It seems to me that a fundamental problem with someone primarily interested in demonstrating their high status is that nothing demonstrates it so well as its _irrational_ and _evil_ use. Successfully ordering (non-horrible) people to do the absurd or malign demonstrates your power-of-command much more definitely than telling (or 'worse', asking) them to do the reasonable and the good or inoffensive.
See: the demonstration of status by impunately injuring someone lower-down.
This is part of Orwell's 1984. There's a scene where a representative of the government tells Smith that it's pointless to command any citizen to do something that he *would* do. We have to order you to do what is abhorrent or painful to you, that's how we both know who's in charge, which is the most important thing. Seems to be some overlap there with narcissistic personality disorder -- if you make your family and employees miserable but they stay in orbit, you are living the best life anyone can.
Yeah, this, and well put. The reason he plants inepts in positions of power is that he KNOWS they will do what he tells (or implies) them to do, because they OWE him, bigly. And they are too cowed to draw a line anywhere that says Sure, I'd do that, but I'd NEVER do THAT.
A psychotic slightly more self-assured than Trump would have picked a secretary willing to draw at least one or two lines. Now he has to watch Hegseth leaking secrets and try to convince us that the only secret that should not have leaked is that Hegseth is leaking secrets. It's a terrible bind Trump wouldn't be in if he didn't have to appoint incompetents and lunatics, which is a terrible bind he is in because he needs to believe he is in total control of Reality Itself.
What Yas says here: "In point of fact, that's what he believes classification is about: him, and his rights and prestige."
My take on Trump is that this is what he believes of the whole universe. Everything he perceives is an extension of him. The world did not truly exist before him and won't after him, and while he's alive it's a plastic thing that is either doing what he wants it to (which is what he deserves) or it is obnoxiously refusing to (and must be brought to heel).
I think there is overlap here with Hitler. I don't mean to play the Hitler card in the usual way, aka "he's a fascist," but instead, "he's a failed artist." Artists spend a long apprenticeship trying to see the world so they can put their personal stamp upon it. And almost all of them understand that any influence they achieve is a fragile effect of thought-provoking craft, the opposite of brute force. I suspect Trump, like Hitler, really wanted to be a first-rate artist but never had the taste, skill, or temperament. Hitler with lousy painting, Trump with charmless interior design.
Do I sound crazy? Maybe, but I think of a late 2016 or January '17 article I read about Trump deciding how his Oval Office would look, and how he showed a book of swatches to the reporter and explained the differences in fabric. He obviously knew something! And it was touching, it felt human, it felt like he was in his element in a way that he has never other times felt, because almost everything he does is carried off with bluster that I read as nonstop panic. Always trying to muscle the world into a big response. But in that anecdote he had a human size and looked comfortable in it. (Sorry, this is way off track from national security.)
"My take on Trump is that this is what he believes of the whole universe. Everything he perceives is an extension of him. The world did not truly exist before him and won't after him, and while he's alive it's a plastic thing that is either doing what he wants it to (which is what he deserves) or it is obnoxiously refusing to (and must be brought to heel)."
This reads as ripp'd direct from my own personal mind, only better-phrased. The example that smacked me yesterday was when he said "“It makes me think that maybe he (Putin) doesn’t want to stop the war, 𝗵𝗲’𝘀 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴, and has to be dealt with differently"...
That is Trump in a nutshell. He thinks everything in the world is only about him. Indeed, if I'd had the rest of the day to futz with it, I woulda italicized "me" in that sentence. Trump lives his life as the One, the Only – Bold Italicized.
I mean, on the one hand it was impossible to have expectations, in any really specific sense. But on the other hand, that Trump would be doing the exact *kind* of things that he has been doing, that was inevitable and it's really noteworthy how very few of our elites have gotten a clue about that, even yet.
Oh well. I got some pretty nice spring China green tea today, that I'd pre-ordered in early March before the recrudescence of the tariff madness. I decided to splurge on some Longjing (the real shit, pre-rain harvest, grown within bowshot of where the future Qianlong Emperor tasted tea one day and told the locals "You're paying taxes with this from now on, instead of silver.") That and some Huangshan Maofeng. To get this kind of thing as an English-speaker you pretty much need to buy it before it's picked, so I did, and I was holding my breath about whether it would get here in time to beat the end of the de minimis exception. So I'm drinking really nice tea and being happy about that.
It seems to me that a fundamental problem with someone primarily interested in demonstrating their high status is that nothing demonstrates it so well as its _irrational_ and _evil_ use. Successfully ordering (non-horrible) people to do the absurd or malign demonstrates your power-of-command much more definitely than telling (or 'worse', asking) them to do the reasonable and the good or inoffensive.
