Bullying
Trump gave an unusually lunatic interview yesterday to the New York Times. I don't want to deal very much with the substance of his comments (there really wasn't much,) but I do want to talk about what he is up to; something which continues to go unnoticed by almost everybody.
Trump's behavior, since his childhood, has revolved around bullying other people to get what he wants, which is a sense that he is not a degraded person. The way this sick person convinces himself of his superiority is to force other, presumably inferior, people to do what he wants. Now, he can't just beat on people any more, so he satisfies this sick need by making others go along with things he claims which they, he and everyone else know to be false. When you understand this, you realize that the detachment of his claims from reality is not a defect but a feature. This is because the whole point of his talk is not to seek the truth or push an ideology, but totally to humiliate those around him by forcing them to do what he wants even though it makes no sense. So, when, for example, Daily Kos provides the following comment about the Times interview:
they are in fact missing the whole point of Trump's behavior. In fact, by doing this, these reporters are not showing class, but joining the host of people who have collapsed in the face of Trump's bullying, thereby reinforcing his sense that it works, and pushing the country one step closer to chaos. They would only show some class by walking out on him, and stating in their newspaper that he is a pathetic, ignorant man who has been a total, weak, failure as President. Of course, since mainstream journalism in the United States seems to have been totally detached from any notion of reporting the truth, that is not going to happen, and so the bully has one more day of having his abominable behavior rewarded instead of crushed.
Trump's behavior, since his childhood, has revolved around bullying other people to get what he wants, which is a sense that he is not a degraded person. The way this sick person convinces himself of his superiority is to force other, presumably inferior, people to do what he wants. Now, he can't just beat on people any more, so he satisfies this sick need by making others go along with things he claims which they, he and everyone else know to be false. When you understand this, you realize that the detachment of his claims from reality is not a defect but a feature. This is because the whole point of his talk is not to seek the truth or push an ideology, but totally to humiliate those around him by forcing them to do what he wants even though it makes no sense. So, when, for example, Daily Kos provides the following comment about the Times interview:
"That reporters Peter Baker, Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman managed to keep their jaws off the floor of the Oval Office given the deluge of cray-cray and crapola Trump spewed is a testament to their professional skills."
they are in fact missing the whole point of Trump's behavior. In fact, by doing this, these reporters are not showing class, but joining the host of people who have collapsed in the face of Trump's bullying, thereby reinforcing his sense that it works, and pushing the country one step closer to chaos. They would only show some class by walking out on him, and stating in their newspaper that he is a pathetic, ignorant man who has been a total, weak, failure as President. Of course, since mainstream journalism in the United States seems to have been totally detached from any notion of reporting the truth, that is not going to happen, and so the bully has one more day of having his abominable behavior rewarded instead of crushed.
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