The Donald and Twitter
With The Donald keeping up his TwitterWar, lately against his media critics, especially but not exclusively The New York Times, I found myself wondering about his use of Twitter. He claims 10 million followers, but then he claims many things, most of which turn out to be untrue. But maybe he’s right. After all, he certainly exceeded 10 million voters, so why not 10 million Twitterati fans?
But why Twitter? Well, my view of Twitter is that it is a perfect device for brainless communication. The character limits prevent anything close to complex thoughts being communicated. All you can do is blast out emotional rants, and The Donald apparently is limited by his brain to emotional rants that are devoid of actual thought. Remember, The Donald is a narcissist, meaning he is capable of thinking only about himself The Mayo Clinic states that, “narcissistic personality disorder is a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for admiration and a lack of empathy for others. But behind this mask of ultra-confidence lies a fragile self-esteem that's vulnerable to the slightest criticism.” So, his blasts of anger at the New York Times reflects this personality.
Then he is a sociopath. What’s that you say? Well sociopathy is a mental condition in which a person consistently shows no regard for right and wrong and ignores the rights and feelings of others. People with antisocial personality disorder tend to antagonize, manipulate or treat others harshly or with callous indifference. They show no guilt or remorse for their behavior.
And then we get to the real explanation for his Twitter behavior—he has adult ADHD. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a mental health disorder that includes a combination of persistent problems, such as difficulty paying attention, hyperactivity and impulsive behavior. Adult ADHD can lead to unstable relationships, poor work or school performance, low self-esteem, and other problems. He apparently can neither read nor write extensively, since he can’t stay focused long enough. He flips from one thing to another, and just gurgles his way through all public appearances. So twitter is the perfect vehicle for him to communicate, since it limits him to that 140 characters, meaning little actual thought is required, beyond a blind explosion of anger at some perceived slight. But, as it turns out, twitter has added value. It is now the perfect vehicle for getting an audience of like-minded souls to become properly furious about something, or properly terrified about something. In fact, The Atlantic magazine just published an interesting article on the use of social media, especially Twitter –“War Goes Viral: How social media is being weaponized across the world”. [1] The article describes how ISIS uses the Twitter world to disarm its opponents and to gather recruits to its cause. It was a dismaying article, but went a long way to explain how such a seemingly brainless twit like The Donald could possibly convince enough people to vote for him that he was actually elected to the Presidency. That he keeps it up since the election is a portent of things to come. He will obey no common rules (he doesn’t even want to live in The White House for heaven’s sake), say whatever he wants, so long as it fits into the 140 character limit, and jerk from issue to issue with no real understanding of what his actions/plans will do the country or the world. He does not care. And we need to understand that about him. His every action is to enhance himself, or perhaps to enrich himself. His failure to understand the blind trust thing is a useful clue to everything he does and will do.
So, thank you Republican party for giving us this mindless and potentially dangerous man to lead our nation. Now is the time for the disheveled Democratic Party to reform itself into a productive vehicle for taking back our country.
And if social media can be useful to the narcissistic-sociopaths of the world, then it can be used by responsible folks also. Use social media to whatever ends are required to return our country to a responsible, caring nation. And that means, most especially, you Millennials. You are inheriting this mess, and you are now required to clean up our mess. Sorry guys, but we just weren’t smart enough apparently. Maybe you will be more capable. So begin to act now. Organize for action. Gird your loins. The Battle for Survival of America is on.
And just in case you think that we should “give him some time”, I will give you a few blog postings from another era—2013, of the beginning of Obama II, with the Republicans in charge of Congress. How did they react to President Obama’s election?
The commentary coming from the right wing in response to the President’s inauguration is truly stunning in its ignorance and delusional character. The commentariat, both paid and unpaid have been yakking away about the “socialist” state being pursued by Obama and the Democrats. How Obama is killing the incentive to start businesses by offering free goodies—money, food, whatever it takes, to keep people tied to big government, instead of freeing people to pursue the true freedom of capitalism.
First, all this incoherent talk about how we are becoming a socialist state is so absurd that I wonder about the mental state, or perhaps just the brainpower of the assembled cast of characters now criticizing our country. To my knowledge neither the President, nor any of his Democratic allies have proposed nationalizing a single corporate entity, not to mention whole industries. Had he proposed nationalizing our banks, or our energy companies, I might have understood his logic, but I would also have better understood the cries of socialism. As it is, the President continues to tolerate the fools who have brought this nation to its economic knees through greed and stupidity. That our financial system is run by people a few beers short of a six pack when it comes to intelligence and that no bankers are currently in prison continues to amaze.
