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Why Trump "Doesn't Remember" What He Just Said Or Did. [1]
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Date: 2025-02-28
Trump is a sociopath. He lies like he breathes.
I have, unfortunately, worked for more than one sociopath.
They have a real cute trick.
They will issue an obnoxious and time-wasting order, or make an offensive statement. [And yes, they know it’s obnoxious, time-wasting, offensive; that’s the whole point.]
When you obey the order, or follow up on the statement, they will act all astonished and insist, with an absolutely straight face, that they never said any such thing. [Really prizewinning sociopaths will then try to berate and administratively punish you for doing precisely what they demanded. Does this sound like abuse? It should, because it is. Contemplate what that implies about abusers.]
If you happen to have proof that they did indeed say or do the thing [I used to send contemporaneous documenting emails to these sociopaths, CCing myself, reiterating the orders or repeating the offensive statements as direct quotes clearly attributed to them],
they will act all astonished and confused, and claim that they have no recollection of ever saying or doing the thing.
It’s an act. It’s always an act.
They said the thing, they did the thing, and they know it.
They’re gaslighting you.
This is Sociopathy 101.
We have had eight years and change, now, to figure this out.
Let’s.
Because this is a tactic. As long as we are staring bewildered at each other and at him, as long as we’re convinced he’s on the decline and will soon just dissolve into a puddle of ranting non sequiturs, we don’t understand the problem, and we can’t effectively solve problems we don’t understand.
Once we have faced and admit that a third of us managed to put a sociopath into the highest office in this land, TWICE, even if they were assisted by other sociopaths each time,
At least we know we’re dealing with sociopaths, singly or in groups.
And we can stop pretending they’re a self-solving problem, or that one day, like Trump’s COVID, they’ll just magically disappear.
And we can figure out what to do about this. You’ll note that the people who are already figuring things out seem to know they’re dealing with sociopaths…
Hint: I have no intention of discussing any solutions in comments or elsewhere that are not prosocial. I can’t flag those comments, because rules; but others can and should.
Second hint: history will show us which prosocial solutions have been effective.
That includes the Abolitionist movement, the Women’s Suffrage movement, the Labor movement, and the Civil Rights movement here, analogous movements abroad, various colonies gaining their independence worldwide through centuries, and even the consolidation of nation-states [seriously, go read about a guy named Garibaldi].
The history of successful interventions to stop and prevent abuse also has MUCH to teach us, largely from other cultures. [Our own culture is still inherently abusive, which does a lot to explain the people who vote for Trump. And our own eagerness to fixate on antisocial solutions. Quit admiring Le Terroir, hold your nose and read about DeGaulle. Roosevelt and Churchill couldn’t stand him, but it’s hard to dispute his accomplishments.]
Third hint: our neighbor to the north, O Canada, is about to give us an excellent lab demo on prosocial ways of dealing with abusive sociopaths. Compare their tactics to our ideas, once we have some good examples. A fine collection of increasingly alienated former allies will be preparing similar lessons. Hopefully these will include some form of “Radio Free America” or “Voice of The EC”, or “NATO Today”; because we’re going to need them. And yes, the Beeb and CBC have done some of this all along.
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Hi. Besides not engaging in discussion of solutions, responses etc. that aren’t prosocial, I’m also not going to argue about terminology. I know that “sociopath” is the layperson’s term and “psychopath” is the official diagnostic term. I’m not officially qualified to diagnose psychopaths. But I don’t have to be; I know a sociopath when I see one. I worked for enough of ‘em.
I also know that taking [or fabricating] a side issue and trying to make it the main issue is a dandy way of derailing conversations and preventing constructive discussion. We call this a “pie fight” and think it’s a cute eccentricity. It’s a blocking tactic. We need to understand that, because we need to stop being played.
Speaking of which, spraying word salad at random is another sociopathic tactic. Trump does this all the time, and it’s not the dementia symptom we’d like it to be. Yes I do think he is failing, but he’s still using the standard tricks. The point is always to keep the “pigeons” guessing.
We’re the pigeons. Heed the message.
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