I have a loathsome cousin who’s like Trump. Whenever you bring something up, he already knows about it; he read it; he worked on it; he knows more about it than the people who did it; he was in charge of them; he had to fire them. For years during Bush II he kept telling the family that he was in regular phone contact with Karl Rove and was “helping” him. Whatever concept you brought up to refute him, he already knew about it; he understood it better than you did. All done with that same calm, earnest, dull tone like he was mustering the patience to help us less knowledgeable fools, but just this once, out of pity. When I asked his kids (who are my age and smart and accomplished) if he actually believed all of it, they put on pained expressions and shrugged.
When Trump said “I did read it” to Moran, I had a sudden shock of recognition: that’s my cousin! I can’t figure it out…I know about “On Bullshit” and all of that, but I still don’t understand. It’s not lying and it’s not delusion — it’s something else, akin to children playing a narrative game and making up the scenarios as they go, announcing them — but even that’s not right. It’s a strange mental state that I know I’ve never been in.
Yes. It's not easy to understand, certainly not from the standpoint of some training in philosophy. I feel I'd like to see a philosophical approach to the embarrasssed reaction of the kids!
I'd say it stems from a need to be seen as the Smartest Guy in the Room. That need can lead you down a rabbit hole of justification where you fool yourself, but not anyone who sees the ill-fitting mask. Go on, ask me how I know about this...
This is all very plausible, but one more thing in the mix is whatever he is being fed by Stephen Miller and the Cabinet (I maybe wrong, but I'd guess Susie Wiles is too smart to get tangled up in policy). While the rest of the Cabinet seems to be just regurgitating his phrases back to him, Miller seems to have cracked the code on how to manage Trump. Mixed in with his classic grievances like Biden, there are what sound like half-remembered briefings that he tosses in just in case they are relevant to the question, or that he imagines make him sound well-informed.
My own view is that Trump himself is doing a lot less work than he did 8 years ago, minimal as that was. Miller writes all the executive orders and the emperor signs them without question. I don't think he's really making any decisions other than in the area of tariffs and programs of retaliation against those he thinks betrayed him. And he doesn't have a. clear idea. of. what's going on in most departments.
Yeah. Trump 1.0 was I think a little intimidated by the Presidency, hence all the adults in the room to keep things working while he felt his way. Trump 2.0 realizes it's all bullshit, and he doesn't give a fuck. The minions have their marching orders, and as long as they parrot his catch phrases back to him in the media and don't cause problems for him, he's good to focus on what matters to him, grift, golf, and revenge. Once the economy starts melting down things are gonna get really weird.
This time around he knows he cant be jailed for enacting any ugly lawless perversion that Miller brings around. So what if it goes against established practices of 100 years? So what if it polls at 29%? It's not like he's going to jail. So, why not experiment and get a reaction? Let Bondi & Noem make it scarier.
Edroso on Substack was talking today about the brain trust this time around, Miller, the Heritage Project 2025 guy, some others. They are the ones "experimenting", renditioning foreigners, arresting mayors, gutting the bureaucracy. Bondi and Noem are merely muscle, though they know what their job is and what the Big Guy expects. What Trump expects is media appearances where they echo his lies and catch phrases, and stories showing how tough and strong he is, washing the filth from the streets. How it all happens is a problem for the minions. His focus is elsewhere, though he thanked Robers for that thing he did. You know, that thing. "He won't forget it" he told him.
I would have given eye teeth if I had them to see that
It's been my contention for a long time 1) they ain't human and 2) at least since grad-school it isn't "intelligent!" It's an ever more complex database, ever more complex programming. It's not alive, it's not intuitive, it's not intelligent. "Automaton" nails it, the creepy carnival "fortune-teller" programed to behave in the programmer's perception of "human." They may not be lizards but they could be automatons programmed by lizards
I still want to know what that ... ahhhhh: stuff is they're smearing all over their faces. And why ...
"Mind like a steel ball, Om had said. Nothing got in or out. So all Vorbis could hear were the distant echoes of his own soul. And out of the distant echoes he would forge a Book of Vorbis, and Brutha suspected he knew what the commandments would be. There would be talk of holy wars and blood and crusades and blood and piety and blood."