What I cannot tell from the idiotic commentary is whether the writers actually believe their own foolishness, or they are simply mouthing the tale told by their owners—the Koch’s et al. I understand that the Faux News Network espouses idiotic rhetoric. They are highly paid actors who read their scripts. But why the pseudo-intelligencia of the right continues to mouth such inanities is quite beyond me. It seems clear that the right wing demonstrates willingness to allow this Nation to slide off its fiscal cliff, even though they have not yet pushed us off the cliff.
I keep wondering . . . isn’t it time for the right wing to once again regain its place in the country as thoughtful advocates of the American system? Back off guys. You sound too reminiscent of the 1930s. Remember the 1930s . . . that period called the Great Depression . . . that you also created?
Thursday, January 24, 2013
As I sat watching Downton Abbey the other night, a thought struck me—the series is like gaining a window into republican delusions about the world in which they wish to live; it is akin to traveling through a wormhole into a brave new republican world, in which there is no middle class, only the rich, the poor, and the wannabe rich. In this case, I assume the republican middle class fits the model of the rich wannabe’s.
And then the program ends, and the wormhole disappears. I can find no other reasonable explanation for the republican assault on the middle class. They wish to rid the world of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, unemployment insurance, oh and public schooling. They do so love charter schools—which are really just public schools without the bother of government interference.
Listening to them chatter about Obama’s speech is also amusing, and annoying at the same time. The right wing accuses the president of failing to cater adequately to his right wing opponents—the ones who refuse to cooperate with anything he wishes to accomplish. They are the same ones who prattled on endlessly about how Secretary Clinton should have been fired, and even how impeachment must remain an option for this president.
They continue to moan about how we have entered that twilight zone of a socialist state, and unless they maintain their vast hordes of guns, the government will arrive to take away their liberties, and presumably their jobs. I assume they believe that Obama wishes to nationalize most of the current economic systems in the country—banking, energy, certainly hi-tech, automobiles, clothing (oops, we gave that away to China, didn’t we) and . . . and what else. Oh, I keep forgetting Obama must have given away everything else to China, since we seem not to make anything any longer.
The only thing not entirely clear to me is how the republican lords of the Downton Abbeys of the country expect to make their money . . . you know, so they can hire all those servants. Maybe they will all become investment bankers, and each will have his own hedge fund (or is it Ponzi schemes they want to run)?. It’s all so confusing, this big money stuff. See, I’ve never really had to worry about big money and gambling with other people’s money. I just worked for someone else from about the age of 13, until I could no longer stand working for someone else and started my own tiny business, which I held tightly to until I retired. So, the Mitt Romney way of business—buying and flogging other people’s businesses-- never entered my brain—stupid, I guess.
Well, anyway, I think I will keep watching Downton Abbey to see what clues I can gain into the dark minds of the republican 1% wannabe’s.
And speaking of watching TV, Yay . . . it’s 1183 again. Well, I know, technically it isn’t but, what the hell. It’s where we seem headed. We just watched a wonderful old film in our collection, The Lion in Winter, with Peter O’Toole and Katherine Hepburn. It’s about an aging King Henry and his quarrelsome and underhanded kids, all of whom wish to be king or at the least Lord of their own realm. Their realms are, of course, fairly scruffy since it was 1183.
And I thought, as I watched, “why this is what our republican brethren wish to recreate.” Not sure who is aiming to play the various parts—Rand, of course, wishes to be Richard, the ablest of the nasty clan, trying very hard to position himself as the heir apparent. And the King . . . hmmm. Perhaps The Donald . . . no obviously the Donald himself, since he seems to want so badly to be the one who crowns one of the little republican hopefuls (and says to the rest, “you’re fired”). And I thought, maybe Michelle, or Sarah for the queen. They’re both every bit as devious as Queen Eleanor, but neither seems much smarter than my pet rock, so they wouldn’t really serve the part well. But then most republican hopefuls seem a couple of beers short of a six pack, so perhaps the girls are “normal” in republican world.
And as Henry goes about kicking his royal loyal armsmen in the ass to get them moving whenever he wants to go somewhere (think Chris Christie), or do something nasty, I thought, why yeah, that’s their exact model. So, with the election results now in place, welcome to the wonderful world of 1183. I’m sure Steve Bannon and Mike Pence will fit in nicely.
And in other news, it is rumored that Rand Paul has advocated the official adoption of the Mayan calendar, since it is about as scientific as his colleagues are comfortable with. We understand that they now predict that the world has already officially ended.
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