"Harry Litman's article on Trump's outlandish plan to beat the classified documents case shows us one, repetitive but predictable pattern. Trump performs victimhood to the public in order to evoke sympathy, but behind that public facade of the wronged innocent, he conspires to destroy our entire democratic system. Motivated by revenge, he hides his fantasy of outfoxing and disempowering the judicial system behind the act of the unjustly accused hero. Citizens and the media must be aware of his duplicitous plot to do all of us harm."
Dr Lee, there's a saying that "they appear to be giants because we are on our knees". I don't buy into the narrative that Trump is a master of manipulation. Actually, the environment (society & polity) has degraded to such an extent that even a MORON like Trump can swindle the system & get away with brazen criminality.
But look at this perspective. Where is the support for Trump? If this moron was so much loved by his couch potatoes MAGA dupes, there would be million man marches across American cities to protest his indictment. All we can see is few dozen idiots showing up to support Trump at FL courthouse (the FL police was prepared to handle tens of thousands of protesters, no one actually showed up!).
Trump's is about super-inflating his strength and support base. But now his support base has diminished although interestingly, the whole GOP has become more radicalized. So we have a radical party & radical leader (Trump clones) who actually have diminishing public support on the ground. My suggestion is crush the Trump machine with absolute brute force. Arrest him, deny bail, order a Psych evaluation on him, also swiftly deliver on other indictments as well (Jan 6 & fake elector plot) - Trump will crumble. I soon will write an article on realpolitik of how to best use coming opportunity.
One thing is quite obvious, Trump is getting kid glove treatment from courts. He's indicted on such serious charges that warrants immediate detentions & denial of bail. But he's allowed to do campaign rallies, roam freely, attack Jack Smith (calling him deranged), attack the prosecution & making the mockery of the system. Jurisprudence call for condition of bail depends on three things. 1) seriousness of crime 2) Accused's potential to tamper with evidence, witnesses & derailing further investigations 3) Past behavior of accused & his track record on how much he respects legal system. Trump fails on everything. A serial offender, most likely a sociopath with complete disregard to rule of law. Why court has allowed this criminal to be free? Only because US courts are failing to do the most basic duty, a moron like Trump appears to be a master manipulator (he's not).
What floors me is otherwise serious journalists saying “if he is reelected.” That should not even be conceivable, much less possible. No matter how slowly the system is acting, everyone not drinking the koolaid knows what he has done. These aren’t accusations, allegations, or persecution; he admits it all openly and proudly, and we saw it happen in real time. He is thoroughly disqualified and his reelection would be the end of the country. So why even say that, as if were something that might be impossible to prevent?
I know, right? They should be reminding every viewer, at every mention of TFG's name, that this man was impeached twice by half of the Congress who know him well, indicted twice, arraigned on serious charges of endangering national security, not to mention the deadly insurrection which endangered the lives of every duly elected official in the Capitol building and dozens of other acts of treason and subversion. Then they should ask the rhetorical question, is it safe to have a pathological liar, a man who blames everybody else and takes no responsibility for his own behavior making decisions which affect all of our lives? Don't we deserve someone who really has the capacity to care about people other than himself? Like us, for instance?
Whether Trump's guilty & whether he can be reelected are two different things. In politics, one can be a mass murderer, a terrorist, a fraudster, a serial offender etc but can still manage to win elections. This usually happens in failing states & Potemkin Democracies (like Russia, India, Turkey etc). But American institutions are traditionally strong & acting competently against Trump.
Sanjeev, I like your confidence in American, democratic institutions but Trump has been working in Putin's world for decades, doing deals, etc. Russia infected our election in 2016 ("Russia if you're listening...) and will continue the game of "destroy America." "Trump Contagion" has effected the minds of millions of Americans and Trump has groomed his cult-like followers to accept complete falsehoods as truth. I'm not as sanguine as you sound regarding the strength of our democratic institutions because of those who are driven by personal, white supremacist power and not by a desire to protect democracy. Many more millions of Americans simply believe the fabrications they hear (Q-anon?) and are easily led to believe what any manipulative candidate wants them to believe, sad to say. :(
Thanks for this. You told us this before we elected him and you are telling us again now. Modern media has degraded the mental acuity of the majority of the public. We no longer assess presentations with healthy skepticism. Instead we prefer things that provide entertainment value, titillation. Truth? Lies? Who cares, that's sooo yesterday. We are hooked on junk food for the mind.
