I have been railing at my Trumper friends for 4 years. It took me until yesterday to figure out what the issue was, what I was so upset about every time I tried to get through to them (proving beyond a shadow of a doubt to them that I had Trump Derangement Syndrome). Trump Derangement Syndrome is having any emotional reaction to anything about Trump.
They have Right Wing Derangement Syndrome (RWDS) which is somewhat different than its opposite, Trump Derangement Syndrome (which consists of getting upset about Trump’s fascism). RWDS is about not getting upset. They suffer from something I identified in patients 20 years ago: Pathological Calm.
Pathological Calm. The defense mechanism they unconsciously use is denial which is associated with psychosis, because it distorts reality. Think along the lines of the house is burning down and you say “Pass the butter.”
Two things right wingers are calm about is the political significance of Trump’s personhood and his fire hose of fascist statements.
Personhood. The foul language, the gross sexual references about grabbing women’s X’s because he can, talk of the size of his own genitals and that of Arnold Palmer’s, women bleeding from wherever, on and on is seen as a celebration of free speech or laughed off as locker room talk. (Just ask yourself would Thomas Jefferson have said these things as president? Would Ronaldl Regan?)
Character Flaws. There are so many character flaws it staggers the mind to list them but not paying workers on his properties points to an unprecedented level of greed and lack of humanity. It’s the business philosophy of if things are not working well for you, tell a lie. If that lie doesn’t work, tell a bigger lie. This was obviously carried over into his presidency where we witnessed with shock fire hoses on constant lying coming out of his mouth.
All this greed and other “character flaws” are denied and overlooked as having nothing to do with his functioning as president. If a man cheats workers to save himself money there is no inner steering, no moral compass within. He would never ever keep a campaign promise. If money shows up he will drop all promises and go for the cash. If lying is his primary business principle then all campaign promises are tools to get elected. How sad for poor people who are sure he’s going to “take care of them” when all he wanted was their vote.
The second form of denial of reality is refusing to recognize Fascist statements even when they come directly out of his mouth or are reported by those close to him. Here Kelly says Trump wanted generals like Hitler had.
Fascism loves violence. Here Trump says if there could be one day of violence that will end criminal behavior like looting. That likely means “Shoot on sight.”
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/29/trump-violent-day-policing-crime-00181619
Here he says Liz Cheney would not be so hawkish (against Trump) if she had rifles pointing at her face. The frightening image one gets is he would delight in her face being blown off. Ask yourself, what occupies this guy’s mind?
https://youtu.be/DvPIQSom0UI?si=y2wxJs7Nku8fdtdf
Here and here in an email Trump proposes the return of guillotines, firing squads, group shooting and having that broadcast on TV so the public can see the deaths. What for? For the pleasure of revenge? Scaring people so they will behave? Newly created bloodthirstiness in the the public similar to the bloodthirstiness that lives between his ears? (Cult followers take on the personality of their leader as we saw with Charlie Manson.)
https://www.axios.com/2024/06/12/trump-guillotine-fundraising-email-democrats
Here we have a Trump prospective Attorney General threatening attorney Letitia James because she prosecuted Trump for his crimes in New York, with her imprisonment followed by a fun discussion of dragging Democrats’ “dead political bodies” through the streets and “burn” them. Is a political body a different body than a human body?
https://www.the-independent.com/tv/news/donald-trump-ag-letitia-james-b2644045.html
Here we find Dana Perino, a host of Fox News, suggesting that any attorneys who prosecuted Trump for his crimes deserve the death penalty — call it execution.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/fox-hosts-call-for-trump-prosecutors-to-face-death-penalty/
Here we find Trump executed more prisoners than any president for the last 10 years and rushed to kill them at the last minute before leaving office. Some were under appeal but he overruled that. Odd that he is laser focused on “stopping crime” and executing criminals when he himself is a convicted felon.
https://www.propublica.org/article/inside-trump-and-barrs-last-minute-killing-spree
Trump’s Hit List. Fascists execute people who are against them. They destroy the opposition, often declaring that they are traitors so the gullible public will go along with it. Here we see a hit list of who Trump is going after once he gets in. The implication is they will be executed. Military Tribunals will do the job and I have right wing friends all in favor of that.
https://igorsushko.substack.com/p/prelude-to-a-dictatorship-retired
The Court System Needs to Be Torn Down. The reason we need military tribunals is to get around the legal system since the court system is all corrupt and maybe should be eliminated entirely. We know it is corrupt because it went after Trump who we know to be of high character and of impeccable integrity. Certainly one start is all judges should be replaced with judges who favor Trump.
Shut Down Evil Mainstream Media Because All it Produces is Fake News. One of the first things Trump did when he got in was to attack all media that did not favor him. The catch phrase most associated with him is “Fake News”. While there is a grain of truth that the media all says the same thing, still what is the net result of his diatribe against mainstream media? Nothing it says against Trump is believed. AND we will lose free speech. A propaganda phrase used by the Right is “The only news is Fox News”. And Fox News was declared “entertainment” by Canada, it is so full of pro Right and anti Left “news”.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/30/politics/trump-legacy-fake-news/index.html
Here and here Trump declares that when he gets in he will take the licenses of those channels against him.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/donald-trump-has-threatened-to-shut-down-broadcasters-but-can-he/
https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/22/media/trump-strip-tv-station-licenses-punish-media/index.html
Joke-Washing. When my right wing friends hear this they laugh and say, “He can’t do that. Why should that worry you. Or make you emotional? I know it’s just another joke. He has a sense of humor. See how it makes me smile (smugly) and relax? You, on the other hand are deranged for getting upset.”
