It’s just simple abuse. It’s no more complicated that that. Trump is not some genius, he’s just an abusive asshole with a megaphone.
The whole point is to constantly be testing the loyalty of supporters, while punishing detractors. For the supporters, the constant “attention” is a reward. Every opportunity to say “there are three lights” is making themselves part of the lie. For the rest of us, the constant, unavoidable gaslighting is exhausting, and the visible, ever present degradation of our civic institutions is horrifying. Yet we are forced to either witness it and confront it day after day if we are to oppose it, or check out and let it happen, just hoping it ends quickly.
Trump is not some genius, he’s just an abusive asshole with a megaphone.
As the son of a former abusive asshole myself, there’s truth in it. A large percentage of people will accept abuse for close to a decade, but usually they inevitably snap and try getting away from the abuse. It just requires constant small losses to realize, and you can’t let them rot alone. Otherwise they fall even deeper into a cult-like thinking. Maybe it should be seen a little akin addiction, they need a reminder, there’s a small way to get back to how things were before.
Does he have book smarts? No, but this guy has a genius level ability to promote himself. He’s increased his inherited fortune by billions by selling himself (even if he could have don’t better just by putting his money in index funds). His worth is all in his brand.
Even for those of us who see through his lies, you still can’t stop fucking talking about him. People are always fucking talking about him, all the time.
He has gotten half of one of the largest countries in the world to blindly support him.
It makes me cringe to say it, and he is a terrible, terrible person, but to argue this guy isn’t a genius is to ignore reality.
I think he’s the perfect example of “clever but not smart.” Genius implies any of what he says or does is intentional - it’s not. But because he’s lived his whole life in privilege and the weird miasma that is the current reality, he’s able to wedge himself into a position where half the country who should despise him loves him instead.
The reality of Trump appeals to very few but the idea of Trump appeals to many with the awareness to be afraid, but neither the intellect or the courage to understand why - so they’ve latched on to the symbol of him and stick with it to avoid the cognitive dissonance.