Thanks again, Bandy, for another powerful summary of societal ignorance and denial of TFG's psychopathology, exacerbated by the APA's silencing of you and esteemed colleagues. Your books and dozens of others that fly off the shelves show that MANY people in our country want help in understanding what they, as yet, have no explanation for and no way of counteracting.
We need a campaign to get you and your colleagues back in the public eye because much of the media is treating him like just another candidate without recognizing that while he distracts the public with his cries of victimhood, he plots to further dismantle democratic institutions and disempower the entire citizenry.
Right you are, Madeline. The eye of the beholder approach to politics grotesquely misses the forest for the trees, since such a large portion of those beholders themselves are riven by mental disorder camouflaged as mere rational partisan political difference and contestation.
Yes, Ken...I agree completely. Tragically, many in the media still speak about "the differences" as if they were policy differences and not differences that result from the seriously disordered mind of one man and his easily hypnotized followers.
Dr. Lee, thank you for your work. It is sad that our society lacks the ability to grasp your clear, science based, warnings about such a dangerous individual. But it seems our social, political, and legal system prefers to normalize his repeated behaviors and deny his threat. The very people who can, but will not stop him, have found a way to profit or gain political advantage in the chaos he manufactures.
Your point about the ‘death spiral’ is well taken. And the real potential for increasing social and political violence accelerates as Trump and his enablers work to spread the Trump contagion to burn the house down.
Treating Trump as a ‘normal’ politician, or his criminal indictment as just another ‘normal’ legal action, misses the point and enables and encourages him to escalate with a sense of impunity. It will be handled as a ‘both sides’ event and endless ‘fair and unbiased’ reporting of the facts- which carefully ignore the larger dangerous reality.
Our institutions default to normalize and give the benefit of the doubt, shows that our society does not have the capacity to recognize your warnings and deal with this level of criminality and psychopathology. Which gives him many paths to slip through the boundaries of weak systems to avoid accountability as he has his whole life.
We watch with horror as society chooses to not recognize the threat or definitively deal with it while there is still time to act. Keep up the good work.
“our society does not have the capacity to recognize your warnings and deal with this level of criminality and psychopathology.”
How do we help elevate conversations about how to fix this? How do we elevate neuroscience and care for the brain from the earliest ages? Parents are Teachers Too is an effective home visiting program that supports young parents in the basics of nurturing brand new minds.
Perhaps attunement happened more easily in the multigenerational homes of folks who subsisted off the land and water, than in those working 12-16 hours a day outside the home and exhausted and stressed once they arrive at home.
How do we change our culture? Where do we start in recreating a global love for each other instead of this worshipping of material possessions, big bank accounts and power over others?
We watch in horror as the sickest of bullies murder children and destroy our only food and home. When will we figure it out? 🤷🏻♀️
Yes, Ric, you nailed the ominous and nearly irremediable reality that the principal, heretofore unacknowledged and undiagnosed psychiatric patient is that quotient of Americans who worship, cosset or otherwise acquiesce to Trump's psychotic behavior as if he were a rational and sane person. Shared psychosis indeed!
Tonight, 6/14/23, Lawrence O'Donnell interviewed Lance Dodes, psychiatrist and colleague of Dr. Lee, who contributed to The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, which Bandy edited and published in 2017. Disturbingly, Lawrence showed the book jacket but didn't give Bandy credit. However, I'm glad that he has interviewed Dr. Dodes four or five times since Trump was elected.
Tonight Dr. Dodes explained how Trump lives in a solipsistic world of his own and doesn't have the capacity to recognize others as separate from himself. To Trump other people are not independent centers of initiative with their own feelings and concerns, they are extensions of himself and valuable only if they serve his narcissistic needs. Dr. Dodes called Trump a psychopath twice, describing how, as he feels more threatened, he will reveal more of his psychopathic mind-set.
