Freak Out Friday – November 10, 2017

So Trump is out of the country, bringing his demented style to Asia.

Are there things I could discuss? Sure. For instance, his capitulation to the Chinese government not to answer questions from the press. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has no more love for the press than Trump does. Typically when a US President visits with a Chinese leader, it provides an opportunity to press their feet to the fire of their media. But Trump, who constantly picks fights with the US media, was happy to accommodate them. Then again, when Obama first visited China, he likewise held no press conference, and years later a joint US/Chinese press conference required weeks of negotiation. So the Trump supporters will immediately point to that to support him.

And of course there’s the tax plan. Not only will it hurt the middle class (which according to the GOP is anyone earning around $150K) while providing breaks to Trump’s rich friends, but it may well include wording to do further damage to Obamacare by claiming that it’s all part of the tax plan. Since repeal and replace didn’t work because the GOP finally proved beyond a doubt that they had no plan with which to replace it, they’re now considering sticking an addendum to the tax plan that would eliminate the individual mandate, an essential part of Obamacare. That would likely doom it since the Democrats are united against that and it’s failed in the Senate twice. So if they’re smart they won’t do it. If they’re smart.

Let’s not forget Roy Moore, the aspiring Senator who was so much like Trump that even Trump didn’t support him (even though he subsequently admitted that might have been a mistake.). It appears Moore likes his girls way too young, according to the Washington Post.. His office attempted to dismiss the claim by stating that Moore has been married to the same woman for thirty three years. That’s nice. That would mean he got married at the age of 37, and since the accusations occurred when he was in his early thirties, that’s of no relevance. Politicians who already dislike him are claiming he should withdraw from the election. But Moore won’t do that; he’ll just deny it happened, his supporters will declare it’s fake news, and this statutory raping bášŧárd will wind up in the Senate. Good luck finding someone who’ll work with him.

But I really have to say that what blistered me most this week was Trump’s supporters. My God, I am so dámņëd sick of them.

No, we can’t have gun control because it’s all a mental issue. Right, that’s why Trump has done everything possible to get rid of support for the mentally ill.

Here’s the best: there’s no point in adding more anti-gun laws because the ones we have now aren’t working. That is the single most idiotic defense I’ve heard yet. Because if you take that bizarre argument to its logical conclusion, we should do away with laws against assault and battery, and robbery, and murder, because all those crimes still occur. So why not eliminate all those and just plunge the country into anarchy where everyone has to have guns because there are no policemen to enforce the law, since there is no longer law. I mean, I get that politicians will do nothing because they’re afraid of the NRA, but how can ordinary citizens–the majority of whom approve the idea of increased background checks–defend the idea of doing nothing to try and scale back gun violence? Australia did it. Japan did it. Gun-related death tolls in Japan are the tiniest fraction of what it is in the US. Why are we the only developed nation with such a vast percentage of mass shootings? And why do these demented Trump supporters continue to sit with their heads in the sand and say, “No gun laws?”

It may well be the same internal lack of logic which allows them not to see Trump’s lies for what they are. Their defense is always, “Well, Hillary lied!” Yes, Hillary lied. So did Obama. So did Bill Clinton. So did George W. Bush…he lied us into wars that are still going. But nobody’s lies, none of them, compare to Trump’s. There’s an old joke that you can tell when (fill in person’s name) is lying: his lips are moving. This is quite literally Trump. He lies in his speeches, in his press conferences, in his tweets. He lies more than any other politician in modern history. And when this is pointed out to his supporters, their response is always the same: other politicians lie, too. Because when someone points out something irrefutable, rather than defend it, the preferred tactic is to deflect it by saying, “Yeah, but what about this?” Its a whole movement called “whataboutism” that seemed to begin with, appropriately enough, the Russians. Trump thoroughly embraced it during the campaign (“The Russians kill people!” “Yeah, well, the US kills people, too.”) and has thoroughly refined it during his presidency (“Trump’s people colluded with Russia!” “Yeah, well, why aren’t they going after Hillary Clinton! She sold Uranium!”) Indeed, he’s raised “Whataboutism” to an art form: whenever he is accused of anything, he brings up an irrelevant topic and distracts people over to that. “Sure, Mueller is closing in on me, but hey, what about those disrespectful football players!” And his followers and Fox News take to the skies and start hammering away at the NFL until the thing Trump wants to go away fades with the news cycle.

I just find myself wondering how Americans can be so stupid. I just don’t get it. It used to be that you could talk to people on the other side of the aisle and have respectful conversations, spirited debate that stuck to the issues. No more. Now the right always seizes upon deficiencies by the left–real or imagined, accused and long ago debunked–to defend the things that their own people do. I’ve never gotten a reasonable answer to the question of why you would point to the actions of those you hate to justify the things you do. We on the left want to act in the opposite manner from the right; why do conservatives grab liberal actions as justification? We want to be better than them; why wouldn’t they want to be better than us? When Obama or Clinton (either one) would do something stupid, no one ever pointed to the actions of W. or his dad and said, “Well, they did something stupid too, so that makes it okay!” Instead we criticized them. Why can’t Trump’s supporters ever criticize him?

It’s insane.

PAD

14 comments on “Freak Out Friday – November 10, 2017

  1. As I noted to someone earlier, it’s insane because all the sane people have left. The Republican party is being driven by the crazy because that’s all that remains to do the driving. So it’s no wonder Trump & his followers don’t want to be treating the mentally ill.

