(1/X) America doesn’t have a Trump problem, it has a Republican party problem. More broadly, as I’ve learned with my narcissistic sociopath colleague, narcissistic sociopaths are only as destructive as the people around them allow them to be… - ThreadSky

nytpitchbot.bsky.social • 3 days ago

(1/X) America doesn’t have a Trump problem, it has a Republican party problem.

More broadly, as I’ve learned with my narcissistic sociopath colleague, narcissistic sociopaths are only as destructive as the people around them allow them to be…

Comments

marissayoung.bsky.social•3 days ago

Minority rule achieved by gerrymandering and non-population based Senate. Should have been amended in the past.

bkindetroit.bsky.social•3 days ago

When you're famous they let you do anything...

simmian42.bsky.social•3 days ago

Problem is the supporters of what is happening are 27% of the population backed by people with 75% of the money.

jtunes6.bsky.social•3 days ago

Yeah I think selectively ending or strongly reducing the tariffs after getting people to kiss the ring for a while, & then claiming great victory is the most likely path. And he’ll get full cover from the propaganda machinery. As stocks come back up, it’ll be “Trump was right!” though all he’d /1

jtunes6.bsky.social•3 days ago

have done is mostly put out the fire he started. But the RW propaganda “victory / Trump was right” will dominate, & even NYT will partly tag along. And his approval will be back to being relatively high. Never underestimate the power of the RW propaganda machinery. It is dominating the info wars. /2

algoresmilkymams.bsky.social•3 days ago

"partly"
... hell, they'll lead the chorus.

campinggrampa.bsky.social•3 days ago

Call them what you want, but MAGA shouldn’t be confused with the Republican Party. Yeah, they’re both filled with ass holes. But, MAGA are some kind of
sub-species.

socialmediaownsit.bsky.social•3 days ago

Better yet, it has a rural America/fake Christianity/media/social media problem, which has enabled and encouraged these folks to become militantly brainwashed and stupid, while no one can call it out publicly.

nytpitchbot.bsky.social•3 days ago

(2/X) if the Republican base turned on Trump in a real way, he’d become powerless immediately.

nytpitchbot.bsky.social•3 days ago

(3/X) that will never happen, of course. But I think its approval rating can get lower than a lot of people think. I think his real hard-core base is probably about 27%, the so-called crazification factor.

That’s a large majority of the Republican Party, but a tiny fraction of the country

scottinzurich.bsky.social•3 days ago

Interestingly, 27% is close to the usual vote for the right nationalist SVP in Switzerland,which has been in the business of being an anti-system party, yet part of the system, for 30 years.

nytpitchbot.bsky.social•3 days ago

(4/X) the thing with narcissistic sociopaths is that aside from the truly stupid and deranged, people are generally taken in until they’re not.

Once people realize that the narcissistic sociopath is going to hurt them, they tend to turn pretty hard on the narcissistic sociopath

nytpitchbot.bsky.social•3 days ago

(5/X) if we really go into a big recession because of the tariffs, the truly insane and fascist portion of the population will continue to stand by Trump.

But hardly anybody else will

massivruss.bsky.social•3 days ago

So are you ready to discover just how large the “insane and fascistic” population is?

nytpitchbot.bsky.social•3 days ago

(6/X) my own narcissistic sociopath commands a loyalty of three people in my department besides himself. One is a fascist, and the other two are extremely mentally ill.

There are tiny fraction of the department. The fraction of the population that’s either fascist or extremely insane is…

nytpitchbot.bsky.social•3 days ago

(7/X) quite a bit higher. But probably still less than a third around 27% like I said earlier.

What I think is important to realize what elected Republicans in DC is that they are almost uniformly, horrible people.

But I don’t think that higher percentage of them…

dogdaveafternoon.bsky.social•3 days ago

I was unaware that we worked together

furtherexchange.bsky.social•3 days ago

Not many Germans turned in Hitler

drainbead.bsky.social•3 days ago

The Crazification Factor! Once you know it exists, you see it EVERYWHERE.

bklynmichael42.bsky.social•3 days ago

Can’t find the skeet, but the number of R Congressional reps who were elected since Trump’s first term is….substantial.

taylorgrayson.bsky.social•3 days ago

"27%, the so-called crazification factor. "

Coincidentally, about the percentage that thinks taking Greenland is a good idea.

armaggedonaldtrump.bsky.social•3 days ago

They tell me that 27% is the best 27% they've ever seen. I don't know who says it, but they say it. It's true. Like you wouldn't believe. They tell me "Mr. President, you are saving this country." And I believe it. And I am. I promise to hold Hillary responsible for the current state of the market.

vslacks.bsky.social•3 days ago

It’s impt to remember that 90 million eligible voters did not vote in Nov. Like everyone else, they will experience economic pain. And they will all know who is to blame.