Why am I upset? Because that is what dictators say. Why don’t you right wingers confront him about that kind of “funny” “joking” speech. We need a new term other than sanewashing, where even the mainstream media takes gibberish and associative sentences he utters and reorders them into sane sentences – joke-washing.
Fascists focus on obedience and punishment. When Fascism has taken over a country there are rules of behavior made up by those in charge and anyone disobeying them should be punished, and punished severely. Imprisoned for one thing, and maybe even executed later when the public might have forgotten about them. (One rule they make up is never criticize the Fuhrer. That’s deemed treason, justifying death.) These rules begin with imposing strict moral behavior on a public that is perceived to have gone wayward. So they work to promote outrage at criminal behavior so that the punishment can be justified. More and more outrageous violations are published so that the public becomes terrified and wants swift punishment. Here we see the famous “They are eating our pets” debacle that Trump refused to back down from.
https://youtu.be/5llMaZ80ErY?si=UrGeogMeyTQci3Wg
They love the word “punishment”. For example, Trump says women who get an abortion should be punished. When does it get draconian? If abortion is murder then what might be the punishment? Life in prison? The death penalty?
https://youtu.be/6n-SgCndBWE?si=Kr1xV9sipJ-HUAYj (Go to minute 48)
Long ago in research on fascism it was proposed that draconian child rearing practices caused people to become Fascists. We know that Trump had a dreadful childhood at the hands of a mean and abusive father who seemed to hate all of his children.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/07/donald-trump-abuse-father-niece-mary-book
The next link documents Tucker Carlson’s diatribe against wayward disobedient children.
https://youtu.be/fYNrDI1dtEw?si=aBlqVOKa-OqhvqL6
In a bizarre rant where he turns beet red in his fury he says “Daddy is coming home and boy is he pissed.” OK, you might say “kids need discipline.” BUT he says, with pleasure, and to the cheers of the crowd, “This spanking won’t hurt me more than it hurts you. It’s really going to hurt you.” Then, disturbingly, “Daddy is going to punish wayward girls.” (He started with a vile character assassination of Harris. Is she the wayward girl to be punished by Trump?) The crowds got it because after that Trump’s minions called him “Daddy”.
More disturbing than any of this is the crowd’s delight at “This will really hurt you.” Are we returning to Fascist Rome with the colosseum and crucifixion for anyone disobeying the Emperor? I’m trying to shock the reader out of his complacency and joke washing of all this blatant fascist rhetoric. You bet this disturbs me. I’m trying to disturb you. Wake up.
What is being set up in the public is a thirst for righteous violence.
Fascists teach their followers to hate the opposition. They demonize anyone who is “other”, who is not within their fold. It’s the supreme move toward a “them and us” way of viewing the world.
Here Trump calls his opponents vermin.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/12/trump-rally-vermin-political-opponents/
Here he calls Dems the enemy from within, and evil.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-democrats-enemies-within-rcna175628
Here he calls Dems demonic.
Here Tommy Tuberville calls Dems members of a Satanic cult.
Here Trump calls Dems “sick people”.
https://youtu.be/ZCRgpY4xk-c?si=Ibw113kh6FGSqwGt
Why is this a problem? A friend says this is cute fascist rhetoric we should ignore. Just another joke. THAT stance ignores the fact that the public will believe all this. It is titillating, exciting, gives you people to loath and focus your anger and hate upon. How far might that go? These Dems are so feared and hated maybe they would be the subjects of the mass shootings Trump wants to broadcast on TV channels.
Who ARE those people in the anticipated group shootings?
Fascists shut down elections. When Trump first got in he said “I will be your last president.” That did not set off the alarm bells. It should have because no one could believe he really wants to destroy democracy. Absurdly he is seen as saving democracy.
Recently he said “Get out and vote, Christians, because this will be the last time you will have to vote. We will fix it.”
Right Wingers have a saying about their opposition. “Listen to what they say. They will tell you their intentions.” But this does not apply to Donny. Anything he says that is blatantly Fascist is reconfigured to mean something else. Or we are told “that was taken out of context” or “He didn’t mean that.” Do we need a new term? Fascist Speech Washing?
And finally we have the blatant attempted takeover of election results with the Jan 6 insurrection. Whipped up by Trump himself who stayed wedded to his business philosophy, “If you lose, tell a lie. When that doesn’t work, tell a bigger lie.” Even his top level advisors told him he had lost.
Here we see that Trump himself lit that fire of insurrection.
Fascists are Masters of Propaganda
Following all of this a massive propaganda machine was put into place, too extensive and complex to document here. “Observations” were drummed up. States were forced to recount at great expense and the results were still not believed. The net result is 40 percent of Americans are convinced the 2020 election was stolen.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/05/america-biden-election-2020-poll-victory
The bottom line was Trump could not possibly have lost. I say, “Why not? Half the country was sick of him. Half the country despised him.” This is so hard to believe because of Trump’s own derangement syndrome. He has two characteristics pertinent to this discussion — grandiosity and paranoia. Cult followers take on the mind of the cult leader. 40 percent of Americans are in disbelief because he is some kind of enlightened human being that no one could dislike (grandiosity) and they suspect everything about Dems, the court system and the government (paranoia).
Conclusion: I’m sad that we have to wait four years to see if we never have an election again. By then it will be way too late to fight back.
I will be terrified if mainstream media gets shut down. That will be the end of free speech in this country. We will not even know if someone on Trump’s hit list has been executed. (Or committed suicide? Or had a fluke accident?) That means you won’t know if your not famous neighbor has been taken away or when you will be taken away for writing something against him.
All my documentation came from the “wicked evil fake news”. Right Wingers are so indoctrinated to Fascism they will be happy that they are gone, not realizing that when we lose the press we lose our democracy.