https://nationalcouncilofchurches.us/common-witness-ncc/the-dangers-of-christian-nationalism-in-the-united-states-a-policy-statement-of-the-national-council-of-churches/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2QlupXLxZlmxcIlZwqXUngFiCLSi1ilAR-lGzPsH_d-qFkeO3tLgBTfZc_aem_AaeOA0-0OVklTE7YV4J7HhwH9dKONj0W4cGWDtQVJZRYK_e-ULAxLQtcjjKGN1f1R9GOOG2AOr3Ctg1ryr_oOpvP
Showing posts with label Trumpism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trumpism. Show all posts
4/29/24
USA: Christian Nationalism
Christian nationalism in America, combined with their affection for Trumpism could spell the end of America as a Democracy, if Trump wins the November Presidential elections..
5/31/20
German-US Relations: Little love, as Berlin bids 'auf Wiedersehen' to Trumpism - by Andrew Rettman
He provoked lively debate about Russia, Iran, and Nato spending.
He might still clash with Germany on the Western Balkans, on which he remains a US special envoy.
But Richard Grenell, the outgoing US ambassador to Berlin, might well be remembered in Europe mostly for his "Trumpian" style, which did not help an already rocky transatlantic relationship.
Grenell, a 53-year old former civil servant and media consultant, harangued German politicians on the strategic dangers of Nord Stream 2, a Russian gas pipeline to Germany.
He spotlighted alleged Iranian violations of an EU-backed nuclear non-proliferation deal.
"I do not comment on the ambassador's [Grenell's] statement on Twitter," German foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Adebahr said on Monday, referring to Grenell's threat to keep up US "pressure" on issues such as Nord Stream 2.
But the German and wider EU public did comment on Trumpian diplomacy when asked by US pollster The Pew Research Centre last year.
Just 39 percent of people in Germany approved of the US in general and fewer than half did so in France, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
And only 13 percent of Germans trusted Trump personally - a lower rating than those of the Chinese and Russian leaders, and far from the 86-percent approval of former US president Barack Obama.
Read more:
Little love, as Berlin bids 'auf Wiedersehen' to Trumpism
He might still clash with Germany on the Western Balkans, on which he remains a US special envoy.
But Richard Grenell, the outgoing US ambassador to Berlin, might well be remembered in Europe mostly for his "Trumpian" style, which did not help an already rocky transatlantic relationship.
Grenell, a 53-year old former civil servant and media consultant, harangued German politicians on the strategic dangers of Nord Stream 2, a Russian gas pipeline to Germany.
He spotlighted alleged Iranian violations of an EU-backed nuclear non-proliferation deal.
"I do not comment on the ambassador's [Grenell's] statement on Twitter," German foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Adebahr said on Monday, referring to Grenell's threat to keep up US "pressure" on issues such as Nord Stream 2.
But the German and wider EU public did comment on Trumpian diplomacy when asked by US pollster The Pew Research Centre last year.
Just 39 percent of people in Germany approved of the US in general and fewer than half did so in France, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
And only 13 percent of Germans trusted Trump personally - a lower rating than those of the Chinese and Russian leaders, and far from the 86-percent approval of former US president Barack Obama.
Read more:
Little love, as Berlin bids 'auf Wiedersehen' to Trumpism
2/25/20
Democracy USA: America’s Coronavirus: Containing the Outbreak of Trumpism
The epicenter of China’s coronavirus outbreak is widely thought to be a wet market in Wuhan. At such markets, seafood, chicken, and other conventional foodstuffs are on sale alongside live animals. You can buy more than just dogs and cats there. Local epicures also shop for more exotic fare like foxes, badgers, civets, and snakes.Local epicures also shop for more exotic fare like foxes, badgers, civets, and snakes.
The coronavirus is a pathogen that jumps from animals to humans. The wet market is the perfect environment for the disease to incubate, mutate, and eventually infect the unwary.
Think of Washington, D.C. as America’s political wet market.
Washington is a place where ordinary politics takes place. But sometimes exotic species are introduced into the nation’s capital. And that’s when a new disease can incubate and mutate and spread throughout the system.
