America is a very stupid country. That statement must be true, Dana Milbank writes in The Washington Post, because Donald Trump keeps repeating it:
He offered this opinion on at least nine occasions since he launched his campaign for the presidency — and he should know.
It is furthermore the president’s highly intelligent opinion we have been led by “stupid people” and “our laws are so corrupt and stupid.” We have been stupid about trade. We have been stupid in dealing with Iraq, Iran, China, Mexico, Canada, Europe and Muslims. We have the “dumbest” immigration laws. Among the many stupid things Trump has identified: White House staffers, the FBI, the National Football League, Democrats, the filibuster and journalists.
But Exhibit A for Trump is his country's relationship with Russia:
We are at our most imbecilic when dealing with Russia. “Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity,” he tweeted before meeting Monday in Helsinki with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs retweeted Trump’s assessment of his own country’s stupidity, tacking on the words “We agree.”
And, at home, Trump is besieged by morons:
The CIA’s ignorance is as nothing compared with the ignoramus Robert S. Mueller III and his special counsel investigation (“we have this stupidity going on — pure stupidity,” Trump said in Britain), which on Friday indicted 12 Russians in the hack of the Democratic National Committee. The dunces of the DNC “should be ashamed of themselves” for being hacked, Trump said.
By way of contrast, Trump claims that he is "a very stable genius." However, with each passing day, he validates Mark Twain's observation that, "it's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt."
Image: Imgflip
2 comments:
Odd you should reference Twain. I no longer leap out of bed at the crack of dawn. Instead I turn to my Amazon Echo dot. I have it give me the weather for the day followed by news briefs from CBC, NPR and, finally, BBC. At that point my dog is usually growling at me for his breakfast but, if not, I have the Echo continue reading the next chapter of whatever Kindle book I'm reading. The current selection is Twain's "On the Decay of the Art of Lying." It helps keep Trump in a healthy perspective.
Trump doesn't consider lying deception. He's done it so long he sees it as a legitimate tool of persuasion. No disgrace attaches to it and it is quite legitimate to ignore customs of logic and consistency.
Is he lying as much for his own benefit as to encourage others? He seems to have a prowess of irrationality. I think what he says he then internalizes as his personal truth. It's madness to be sure yet he seems to mean what he says and, no matter how removed from reality, he keeps repeating it. Perhaps he sees truth as whatever you grow it to be. When I see that I fear he is wobbling on the cusp of lunacy.
I'm convinced he is a lunatic, Mound. Two hundred years ago, he would have been given a cell in Bedlam. Today he's president. Not exactly progress.
Post a Comment