While those of us old enough to have been born in the shadow of WWII have an almost instinctive disgust of appeasement, it is undoubtedly a diplomatic tool.
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While those of us old enough to have been born in the shadow of WWII have an almost instinctive disgust of appeasement, it is undoubtedly a diplomatic tool.
But it requires that the person you are appeasing has a demand that serves a purpose for the demander. The demander has a concrete reason for their demand, however obscene.
The mistake of appeasing Trump is to misunderstand his fundamental pathology. 1/ #Trumpappeasement
It's not that Trump has a solid idea of what his demands will achieve: it's not like the Sudetenland, Poland and Ukraine for Hitler's dream of Libensraum, or the exile of all Jews off expanded German territory.
The reason Trump constantly flubs stating his reasons for needing Greenland - and indeed keeps mistaking Greenland for Iceland, is that he is given talking points to make that do not feel fundamentally true to him. So he cannot deliver them. 2/
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It's not that Trump has a solid idea of what his demands will achieve: it's not like the Sudetenland, Poland and Ukraine for Hitler's dream of Libensraum, or the exile of all Jews off expanded German territory.
The reason Trump constantly flubs stating his reasons for needing Greenland - and indeed keeps mistaking Greenland for Iceland, is that he is given talking points to make that do not feel fundamentally true to him. So he cannot deliver them. 2/
And while dementia is most certainly at play with Trump's pathology, the products of a demented mind always do reveal in themselves, a certain psychic logic.
Trump mixes up Greenland and Iceland because his unconscious doesn't differentiate between two northern Islands, neither of which will satisfy the underlying compulsion to demand.
Nothing you give Trump WILL EVER BE ENOUGH. There is no territory, no amount of wealth, no level of adulation that will fill the black hole at his core. 3/
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And while dementia is most certainly at play with Trump's pathology, the products of a demented mind always do reveal in themselves, a certain psychic logic.
Trump mixes up Greenland and Iceland because his unconscious doesn't differentiate between two northern Islands, neither of which will satisfy the underlying compulsion to demand.
Nothing you give Trump WILL EVER BE ENOUGH. There is no territory, no amount of wealth, no level of adulation that will fill the black hole at his core. 3/
While it is entirely natural to want to interpret Trump's demands into some coherent demand that can be either met or rejected (human's crave coherence - we literally cannot stop ourselves for sifting through the gibberish and sanewashing them into something coherent), it is not a strategy that will serve the moment.
It is important to distinguish between Trump and those around him who use his power to push their own agendas. But stop thinking Trump has any coherent agenda. He doesn't. 4/
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While it is entirely natural to want to interpret Trump's demands into some coherent demand that can be either met or rejected (human's crave coherence - we literally cannot stop ourselves for sifting through the gibberish and sanewashing them into something coherent), it is not a strategy that will serve the moment.
It is important to distinguish between Trump and those around him who use his power to push their own agendas. But stop thinking Trump has any coherent agenda. He doesn't. 4/
The world could give Trump every territory he demands, all the money he demands, all the airtime - 24 hours, year round Trump, and it would not ever be enough. There is no enough for Trump.
There will never be enough death, enough spectacle of suffering, enough moments of revenge. No punishment will ever be sufficient for those he perceives as his enemies. He would have them killed, brought back to life, and killed again forever. He is a black hole of demand. #5
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J jwcph@helvede.net shared this topic
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The world could give Trump every territory he demands, all the money he demands, all the airtime - 24 hours, year round Trump, and it would not ever be enough. There is no enough for Trump.
There will never be enough death, enough spectacle of suffering, enough moments of revenge. No punishment will ever be sufficient for those he perceives as his enemies. He would have them killed, brought back to life, and killed again forever. He is a black hole of demand. #5
The only tactic that, I personally think, will serve the moment is blanket, outright and clear refusal.
When he hits the wall of an absolute and resounding NO, his psychopathy will become so apparent, so fast, even his most ardent apologists and users will find it impossible to sanewash him. The quicker this happens, the quicker it will be over.
And then impeachment or the 25th will remain as the only possible prerogatives.