  2. It’s always struck me as odd that when you criticize a right winger or bring up something bad that they did, they don’t try to defend it but instead act like you just injured a member of their family, like revealing that one of their heroes isn’t perfect will cause their entire belief system to crumble. When Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer had their difficulties, my reaction was “Idiots. If guilty, pay for your crimes.” Didn’t cause me to change my beliefs. And the reflex to say “Oh yeah? Hillary/Obama did this!” does that make what your guy did any better?

    1. I always point out that when they say “Well, so-and-so did it to!” they’re simply agreeing that what their guy did is wrong. So why not just say so directly?
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      Since they simply will not acknowledge it and can’t really disagree, inevitably they just walk off in a huff or start reaching even greater heights of nonsense. Which can be FYI to watch.

    2. It’s the Backfire Effect, Neil.

      People don’t respond to criticism of themselves or their positions scientifically. They respond by acting like their very sense of self, or their sense of identity is being attacked, because people tend to attach their sense of identity to the positions they hold on matters having to do with any topic: politics, religion, what types of movies they like etc.

      One study, in fact, found that being proven wrong activates the same same part of the brain as actual physical pain. (DeWall et al., Pychological Science. June 14, 2010)

      As a result, people who hold beliefs may even cling to them more strongly when they are debunked.
      (Sources:
      http://archives.cjr.org/behind_the_news/the_backfire_effect.php
      https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/12)/vaccine-myth-busting-can-backfire/383700/

  3. PAD as Long Island guy, how could you not not mention that the corrupt government of Oyster Bay got re-elected? An indicted Town Supervisor, who resigned in disgrace, and a criminally tainted town board. Yet, the Republicans were re-elected? This is all part of piece. Republican voters have drunk the Kool-Aide. They refuse to accept reality. When I ran for the Assembly, people told me that they agreed with my positions, but couldn’t vote for me because I’m a Democrat. The Republican voters will continue to double down as their party both self-destructs and screws them.

    1. I grew up in Commack and during the 2016 campaign discovered much of LI had similar politics as Alabama.

  4. I am reminded of a quote from one of my favorite stories:
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    “This has been the most disgraceful, chaotic, ridiculous tour of personal, moral and public ineptitude I have ever seen.”
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    “Well, duh. It’s politics!”

  5. Here’s the best: there’s no point in adding more anti-gun laws because the ones we have now aren’t working
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    Yeah, that argument is always ridiculous. It’s the “If we can’t solve the problem absolutely 100% then we shouldn’t solve it at all.” nonsense. The response is obvious: Point out exactly what PAD did. That it means they’re arguing that we should never have any laws about anything ever.
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    I’ve challenged folks who’ve made the “if you can’t solve it completely” argument on many occasions and not once have they ever responded to my rebuttal.
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    You’d think that at SOME point they’d catch on and at least try to come up with a better argument, but that would require they give some thought to the issue. Ant that way lies a move away from conservatism and they can’t have that!

  6. We know what’s going to happen in Alabama.
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    The Republicans will flock to their guy and elect him to office by a double digit margin. Since the allegations come out, we’ve seen him compared to the parents of Jesus and Jesus himself.
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    The modern Republican party, and this is more true the more south you go, is literally becoming a cult; almost a deranged religious cult. When Trump said he could walk out into the street and murder people and still win their vote, he wasn’t lying.
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    They chose Roy Moore as their nominee despite his being an open bigot and fanatic. Those traits actually made them love him and call him the real conservative in the primary. Roy Moore could reach down inside the front of a 14-year-old’s pants standing on stage at a stump stop and easily half of his supporters would start citing young brides in the Bible and old Europe while explaining how those children he targets should lie back and think of Alabama.

    1. Isn’t it just fantastic that not only would many in the Republican party have Jesus shot on site, they’d welcome Hitler with open arms?

      1. Wasn’t there a Republican guy that openly said Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount is actually an horrible guide to political policy? Turn the other cheek, love your enemies, etc. always has been deeply antitethical to Republican ideology, but never more so than after their recent turn to white nationalism.

      2. Not always. The Republicans of 50 years ago were, in many ways, more “Christian” in their policies than Democrats at the time. The Civil Rights Act, for one example. The parties do change.

        And the Republican Party has certainly changed since then. I’d put the real shift as starting around the “Contract with America” when “oppose Democrats” started being their main (and now pretty much only) policy on anything.

  7. “I just don’t get it. It used to be that you could talk to people on the other side of the aisle and have respectful conversations, spirited debate that stuck to the issues. No more.”
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    I just wanted to point out that this is a worldwide thing, not restricted to America. Political polarization has grown in every country.
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    I’ve recently read an interesting article that pointed out that politics have degenerated to a level where it’s all about morality, not policy.
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    While we used to talk about gay marriage, we now talk about homosexuality itself. While we used to talk about affirmative action, now we talk about race struggle, “whiteness”, etc. While folks on the right used to defend free market policies on the basis of their efficiency, now they’ve descended to “Yeah, I know these policies are cruel and create inequality and they don’t even advance society, but you gotta suck it up, because my life philosophy doesn’t allow for anything else.”
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    And that is why people are so angry at each other when they talk about politics, because everything became so personal. The old saying that All politics is personal has never been so true.
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    Granted, America has always been a bit like that, more so than in other countries. But now the American model of deeply polarized, deeply emotional politics has been “exported” to other countries, while America itself goes into warp speed.
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    More and more I dream of every country on Earth partitioning in two, since conservatives and liberals seem to be unable to live together, the two worldviews have grown apart so much.

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