Friday, September 11, 2020

Voting for delusion

 

As I read this short piece at No More Mister Nice Guy, I felt increasingly horrified: 
It's often said that Trump's approach to everything is "transactional." I think Trump's approach to reality is transactional. The truth is the truth when it serves his purposes. In those moments, Trump believes in reality. But in other moments, not only does he walk out to a podium and contradict reality, he does so without necessarily believing that he's lying. As I've said in the past, Trump doesn't believe in truth. There are (as we see them) facts, lies, and true and false interpretations of reality, but to Trump they're all equally valid. He'll use any of them to shape reality, and he'll believe whatever he's saying at the time, even if it contradicts what he said six hours ago. In part this is because, as Yastreblyansky says, he believes in the Power of Positive Thinking and therefore thinks confidence can shape reality. In part it's because it's important to him to be his audience's daddy, someone who dominates us the way his father dominated him.
This is the man that millions of Americans voted for. And will vote for again. 
I'm reading more stories now about Americans who don't believe COVID is actually real - they think its all a Democratic plot, and that millions of Americans are just getting the flu, and hundreds of thousands are dying of something they already had like heart disease. 
I don't know what they think people are getting sick from in other countries around the world, but probably they aren't even aware that other countries actually exist.
And I'm reading stories now about how people in small towns in Oregon and Washington and California think that Antifa, not campers or lightning, is the cause of the fires that are destroying their homes.

Its absolutely crazy.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Woodward tapes put to rest the idea that Trump can't distinguish reality from BS. He was happy to share the reality of Covid with Woodward, while lying every time he got behind a podium. The man is a liar and we're over 20,000 documented lies past the point where he gets the benefit of the doubt.

Cap

Gyor said...

"The truth is the truth when it serves his purposes" this is very true, but it's just as true for the woke.