The harder chore will be cleaning up his enablers.
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The only tactic that, I personally think, will serve the moment is blanket, outright and clear refusal.
When he hits the wall of an absolute and resounding NO, his psychopathy will become so apparent, so fast, even his most ardent apologists and users will find it impossible to sanewash him. The quicker this happens, the quicker it will be over.
And then impeachment or the 25th will remain as the only possible prerogatives.
The harder chore will be cleaning up his enablers.
All these European and Asian governments need to hire fewer policy advisors and more psychoanalysts.
There is a way to break the cycle of rampant delusion and devouring jouissance of someone in this mental state. It is a brick wall of refusal and silence.
Every accommodation, every appeasement does the opposite. It feeds the machine of all-consuming, unsatisfiable need inside him.
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While those of us old enough to have been born in the shadow of WWII have an almost instinctive disgust of appeasement, it is undoubtedly a diplomatic tool.
But it requires that the person you are appeasing has a demand that serves a purpose for the demander. The demander has a concrete reason for their demand, however obscene.
The mistake of appeasing Trump is to misunderstand his fundamental pathology. 1/ #Trumpappeasement
@Remittancegirl I am sure that you are right - both about the bottomless pit that it Trump and, more worryingly, about those around him, the vile Miller and Vance and all those other enablers without whom he would by now be out of favour, out of office and out of time. Yes he is certainly mentally ill - he has long been a bully, a malignant and vengeful narcissist, with the personality of the "Dark Triad", and now he is becoming demented, but those who keep him there know exactly what they do.
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While those of us old enough to have been born in the shadow of WWII have an almost instinctive disgust of appeasement, it is undoubtedly a diplomatic tool.
But it requires that the person you are appeasing has a demand that serves a purpose for the demander. The demander has a concrete reason for their demand, however obscene.
The mistake of appeasing Trump is to misunderstand his fundamental pathology. 1/ #Trumpappeasement
@Remittancegirl Great thread. Thank you.
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All these European and Asian governments need to hire fewer policy advisors and more psychoanalysts.
There is a way to break the cycle of rampant delusion and devouring jouissance of someone in this mental state. It is a brick wall of refusal and silence.
Every accommodation, every appeasement does the opposite. It feeds the machine of all-consuming, unsatisfiable need inside him.
And you might ask why I am so adamant in my opinions on this subject. For a very sad reason. I have a brother who is psychotic and who, with a little more charisma and a rich enough Daddy, could easily be Trump.
The greed, the fixations, the delusions, the embrace of conspiracy theory, the lack of proportional rage at what he perceives of as his enemies, his strange fracturing of language, his monomania, his grandiosity, the endless unsatisfiable demands... they're all there. 1/
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@Remittancegirl I am sure that you are right - both about the bottomless pit that it Trump and, more worryingly, about those around him, the vile Miller and Vance and all those other enablers without whom he would by now be out of favour, out of office and out of time. Yes he is certainly mentally ill - he has long been a bully, a malignant and vengeful narcissist, with the personality of the "Dark Triad", and now he is becoming demented, but those who keep him there know exactly what they do.
@tompearce49 @Remittancegirl I don't think they do - for example, I'm sure Miller et al have a plan for when he dies (they're not blind) but every single one of them undoubtedly believe that A. they can just slot somebody else into the cult of personality & B. that they, themselves should be that person.
It won't work. MAGA is malice + incompetence + the Trump brand - without him they're just a gaggle of hateful idiots.
The GOP at large, on the other hand, should be carefully watched.
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@tompearce49 @Remittancegirl I don't think they do - for example, I'm sure Miller et al have a plan for when he dies (they're not blind) but every single one of them undoubtedly believe that A. they can just slot somebody else into the cult of personality & B. that they, themselves should be that person.
It won't work. MAGA is malice + incompetence + the Trump brand - without him they're just a gaggle of hateful idiots.
The GOP at large, on the other hand, should be carefully watched.
I agree. Although this is a subject I feel less confident to address. The tides that pull America are, I must admit, a bit of a mystery to me.
