit me how truly monstrous these sociopaths were when I saw this picture of them laughing after their “healthcare bill” that would toss 23 million people off healthcare passed the House back in May.
Until, then, like anyone who’s being abused, I wanted to believe they somehow had our best interests at heart.
They don’t. They have no conscience and no empathy. They are entitled and think they are above the law. They use toxic religion to manipulate and scare the religious into submission and to shame the vulnerable. Their intention is to destroy us and all that we hold dear. That is no exaggeration or crazy conspiracy theory (as they want us to think), and he is riling up his flying monkeys at his rallies. Most Trump supporters have authoritarian personalities, and authoritarianism is highly correlated with narcissism and antisocial behavior.
Even Republicans are abandoning their own party because of what it’s become. They aren’t a political party anymore. They are a cult. They show all the signs of being a cult, and Trump’s followers act like cult members.
Many people are being traumatized by Trump and his policies. Even his own staff are being abused and manipulated. Most of those who still have a conscience have already fled the White House or been fired (it’s my opinion that Sean Spicer was being traumatized and spiritually destroyed by his job).
I think those of us who endured narcissistic abuse have a special advantage because we recognize exactly what we are now faced with. We can and should call them out on their BS. I think we have a responsibility to fight against this darkness and our own abuse prepared us for this. And I believe that in the end, justice and truth will win. It always does.
It would be nice if we could go No Contact with our country, but for most of us, that isn’t a possibility. It’s not all hopeless though. We can fight back and resist, but we also need to take care of ourselves. The author of the C-PTSD article also wrote a post about how to survive what’s been dubbed Trump Trauma. Even therapists regard it as a real malady and are seeing a spike in their patient rolls since January.
Lucky Otters Haven 