"There’s a question that’s been bugging me for nearly a decade. How is it that half of America looks at Donald Trump and doesn’t find him morally repellent? He lies, cheats, steals, betrays, and behaves cruelly and corruptly, and more than 70 million Americans find him, at the very least, morally acceptable. Some even see him as heroic, admirable, and wonderful. What has brought us to this state of moral numbness?" -- David Brooks, The Atlantic
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If someone wants to tell me Trump’s a ‘good’ person, I just ask what his ‘good’ qualities are -- greed, hate, envy, jealousy, pettiness? -- always blaming others, etc.? If you’re convinced he’s a ‘good’ person, it’s likely because you share his qualities.
IMO, Trump speaks the language of an abuser. I know it well and so do others. If you don’t recognize the words he chooses to use as abusive, then you are one of two things: also an abuser or someone who has experienced abuse but hasn’t come to terms with it yet.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
Shaw, they see it. They notice it.
ReplyDeleteThey just don't care.
They want a bully in the White House instead of a go aling to get along kind of guy.
This is the brokenness and inability of the US to chart a successful path in both Korea and Vietnam coming back around to haunt us.
Immorality and all...
Good question but that can be said about several presidents, trump, billy. The same question could be asked how can so many people support a president who is incompetent and asleep at the wheel. People support something or someone who is best for them regardless of what kind of person they are. People in DC supported a drug dealer and crook for mayor because he was best for them.
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest factors is what you pointed out that Every politician has in common, Greed, hate, envy, jealousy, pettiness, always blaming others, etc.
Dr. Phil is on the case. Cerebral numbness.
ReplyDeleteTrump, as ignorant as he is, knew playing the Bible and Jesus card would really rally the Christian Nationalist Network to his cause and solidify their loyalty to him. Add the white supremacist neo Nazis to his list of supporters and he only needed those independents and democrats who did not approve of Biden and Harris to cinch the 2024 victory.
ReplyDeleteWhat will it take to dislodge the tRump fascists? Probably a complete and total economic collapse and incredible social unrest.
Short of that, we'll be living in a fascist dictatorship before the end of the Orange FOTUS is out of office.
A mayor of a city doesn’t have the power a president has to affect ALL American citizens. Your comparison doesn’t work. We have had moral, decent men who were flawed as president. Just like all of us. But I’ve never experienced in my life a man as morally deficient as Trump is.
ReplyDeleteSo you did not support JFK or BJ, Interesting I will take you off my yellow dog list.
DeleteIf beach chair joe didn't open the border with a welcome sign we wouldn't have to ask so many to leave so maybe not as many incidents.
skud, sexual turpitude isn't the ONLY moral failing Trump has. He is a convicted felon, a documented lying liar, a cheat (he cheated his contractors out of money he owed them, putting some of them out of business. Trump set up a fake Trump University and cheated people out of their money on that as well, and had to pay $25 million in a law suit against him.) He was found guilty of fraud in a civil case by the city of New York, and was ordered to pay $354 million plus interest for his crimes.
DeleteHe bragged that he could sexually assault women (it's on tape) because he's a star, and he was found liable for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll as well as defaming her. She was believed because Trump HIMSELF bragged about assaulting women. And 20+ women have come forward with stories of him doing just that. He even admitted wanting to have sex with his own daughter! The gutter isn't low enough to contain his kind of moral failings.
JFK and Bill Clinton committed adultery while POTUS, it is true, but they are altar boys when compared with the depravations of Donald J. Trump.
I was a kid when JFK was POTUS and was not able to vote for him, nor did I know about his infidelities at that time. I criticized Bill Clinton for his stupidity in lying about L'affaire Monica.
Neither JFK nor Bill Clinton were ever indicted and found guilty of felonies, as Trump was. The stories of their infidelities are as old as mankind and many men's inability to control their sexual appetites. Trump is truly in a class all by himself when it comes to moral failings. Your comparisons fail.
From Democratic Underground:
ReplyDelete“U.S. Professor kidnapped and disappeared by ICE for nearly a day — he still remains detained.
Yesterday a California Faculty Association union leader, Professor Jonathan Caravello, was dragged away by four masked ICE agents while lawfully observing a raid. He was put in an unmarked vehicle with no explanation of where he would be taken and no access to his medication.
After a heart wrenching 20-hour search, he has finally been located, but remains in detention.
This is not normal.
Peaceful protesters, even American citizens, are being tear gassed and abducted by masked men with guns.”
:)
ReplyDeleteHere at PE, we are a microcosm which represents the USA voting public; well informed commentators, prolific trolls, and a vast audience who say nothing. That's it, just an observation.
ReplyDeleteI do find it fascinating that in a post about the comparisons of our current leadership to an abusive relationship - a comparison I've been dancing around for days so thank you to Shaw for ripping off the bandage - our trolls do what they do best; whataboutism and deflect.
I'm not sure the song Joe Conservative posted says what they think it says. I'm sure their point is tuning out when things get bad by using drugs, but there is a darker side, the side which acknowledges that when life gets so difficult that one's here/now is just that unbearable our minds will do a thing called disassociate. It's not good and has taken me almost a decade of intense mental health work to remain here/now when things get tough.
But hey, it's all fun and games to our trolls. Nothing ever affects them, nothing touches them. Until it does.
I had more pointing out the inconsistencies of what skud posts but then they'd just think I was writing about them. Nope.
OT/
ReplyDeleteGeorge Retes is/was a security guard at Glass House Farms.
“ICE (maybe) thought he was probably part of the protest, but he wasn't, he was trying to reverse his car," said his sister, Destinee Majana. "They broke his window, they pepper-sprayed him, they grabbed him, threw him on the floor. They detained him.”