90M non-voters + 75M Harris voters + 20M (?) Trump defectors = 185M angry people. There’s strength in numbers.

frostydaisy.bsky.social•3 days ago

Indeed, he would!

boutonb.bsky.social•3 days ago

There is no Republican Party as evidenced by Mitch McConnell and many other leaders resigning in failure to stem the tide of MAGA influence---the party is now MAGA and Republican is as useful a terms as Whig or Know-nothings.

philasaurusrex.bsky.social•3 days ago

This is something I keep trying to tell people but it seems no one is listening. Trump’s not smart. There is no master plan. He’s not even a particularly good manipulator. He’s brutish and predictable. Yet so many people have bought into the idea that he’s playing 4D chess, and for why??

kimmy45.bsky.social•3 days ago

It depends on what his goal is. Is it being king, to destroy America, to get his way and stick out his chest ? But yes this is an R problem, cause they could end this in a week

hktenor.bsky.social•3 days ago

GOP delenda est.

marvinrando.bsky.social•3 days ago

Eventually every person enabling Trump will face a line they don't want to cross. If he could live long enough, that line would end up having only one person on his side of it.

unpersoned.bsky.social•3 days ago

But where is the line? They accept rape, school shootings, preventable deaths from refusing vaccines, deportation, seizing ppl off the street, bankruptcy via medical debt, transphobia, rampant racism, sexism, and bigotry, destroying international alliances and embracing dictators. I see no line.

algoresmilkymams.bsky.social•3 days ago

the line is when it affects them.

marvinrando.bsky.social•3 days ago

marvinrando.bsky.social•2 days ago

A new line forming. Wait til tomorrow. The line always involves $

marvinrando.bsky.social•3 days ago

Well I qualified it by saying “if he lived long enough…” It would take a while but the only person that matters to him is himself. So everyone would turn on him at some point. It was hyperbole really.

pjbuick.bsky.social•3 days ago

Being those around him also being narcissistic sociopaths. You gotta be to support that.

emilyannebabe.bsky.social•3 days ago

Call your Senators and remind them the they can Impeach other Senators
One at a time
Start with that garbage person Jim Banks.
#RunEmDownRunEmOut

hyperewok1.bsky.social•3 days ago

the dismal ray of hope is that, while the democratic system is undoubtably under threat, there is no way a guy like Vance intends to be stuck as VP (much less as second banana to the Vice Buddy) for the next ten years, waiting for Dear Leader to have a heart attack

manita41176347.bsky.social•3 days ago

and the land of freedumbs with 350 million guns let it..

apparently, it still doesn't hurt enough...

mostyngale.bsky.social•3 days ago

The other day I heard someone say that economists can't explain what's wrong, but psychologists/psychiatrists can.

I'm not a psyc, but it needs emphasis that narcissism isn't just being selfish, it's a very real cognitive disorder. This is the formal criteria for diagnosis.

Does it fit Trump? 1/2

mostyngale.bsky.social•3 days ago

While malignant narcissism (a combination of psychopathy and narcissism) isn't a formal disorder, here are some traits:

Does this fit Trump and what he is doing to the US and the world?

randidoeker.bsky.social•3 days ago

The nice fellow who repaired my car is prob Maga.

He has been told Trump will send out monthly checks to counter the price increases.

brucehalperin.bsky.social•2 days ago

So… universal basic income? But I’m sure this same fellow hates “socialism”, right?

randidoeker.bsky.social•2 days ago

I just wanted my car fixed so I didn't try to burst his bubble.

stevebergin.bsky.social•3 days ago

@jenlucpiquant.bsky.social Yup. Trump treated as grifter, bottom feeder by NY Business elites for decades. His only power came from hijacking the no principles, hack GOP. Nowhere else does he succeed.

lwhartmann.bsky.social•3 days ago

Just wondering whether your academic colleagues are aware of your alter ego...

jellibean.bsky.social•3 days ago

The Republican Party problem has been nearly 40 years in the making. White guys in power saw the non-white majority coming for the US and freaked. They were methodical in their response. Gingrich, Ailes, Murdoch, Luntz, Rove, McConnell all did their part. Trump is the result, not the reason.

sdbauer.bsky.social•3 days ago

Completely agree

sometv.bsky.social•3 days ago

Let's not forget grover norquist whose wet dream is finally happening.

pinksim.bsky.social•2 days ago

Grover Norquist once said that all they needed was a president with enough digits to hold a pen because the policies were already set

jellibean.bsky.social•2 days ago

Yes, Norquist is another destroyer! He’s been quiet lately.

longballjohnny.bsky.social•3 days ago

Longer. Goes back to Lee Atwater and the southern strategy.

jellibean.bsky.social•2 days ago

Yes, Lee Atwater, too. He confessed his sins in an interview with LIFE magazine shortly before he died of a brain tumor. He seemed to be afraid of going to hell. He had good reason to be.

coolbikeart1.bsky.social•3 days ago

One problem is that only 27% of people on the opposite end of the political spectrum seem to care enough to actively do something about it. That could and should change rapidly, but it seems it's been like that since Reagan times.

bsward.bsky.social•3 days ago

The problem is corporatocracy and the two-party duopoly. Republicans wantonly destroy and Democrats enable them by stifling true left opposition to the destruction in the name of bipartisanship or decorum. Given where we are, it’s just making things WORSE.

frostydaisy.bsky.social•3 days ago

💯

zugernat.bsky.social•3 days ago

Absolutely true. It’s amazing how somebody beats their chest and people drop to their knees. All it takes is people to stand up to them, but for a variety of reasons many don’t.

traplife.bsky.social•3 days ago

I figure there’s about 100,000,000 people in the country who consider themselves MAGA. I live in a deep red area, it’s everyone. There’s no getting though to them. No amount of facts, figures or things they can see with their own god damn eyeholes works. I don’t know how you overcome that?. Example>

a11n-147.bsky.social•2 days ago

I did not come here for sane, logical, well-reasoned, multi-post assessments

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