Maybe we should be asking what are the things we CAN unite over. Even some of the J6ers yesterday being interviewed- i agreed 🫠 with the problems dude listed just not who was behind them. Kinda like some of my coworkers.
And Jim, thank you again and again for your consistent framing of the moment.
Been listening to you, Heidi and Hi Fi for quite a while now; I believe you, and have been spreading the word to family and friends. Wanted to simply tell you that at least once here….
Jim, there is something sinister about Trump that many of us sense, but can't permit ourselves to bring to full consciousness...he is a mortal threat.
Trump is not an aberration. His arrogance and oppositional-defiant attitude is magnetically attractive to vulnerable people who idealize a man whose appearance of self-confidence resonates with the part of them that is afraid to stand up for themselves.
But there is one more element that is less obvious unless you can sense it…it’s the murderous rage that gets evoked in Trump when others don’t behave as he demands. It’s a narcissistic rage, an annihilating rage, that many of us know from childhood experiences with parents. You can feel it just by looking at Trump’s glaring mug-shot. It communicates, “I will END YOU if you don’t do as I say, meet my every need, and willingly abandon your autonomous self. When we sense THIS threat, we instinctively get the message…we back down. Gradually we accept “alternative facts,” we start seeing the world as Trump sees it, we surrender any perception of reality that doesn’t align with his.
He threatens EVERYONE, whether they’re conscious of it or not. Hitler, Saddam Hussein, and others like them have done the same. THAT’S the element that causes individuals within the Congress, the courts, the D.O.J., the media, anyone in his immediate surround and the general public to “obey in advance.” They are trying to appease, and thereby avoid, Trump’s narcissistic rage which sends a signal to his “Brownshirts” to wipe out the source of the narcissistic injury that he, their idealized leader, can’t tolerate.
We must learn to recognize people who use the threat of their narcissistic fury to manipulate others into submission so we don’t elect them in the first place. But now that we’re here, we must grapple with how we support one another in large enough numbers to protect ourselves. This requires a lot more thinking, research, and discussions with experts like you, Timothy Snyder, Ruth Ben Ghiat, Anne Applebaum, Bandy Lee, Steve Hassan, Malcolm Nance, et.al.
Maybe we should be asking what are the things we CAN unite over. Even some of the J6ers yesterday being interviewed- i agreed 🫠 with the problems dude listed just not who was behind them. Kinda like some of my coworkers.
And Jim, thank you again and again for your consistent framing of the moment.
Been listening to you, Heidi and Hi Fi for quite a while now; I believe you, and have been spreading the word to family and friends. Wanted to simply tell you that at least once here….
Jim, there is something sinister about Trump that many of us sense, but can't permit ourselves to bring to full consciousness...he is a mortal threat.
Trump is not an aberration. His arrogance and oppositional-defiant attitude is magnetically attractive to vulnerable people who idealize a man whose appearance of self-confidence resonates with the part of them that is afraid to stand up for themselves.
But there is one more element that is less obvious unless you can sense it…it’s the murderous rage that gets evoked in Trump when others don’t behave as he demands. It’s a narcissistic rage, an annihilating rage, that many of us know from childhood experiences with parents. You can feel it just by looking at Trump’s glaring mug-shot. It communicates, “I will END YOU if you don’t do as I say, meet my every need, and willingly abandon your autonomous self. When we sense THIS threat, we instinctively get the message…we back down. Gradually we accept “alternative facts,” we start seeing the world as Trump sees it, we surrender any perception of reality that doesn’t align with his.
He threatens EVERYONE, whether they’re conscious of it or not. Hitler, Saddam Hussein, and others like them have done the same. THAT’S the element that causes individuals within the Congress, the courts, the D.O.J., the media, anyone in his immediate surround and the general public to “obey in advance.” They are trying to appease, and thereby avoid, Trump’s narcissistic rage which sends a signal to his “Brownshirts” to wipe out the source of the narcissistic injury that he, their idealized leader, can’t tolerate.
We must learn to recognize people who use the threat of their narcissistic fury to manipulate others into submission so we don’t elect them in the first place. But now that we’re here, we must grapple with how we support one another in large enough numbers to protect ourselves. This requires a lot more thinking, research, and discussions with experts like you, Timothy Snyder, Ruth Ben Ghiat, Anne Applebaum, Bandy Lee, Steve Hassan, Malcolm Nance, et.al.