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Post by gregfordyce on Aug 21, 2019 13:21:48 GMT
Look guys - I said I respect your opinions and your optimism. You have different experiences than I do in life (as does everyone, obviously). My experiences have not given me very much confidence in the goodness or decency of my fellow man, generally speaking. Do i think there are good people out there? Of course - by the millions and millions. But do i think they comprise a majority? No, at least not in this country. That is my life experience, having lived in 3 states and 6 cities over 35 years. Is it possible I am wrong? Of course! I certainly hope I am! I think it's great you think the majority of Americans are good people. Hope you're right.
Your experiences - like the examples you cited - have shaped your viewpoint on this subject. My experiences have shaped mine. No, I don't care to share them here. Can we agree to disagree?
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Post by paulus on Aug 21, 2019 13:42:28 GMT
Yes we can for sure - no one is saying you're wrong - there's no data (that I'm aware of at least) that can really back either view. But it's certainly interesting to throw the thought around a bit and hear some subjective opinions đź‘Ť
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Post by gregfordyce on Aug 21, 2019 13:46:07 GMT
Also another in the camp that the vast majority of people are decent - it's just that people are easily led down dark paths. Paths they walk willingly because they are made to think they're doing the right thing. The outright racist/homophobes/haters are in the minority imho - this is hard to prove (very few people will admit to being a hater). But there have been scientific studies that show that the vast majority of humans first instinct is to act selflessly... www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientists-probe-human-nature-and-discover-we-are-good-after-all/This is very interesting - thank you for sharing this story. It gives me some hope  |
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Post by gregfordyce on Aug 21, 2019 14:34:10 GMT
I realize that there have been no end of "analysis" done on Trump's mental condition at a distance by psychological professionals, but I found this particular one from Salon to be rather interesting. Here is the full interview, but I'm going to take up some space and copy down the highlights - apologies in advance for the length. How Trump's Limited Intellectual Development Has Given Him a God Complex"I and others have compared Donald Trump to Charlie Manson. He is giving his followers permission and encouragement for violence. He also leads a political cult. Do you think that is a fair read of the situation?
I agree. Donald Trump is the Charles Manson of American politics. It’s very important to see that Trump can have clean hands. He can invite other people to express his destructiveness so he doesn’t have to carry it out. For Trump, words are the equivalent of weapons. Trump does not need a gun. Words are his bullets. He enables other people to buy their own guns and fill the barrels with his tweets and just shoot people. It’s a very disturbing quality. Manson is not the only person you can use as an example here, but it is a dramatic way to get people to pay attention. I had a patient who was on the inpatient psychiatric ward. This patient used to walk down the hall, light a match and throw it over his shoulder. It became clear that he wanted to set the ward on fire, but he was going to leave it up to chance in his mind. If the match landed and went out, he’d light another match and do the same thing. It was a way of denying responsibility, psychologically, for him. That is Trump. Such behavior is the sign of what’s called a thought disorder. It’s a sign of a person who is unable to think properly. In some ways it would be much better if Trump would just say whatever horrible thing he wants to. Instead, he gets other people to do it. He then avoids responsibility. That kind of abdication of thought is what makes Donald Trump, in my opinion, unfit to be president. He wants other people to do the thinking and acting for him. It is bad enough for anybody to behave that way, but to have the president of the United States act like that is very dangerous. There is another serious problem with Donald Trump as well. When a child has hyperactive tendencies and they are untreated, a whole cycle of problems can begin. This is Trump. It limits not only his intellectual development, but these problems mean that as an adult he also can’t listen to other people. He can’t think properly. Trump doesn’t understand what people are saying. It’s not like he doesn’t agree with it. Because Trump does not understand, he therefore has to retreat to name-calling or going to his base to whip up a frenzy of activity. Donald Trump on a fundamental level does not understand complex issues. He has never had to think about or grapple with them because it makes him too anxious. This is why Donald Trump always says things such as, “I have the best words,” or “I’m the smartest person, I know things other people don’t.” Together such comments signal something extremely disturbing. As a psychoanalyst it appears to me that Donald Trump is presenting behavior of what is called “unconscious grandiosity.” Donald Trump is close to thinking that he is God. It’s called the “God complex” and it’s essentially saying, “I know more than anybody else.” At some deep level Donald Trump thinks he is the deity and he does in fact know more than anybody else. Trump believes that he is God as a manifestation of a defensive grandiosity, in order to compensate for his ignorance and not really knowing things." "How do we explain the dozens if not hundreds of hate crimes and other violence by Trump’s supporters? The SPLC and other groups have documented how Trump supporters, very often wearing Trump regalia like MAGA hats, have attacked people while chanting his name and slogans. Is this just pathology seeking out pathology?