Donald Trump is Patient Zero for America’s “king’s disease,” which is the metonymic translation of coronavirus. His delusions of grandeur were always dangerously infectious, but they only became lethal when he took up residence in the White House.
As Trump came into contact with the ordinary Republican members of Congress, the disease leaped into the American body politic. Virtually the entire Republican Party began to treat the president not as the head of state or the head of the party but as a king—and thus above politics and not subject to the same congressional constraints as previous presidents.
Political scientists are frankly incapable of explaining the current impeachment saga in Washington. It takes an epidemiologist to figure out how a set of politicians, with a wide range of intellectual capabilities from grandmaster to moron, can all deny over and over again the clear evidence in front of their eyes that the president committed impeachable offenses.
Sure, they are marching in lockstep with the party leadership. But it really seems as if they’re suffering from a more serious infection when so many of them have refused to accept the admission of more evidence even as they insist that the existing evidence is insufficient.
Trumpism is not, of course, restricted to the political wet market of Washington, D.C. Plenty of Americans scattered across the country are willing to kneel down before the putative king.
Read more at:
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/01/30/americas-coronavirus-containing-outbreak-trumpism
The coronavirus is a pathogen that jumps from animals to humans. The wet market is the perfect environment for the disease to incubate, mutate, and eventually infect the unwary.
Think of Washington, D.C. as America’s political wet market.
Washington is a place where ordinary politics takes place. But sometimes exotic species are introduced into the nation’s capital. And that’s when a new disease can incubate and mutate and spread throughout the system.
Donald Trump is Patient Zero for America’s “king’s disease,” which is the metonymic translation of coronavirus. His delusions of grandeur were always dangerously infectious, but they only became lethal when he took up residence in the White House.
As Trump came into contact with the ordinary Republican members of Congress, the disease leaped into the American body politic. Virtually the entire Republican Party began to treat the president not as the head of state or the head of the party but as a king—and thus above politics and not subject to the same congressional constraints as previous presidents.
Political scientists are frankly incapable of explaining the current impeachment saga in Washington. It takes an epidemiologist to figure out how a set of politicians, with a wide range of intellectual capabilities from grandmaster to moron, can all deny over and over again the clear evidence in front of their eyes that the president committed impeachable offenses.
Sure, they are marching in lockstep with the party leadership. But it really seems as if they’re suffering from a more serious infection when so many of them have refused to accept the admission of more evidence even as they insist that the existing evidence is insufficient.
Trumpism is not, of course, restricted to the political wet market of Washington, D.C. Plenty of Americans scattered across the country are willing to kneel down before the putative king.
Read more at:
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/01/30/americas-coronavirus-containing-outbreak-trumpism
4/4/18
USA: Trumpism the end of the American dream? - “A triumph of collective narcissism”: How Trump unleashed forbidden desires - by Chauncey DeVega
Donald Trump embodies almost everything wrong with America: He is a
greedy, craven, untruthful bigot and bully, the living product of a
celebrity-driven popular culture prefaced on distraction and crudeness.
Trump's political movement and presidency seem to resemble a slow-motion
car accident, but instead of running away from this destruction and
chaos Trump's voters and Republicans en masse largely seem to welcome
the mayhem.
Much of this dynamic can be explained by Trump's skill as a storyteller who is keenly aware how to speak to the hopes and fears of the human deplorables who comprise his camp. He is a political cult leader. But Trump's public also possesses a high level of agency. His followers have made a choice to stand by their Great Leader -- even when that loyalty is personally harmful to them as well as the country they supposedly love. Why? Because Donald Trump and his supporters are intertwined in a state of collective narcissism.
Is it possible to free Donald Trump's voters from this codependency? What role does collective narcissism play in Donald Trump's authoritarian movement? How does collective narcissism encourage the kinds of political violence that have emerged during Trump's campaign and presidency? What is the relationship between social pathology, collective narcissism and the cult of personality that Trump inspires?