See: the demonstration of status by impunately injuring someone lower-down.
This is part of Orwell's 1984. There's a scene where a representative of the government tells Smith that it's pointless to command any citizen to do something that he *would* do. We have to order you to do what is abhorrent or painful to you, that's how we both know who's in charge, which is the most important thing. Seems to be some overlap there with narcissistic personality disorder -- if you make your family and employees miserable but they stay in orbit, you are living the best life anyone can.
Yeah, this, and well put. The reason he plants inepts in positions of power is that he KNOWS they will do what he tells (or implies) them to do, because they OWE him, bigly. And they are too cowed to draw a line anywhere that says Sure, I'd do that, but I'd NEVER do THAT.
A psychotic slightly more self-assured than Trump would have picked a secretary willing to draw at least one or two lines. Now he has to watch Hegseth leaking secrets and try to convince us that the only secret that should not have leaked is that Hegseth is leaking secrets. It's a terrible bind Trump wouldn't be in if he didn't have to appoint incompetents and lunatics, which is a terrible bind he is in because he needs to believe he is in total control of Reality Itself.
What Yas says here: "In point of fact, that's what he believes classification is about: him, and his rights and prestige."
My take on Trump is that this is what he believes of the whole universe. Everything he perceives is an extension of him. The world did not truly exist before him and won't after him, and while he's alive it's a plastic thing that is either doing what he wants it to (which is what he deserves) or it is obnoxiously refusing to (and must be brought to heel).
I think there is overlap here with Hitler. I don't mean to play the Hitler card in the usual way, aka "he's a fascist," but instead, "he's a failed artist." Artists spend a long apprenticeship trying to see the world so they can put their personal stamp upon it. And almost all of them understand that any influence they achieve is a fragile effect of thought-provoking craft, the opposite of brute force. I suspect Trump, like Hitler, really wanted to be a first-rate artist but never had the taste, skill, or temperament. Hitler with lousy painting, Trump with charmless interior design.
Do I sound crazy? Maybe, but I think of a late 2016 or January '17 article I read about Trump deciding how his Oval Office would look, and how he showed a book of swatches to the reporter and explained the differences in fabric. He obviously knew something! And it was touching, it felt human, it felt like he was in his element in a way that he has never other times felt, because almost everything he does is carried off with bluster that I read as nonstop panic. Always trying to muscle the world into a big response. But in that anecdote he had a human size and looked comfortable in it. (Sorry, this is way off track from national security.)
Not the least bit crazy.
2-marker if I ever read one:
"My take on Trump is that this is what he believes of the whole universe. Everything he perceives is an extension of him. The world did not truly exist before him and won't after him, and while he's alive it's a plastic thing that is either doing what he wants it to (which is what he deserves) or it is obnoxiously refusing to (and must be brought to heel)."
This reads as ripp'd direct from my own personal mind, only better-phrased. The example that smacked me yesterday was when he said "“It makes me think that maybe he (Putin) doesn’t want to stop the war, 𝗵𝗲’𝘀 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴, and has to be dealt with differently"...
That is Trump in a nutshell. He thinks everything in the world is only about him. Indeed, if I'd had the rest of the day to futz with it, I woulda italicized "me" in that sentence. Trump lives his life as the One, the Only – Bold Italicized.
I saw the quote about Putin, but you really saw it. Excellent.
Helps to read it as if in his voice – the emphases pop.
I missed that quote about Putin, that's amazing.
“… they don't seem to think any explanation is required. It's his right to do it, the claim is, for any reason whatever.”
He only speaks in terms of his rights and powers. Never, ever, his responsibilities.
I mean, on the one hand it was impossible to have expectations, in any really specific sense. But on the other hand, that Trump would be doing the exact *kind* of things that he has been doing, that was inevitable and it's really noteworthy how very few of our elites have gotten a clue about that, even yet.
Oh well. I got some pretty nice spring China green tea today, that I'd pre-ordered in early March before the recrudescence of the tariff madness. I decided to splurge on some Longjing (the real shit, pre-rain harvest, grown within bowshot of where the future Qianlong Emperor tasted tea one day and told the locals "You're paying taxes with this from now on, instead of silver.") That and some Huangshan Maofeng. To get this kind of thing as an English-speaker you pretty much need to buy it before it's picked, so I did, and I was holding my breath about whether it would get here in time to beat the end of the de minimis exception. So I'm drinking really nice tea and being happy about that.