I have a loathsome cousin who’s like Trump. Whenever you bring something up, he already knows about it; he read it; he worked on it; he knows more about it than the people who did it; he was in charge of them; he had to fire them. For years during Bush II he kept telling the family that he was in regular phone contact with Karl Rove and was “helping” him. Whatever concept you brought up to refute him, he already knew about it; he understood it better than you did. All done with that same calm, earnest, dull tone like he was mustering the patience to help us less knowledgeable fools, but just this once, out of pity. When I asked his kids (who are my age and smart and accomplished) if he actually believed all of it, they put on pained expressions and shrugged.
When Trump said “I did read it” to Moran, I had a sudden shock of recognition: that’s my cousin! I can’t figure it out…I know about “On Bullshit” and all of that, but I still don’t understand. It’s not lying and it’s not delusion — it’s something else, akin to children playing a narrative game and making up the scenarios as they go, announcing them — but even that’s not right. It’s a strange mental state that I know I’ve never been in.
Yes. It's not easy to understand, certainly not from the standpoint of some training in philosophy. I feel I'd like to see a philosophical approach to the embarrasssed reaction of the kids!
I'd say it stems from a need to be seen as the Smartest Guy in the Room. That need can lead you down a rabbit hole of justification where you fool yourself, but not anyone who sees the ill-fitting mask. Go on, ask me how I know about this...
I have a good guess
This is all very plausible, but one more thing in the mix is whatever he is being fed by Stephen Miller and the Cabinet (I maybe wrong, but I'd guess Susie Wiles is too smart to get tangled up in policy). While the rest of the Cabinet seems to be just regurgitating his phrases back to him, Miller seems to have cracked the code on how to manage Trump. Mixed in with his classic grievances like Biden, there are what sound like half-remembered briefings that he tosses in just in case they are relevant to the question, or that he imagines make him sound well-informed.
My own view is that Trump himself is doing a lot less work than he did 8 years ago, minimal as that was. Miller writes all the executive orders and the emperor signs them without question. I don't think he's really making any decisions other than in the area of tariffs and programs of retaliation against those he thinks betrayed him. And he doesn't have a. clear idea. of. what's going on in most departments.
Yeah. Trump 1.0 was I think a little intimidated by the Presidency, hence all the adults in the room to keep things working while he felt his way. Trump 2.0 realizes it's all bullshit, and he doesn't give a fuck. The minions have their marching orders, and as long as they parrot his catch phrases back to him in the media and don't cause problems for him, he's good to focus on what matters to him, grift, golf, and revenge. Once the economy starts melting down things are gonna get really weird.
This time around he knows he cant be jailed for enacting any ugly lawless perversion that Miller brings around. So what if it goes against established practices of 100 years? So what if it polls at 29%? It's not like he's going to jail. So, why not experiment and get a reaction? Let Bondi & Noem make it scarier.
Edroso on Substack was talking today about the brain trust this time around, Miller, the Heritage Project 2025 guy, some others. They are the ones "experimenting", renditioning foreigners, arresting mayors, gutting the bureaucracy. Bondi and Noem are merely muscle, though they know what their job is and what the Big Guy expects. What Trump expects is media appearances where they echo his lies and catch phrases, and stories showing how tough and strong he is, washing the filth from the streets. How it all happens is a problem for the minions. His focus is elsewhere, though he thanked Robers for that thing he did. You know, that thing. "He won't forget it" he told him.
A Mansplainer's Mansplainer.
I would have given eye teeth if I had them to see that
It's been my contention for a long time 1) they ain't human and 2) at least since grad-school it isn't "intelligent!" It's an ever more complex database, ever more complex programming. It's not alive, it's not intuitive, it's not intelligent. "Automaton" nails it, the creepy carnival "fortune-teller" programed to behave in the programmer's perception of "human." They may not be lizards but they could be automatons programmed by lizards
I still want to know what that ... ahhhhh: stuff is they're smearing all over their faces. And why ...
"Mind like a steel ball, Om had said. Nothing got in or out. So all Vorbis could hear were the distant echoes of his own soul. And out of the distant echoes he would forge a Book of Vorbis, and Brutha suspected he knew what the commandments would be. There would be talk of holy wars and blood and crusades and blood and piety and blood."
Terry Pratchett, Small Gods, (p. 288)