Retes' sister and wife have been trying to call anybody she can to find out where he was taken, but they say nobody can tell them where he is.
An employee of Fox News on X said Retes' was released but follow up investigations say no, he's still detained.
A military veteran. A disabled military vet. An American citizen who has done nothing wrong.
I'm sure our trolls will find a way to spin this or even better, say nothing to the direct post but slyly reference it later in their game to 'own the libs'.
When the USA crashes, and we will because how does a nation continue when it's food supply chain is decimated, we will have done this to ourselves because too many voted for policies because they would harm others never understanding that when you harm others you harm yourself too.
but hey, price of eggs, amirite?
Our trolls will ignore this inhumane treatment of a veteran, because it is indefensible, and it is a Trump policy. They know this, but cannot bring themselves to condemn what Trump is doing to innocent Americans being mistaken for undocumented brown people, whom they treat like animals.
DeleteThis will forever be the shame of Trump and his beastly ICE thugs.
George Retes was released from custody Sunday evening. No charges were filed. The family has requested privacy and do not wish to speak with reporters at this time.
DeleteCan't blame them. Nope, not at all. I have thoughts but I also have a code so back to the meditation metaphysical table it is.
Greetings Shaw.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who did graduate work in philosophy, I believe our current moral perspective is the result of an ongoing evolution. In ancient Greece, morality was often based on what we did, e.g. I am a saddle maker. I am morally obligated to be the best saddle maker I can be. ( Aristotle. Nicomachian Ethics.) This view was supplanted by Monotheistic religions like Judaism, Christianity and Islam. God dictates what we should be and how we act. In both cases what was moral was something that was determined by something outside us. Fast forward to the Enlightenment whereby the belief turned to the rational mind solving all problems. The conflict between religion and reason is obvious. The existentialists kind of
blew things up e.g.. God is dead and we killed him. the sanctimonious sock puppet who posts here is fond of Nietzsche, touting that outstanding
individuals come forth, seize the moment and define themselves without the restraints of artificial intellectual constructs. Trump is NOT the Ubermensch. Neitzsche NEVER believed his thoughts were a license to do anything one pleased....actions have consequences. ( Jean Paul Sartre: act as if all you do is universal) Trump has shown clearly who he is and a lot of people, especially the Christian right fell for it. Thanks for listening. Marcus from CT
Thank you, Marcus from CT, for your thoughtful comment.
DeleteI have posted here in response to -FJ/JoeCon, etc., that they mistake Trump for an Ubermensch, when what he really is is the embodiment of everything normal human beings detest in a person: narcissistic, a liar, a cheater, a fraudster, sexual predator, and criminal.
They mistake his dismantling of our government with heroics when his "heroics" are nothing more than his following the orders of a cabal of Bannonites who promised to tear everything down, causing the destruction of the administrative state.
Millions of people's lives are affected by this one-size-fits-all destructive ethos, but people like Trump, Bannon, Musk, and the other oligarchs will never suffer or be affected by their destructive impulses.
They have brought suffering, misery, and irreparable harm to millions of Americans without giving a thought to the most vulnerable among us being hurt.
That's not a government; that's rule by plutocratic goons.
The truth is out there Marcus. Shaw will never let you see it though.
DeleteThe truth according to whom? You? Marcus appears to be intelligent and thoroughly capable of finding things out on his own.
DeleteYou came to my blog today with 5 comments that including quotations from Nietzsche and Isaiah Berlin, references to the ancient Greek poet, Hesiod, a link to your blog with reference to Christianity's "Pauline Intervention," a reference to "Doric excellence in multi-temporalism."
And you expect me, the blog host, to turn the comment section over to you?
This post is a discussion of the moral numbness of Trump supporters. I know it is difficult to resist showing us your remarkable erudition on various subjects, but I think most of my readers would prefer YOUR ideas on the subject, like Marcus did, instead of Greek, German, and Christian philosophers and thinkers.
With you, it's like asking you for the time of day; and instead of a straightforward answer, you post the history of Switzerland.
Nothing relative to tRump is truth. Except that he is exactly what Shaw and millions of other aware people realize he is. You -FJ are clearly not among that enlightened group.
DeletePerhaps your idea of "moral numbness" is merely a misunderstanding of a symptom of values pluralism in the meta-modern era. But hey, don't post those possibilities. it's you blog.
DeleteI bring the whole's receipts... not just half-truths.
"Philosophy is the translation of Eros into Logos" - Byung-Chul Han
"...and the desire and pursuit of the whole is called, "Love"" - Plato "Symposium" (Aristophanes' Speech)
Our troll says what??? Oh rilly??
ReplyDelete"The truth is out there Marcus. Shaw will never let you see it though."
Right, because Shaw controls all of the interwebz and her blog is the only portal!!?!?!?!?!?!!!!
Ooohhh, I gotta breathe. Oh my stars and garters you are so freaking funny many named troll. Honestly! I bet that sounded better in your head, amirite?
The floating mind debris always sounds good in the head of MAGA -FJ.
DeleteSpeaking of moral numbness, read this from one of the Mother Ship's sailors.
ReplyDeleteThis is a perfect description of projection on his part. He's actually describing Donald Trump, but he's so morally compromised and besotted by the short-fingered vulgarian, that he makes a fool of himself with his own words:
Ed Bonderenka says:
July 14, 2025 at 9:52 am
No one can insult Biden too much after the way he has insulted this country.
He stole the office of the presidency.
He beclowned our reputation with his freak show appointments to office and judgeships.
He should be given the ultimate insult of hanging from a gibbet as an example to any who would try that again.
The morals always follow Aesop's fables, after all.
DeleteOle Ed certainly described the Orange FOTUS perfectly.
Delete