Much of this dynamic can be explained by Trump's skill as a storyteller who is keenly aware how to speak to the hopes and fears of the human deplorables who comprise his camp. He is a political cult leader. But Trump's public also possesses a high level of agency. His followers have made a choice to stand by their Great Leader -- even when that loyalty is personally harmful to them as well as the country they supposedly love. Why? Because Donald Trump and his supporters are intertwined in a state of collective narcissism.
Is it possible to free Donald Trump's voters from this codependency? What role does collective narcissism play in Donald Trump's authoritarian movement? How does collective narcissism encourage the kinds of political violence that have emerged during Trump's campaign and presidency? What is the relationship between social pathology, collective narcissism and the cult of personality that Trump inspires?
In an effort to
answer these questions, I recently spoke with Chicago-area counselor and
therapist Elizabeth Mika, a contributor to the New York Times
best-selling book "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump."
This conversation has been edited for clarity and length. A longer version of this conversation can also be heard on my podcast.
It is a triumph of collective narcissism in America. It is also an inevitable historical, political and psychological turn. We’ve seen this before in history.
People are feeling extremely unhappy, unable to prosper or see hope for themselves and their children. There is, however, a certain segment of the population that is excluded from this: the elites.
They are victim to their own blindness and we saw this in the 2016 election when supporters of Hillary Clinton were so convinced she would win. There was no question in their minds that would be the case, so they missed what was really happening.
So we have a troubled society. One aspect of this societal disorder is the lack of value.
We lose the distinction between right and wrong. We become more and more psychopathic -- the main feature of which is the lack of conscience.
Can you provide some clear concrete examples?
The growing inequality between the "haves" and the "have-nots." We have a society where many people cannot afford health care. Higher education is beyond the reach of most people. Social bonds are fraying.
The Trump administration is not going to make this any better. On the contrary ,it will become worse.
There is a great deal of denial about Trump and what he reflects about American society. He has given people permission to act on the worst aspects of human nature. But to criticize Trump is to be self-reflective and criticize oneself, and most people -- especially his supporters -- are not willing to do that.
How would you explain the rise of Donald Trump? How was he able to become president?
It is a triumph of collective narcissism in America. It is also an inevitable historical, political and psychological turn. We’ve seen this before in history.
People are feeling extremely unhappy, unable to prosper or see hope for themselves and their children. There is, however, a certain segment of the population that is excluded from this: the elites.
They are victim to their own blindness and we saw this in the 2016 election when supporters of Hillary Clinton were so convinced she would win. There was no question in their minds that would be the case, so they missed what was really happening.
So we have a troubled society. One aspect of this societal disorder is the lack of value.
We lose the distinction between right and wrong. We become more and more psychopathic -- the main feature of which is the lack of conscience.
Can you provide some clear concrete examples?
The growing inequality between the "haves" and the "have-nots." We have a society where many people cannot afford health care. Higher education is beyond the reach of most people. Social bonds are fraying.
The Trump administration is not going to make this any better. On the contrary ,it will become worse.
There is a great deal of denial about Trump and what he reflects about American society. He has given people permission to act on the worst aspects of human nature. But to criticize Trump is to be self-reflective and criticize oneself, and most people -- especially his supporters -- are not willing to do that.
Most of us can
identify with psychopathic functioning in some respect. We can identify
with narcissistic pathology in some respect as well. Having someone like
Trump, who combines both, is quite remarkable and having this person
become a world leader is even more worrisome. He lies all the time. This
is part of this so-called charm. Some people call it charisma, but it’s
not really charisma.
Having no conscience, Trump does not experience guilt or shame or remorse, so he can say whatever pleases him at the moment to get people to do whatever he wants or needs of them.
Having no conscience, Trump does not experience guilt or shame or remorse, so he can say whatever pleases him at the moment to get people to do whatever he wants or needs of them.
People
fell for this because they want what he has to offer. Ultimately, Trump
embodies values that people do not necessarily want to admit to
Read more: “A triumph of collective narcissism”: How Trump unleashed forbidden desires - Salon.com
Read more: “A triumph of collective narcissism”: How Trump unleashed forbidden desires - Salon.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)