No. Disorganized minds need another mind to help them organize their thinking, in this case to justify their expression of their anger. When a person wears one of Trump’s MAGA hats they are essentially living inside of their father. Other Trump supporters who express their loyalty in similar ways are also living inside of their mothers. The MAGA hats makes them feel like they are therefore immune from certain kinds of considerations, such as compassion for other people. This allows them to identity with a destructive aggressor. Trump has permitted and encouraged violent behavior, aggression. Trump’s MAGA hats mean, in essence, that his supporters are living inside of the president. This is very profound. It is the behavior one sees in cults. For instance, you can have a religious cult and the leader is all powerful. You submit to everything they say. When Trump says, “Don’t believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news. What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening,” George Orwell could not say that better. What Trump is saying in a basic way is, “The only way you can be safe is to be on my side and believe in me. Otherwise, you’re going to be attacked.” |
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Post by ErixonStone on Aug 23, 2019 6:25:15 GMT
Yep, it's a well known "secret" that she was self serving - her overriding primary concern was growing the church membership, *much* less interested in the people themselves. The camps for the sick and injured were just a by product of that primary mission. They were terrible places by and large - highly unsanitary with high death rates - medical observers likened them to the conditions in Nazi concentration camps. Perhaps worse, she seemed to enjoy seeing the people in pain... saw it as some sort of divine providence... and actively withheld pain relief... “There is something beautiful in seeing the poor accept their lot, to suffer it like Christ’s Passion. The world gains much from their suffering.”Funnily enough, for her medical care she went to a modern US hospital and got plenty of pain relief. It's just the poor that deserve that suffering...  She also got quite rich off the back of all her charitable donations - quite a few have questioned where all that money went - one estimate of a million pound donation by German researchers estimated that 7 per cent of it went to charity. Not to mention her standard Christian bullshit - no abortion under any cases (rape included), no birth control under any case. Let's bring more unwanted / unsupportable children into the world... so she can see them suffering I suppose. Let's fuel the aids epidemic in poor countries by insisting they don't use sexual protection. Googling "Mother Teresa was a cunt" throws up 5.6million hits.... It was not well-known; I was raised Catholic. Mother Theresa was a saint, no doubt about it in my eyes. Until about a year ago when I learned what she actually did. Today, the mention of "Mother Theresa" doesn't just represent a woman doing the best she could with the shit information she had. It represents the misinformation, the lies, the deceit and the whitewashing enacted by the Church and all of its members. This woman was dishonest and evil, but people have been lied to so that they think she was the epitome of goodness. It's emblematic of the disgusting, skewed reality in which I was raised, and it took me a very long time to discover just how deep it runs. |
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Post by paulus on Aug 23, 2019 8:45:31 GMT
It was not well-known; I was raised Catholic. Mother Theresa was a saint, no doubt about it in my eyes. Until about a year ago when I learned what she actually did. Today, the mention of "Mother Theresa" doesn't just represent a woman doing the best she could with the shit information she had. It represents the misinformation, the lies, the deceit and the whitewashing enacted by the Church and all of its members. This woman was dishonest and evil, but people have been lied to so that they think she was the epitome of goodness. It's emblematic of the disgusting, skewed reality in which I was raised, and it took me a very long time to discover just how deep it runs. Not just you I'd have thought - many people would not have known / still do not know. My "well known secret" line was some loose language, a figure of speech - I obviously don't know how many people know - so can't really make that assertion, so you're right to pull me up on it. All I really know is it's been discussed a few times over the years in my social set - which is predominantly people who have never been through the church system. |
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Post by gregfordyce on Aug 24, 2019 0:34:44 GMT
Wow. So many insane things Trump has tweeted today it's hard to keep up....
1) Trump declared that his own Fed Reserve Chairman - that HE appointed - is an enemy of the US.
2) Trump declares that the US will be better off without any trade relationship with China at ALL, despite China being our biggest trade partner.
3) Trump ORDERS US companies to stop manufacturing things in China. By Tweet. As if he truly is a dictator or has that right or power.
4) Trump ORDERS all US carriers including the US Postal Service to immediately begin searching and refusing every single package for fentanyl. Again, as if he has that right or power, and as if they could possibly do so even if they wanted to.
And of course, right after his bat-shit tweets, the market tanks and the Dow drops 400 points.
The man has completely lost it. You Trump cultists have a lot to answer for.
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Post by cliffs on Aug 24, 2019 11:57:51 GMT
I was going to post that litany of dumbass things from DT last night but I was and still am so freaking tired of his childish Bullshit, I said it wasn't worth it
Why hasn't even one repub in DC stood up and said something about this?
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Post by gregfordyce on Aug 24, 2019 12:02:32 GMT
I know. Such a bunch of spineless hypcritical sycophants. If a DEMOCRAT President had done any of that, they would be frothing at the mouth and screaming for his impeachment.
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Post by cliffs on Aug 24, 2019 13:02:06 GMT
www.politico.com/story/2019/08/24/trump-g7-gaggle-1474380In a wide-ranging press gaggle before departing for the G7 in France, President Donald Trump late Friday spoke positively of world leaders, North Korea and the economy, and said his recent remark calling himself the "chosen one" to fight China on trade was just sarcasm. Spin it just spin it.
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Post by ErixonStone on Aug 24, 2019 17:50:38 GMT
It's all a distraction. Focus on the policy which is lining the pockets of the rich while getting the poor to blame the other poor folks.
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ray
Politico
Posts: 225 
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Post by ray on Aug 25, 2019 8:47:06 GMT
I’m sure most of you would have seen this, but it’s worth 20 seconds to watch it again. youtu.be/aTuLovEFE2Q |
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Post by paulus on Aug 27, 2019 22:20:30 GMT
Here's my fave Trump video of the week... him losing at his own stupid power-handshake game... to nerdy wimpy Frenchy Macron  |
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jacobkessler
Global Moderator
Fight corruption before it's too late.
Posts: 23
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Post by jacobkessler on Aug 27, 2019 22:53:37 GMT
If only proboards had custom icons....  |
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Post by cliffs on Aug 28, 2019 0:08:36 GMT
Here's my fave Trump video of the week... him losing at his own stupid power-handshake game... to nerdy wimpy Frenchy Macron And DT did not like it...just watch his face at the end....love it. |
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