Lawrence asked Dr. Dodes if there was a psychological explanation for why Trump wanted the classified documents and Lance explained that because Trump is not in the White House anymore, having these documents would help him feel greater about himself. In other words, being in possession of things his father-the-government says he's not allowed to have, is shoring up his fragile sense of selfhood, his sense of being important. (My interpretation)
They discussed Trump's latest address to his cult-like followers which was read from a teleprompter. "They want to take away my freedom because they know I won't let them take away your freedom," Trump proclaimed. "They want to silence me because they know I will never let them silence you. I'm the only one who can save this nation because, you know, they're not coming after me, they're coming after you and I just happen to be standing in the way." To this Dr. Dodes opined that somebody else must have written those lines because whenever Trump speaks to his followers and uses the word, "you," or alludes to "the nation," he always means himself. He really means that he is going to protect himself because "they" are coming to take away HIS freedom. He doesn't nave the capacity to recognize that he, himself, has done anything that's unethical or illegal. Dr. Dodes continued to explain that since Trump is the only one who exists in his subjective universe, he maintains the delusion that he has the right to be King. Dodes directly stated that "Trump is fundamentally different from normal people." I would add that Trump feels he has the right to be centered upon because, unconsciously, he needs that experience; he psychologically needs to feel like the center of someone's attention at all times. I surmise, from the biographies I've read, that he never felt adored and centered upon at the developmentally necessary time of infancy and early toddlerhood.
I will write to Lawrence O'Donnell and commend him for his interview with Dr. Dodes, and I will suggest that we need to hear from Dr. Lee on a regular basis as the nation needs her help in navigating the dangerous effects of "Trump Contagion." Even if Trump is convicted and imprisoned, the fantasy that he has promoted, The Big Lie that he really won the election and that Biden isn't the rightful president, still infects the minds of millions of Americans. I will call the Thom Hartmann radio program and continue to write to the L.A. Times and other media and social media outlets with the same message. If so many people can be manipulated by the messages that Donald delivers, they can just as easily be manipulated by other disordered minds who are duplicitous and "different from normal people."
Excellent post and summation of Dr. Dodes's assessment, Madeline. I was also irked and disappointed that Lawrence failed to mention Bandy and concur that she needs to be a regular guest on news shows, especially on MSNBC.
Have you tried meeting with President Biden's staff to discuss this. They have federal funding and may consider providing programs, public service announcements, social media programs and education to everyone. Trump's cult members need to be involved in programs to undo his damage. I think Russian money (Putin) have aided religious groups to work on convincing people to follow Trump. I think you and your staff should discuss with President Biden's staff to develop programs to assist people to understand what is happening. Mental health programs need to be set up to treat issues from COVID, pandemic, violence and Trump!
Luv ur writings!!!! Please keep educating and informing us!! I'll be contacting my federal senator to see if he can get involved and provide any assistance. My senator has a law degree and M.Div degree. He may be able to provide some assistance. I also plan to email White House to discuss issues. Staff members do respond to emails.
Please let me know if there are any ways to get involved to provide any assistance. Thank you. Janice
Excellent synopsize of the situation, thank you for posting this. I would like to add, if I may, that there is another technological mechanism that is at play here and it is the technology that caused Havana Syndrome. It is in wide use and has been for probably decades. From my experience it has been a major factor in helping to generate Trumps personality cult, as well as many other cult situations. For instance with The lost students at Sarah Lawrence college and with NEXIUM. The technology does a lot more than cause conclusions. I would direct you to Dr James Giordano, one of the experts that helped the State Dept with the cuban embassy situation.
Some how, some way, the "media" - CNN, MSNBC, NYT, WaPo, Podcasts, etc. need to start paying more attention to people like Dr Lee and Heather Cox Richardson. They, and others like them, have warned us, and continue to warn us. Their warnings are based on facts, evidence, experience, rational thinking. We should not have to continue to live in the muck of delusions, lies, and spin. Until Donald Trump is removed, the metastatic cancer will continue to proliferate. The indictments for 1/6 and Georgia election interference need to come down quickly and definitively. You can see how the GOP are trying to justify, condone, and spin the toxin. The base is swallowing it blindly. It must be removed. He must go to jail for the rest of his life, or this country is doomed.
Thanks for this. You told us this before we elected him and you are telling us again now. Modern media has degraded the mental acuity of the majority of the public. We no longer assess presentations with healthy skepticism. Instead we prefer things that provide entertainment value, titillation. Truth? Lies? Who cares, that's sooo yesterday. We are hooked on junk food for the mind.
Excellent description of where we are! I am a psychoanalyst who has been for a number of years writing about the many and varied ways people are drawn to Trump. My work is much less about Trump's psychology and more about what within people draws them to him. He is powerful because he elicits and leverages many and varied emotions, attitudes, drives, etc. in people who then become his largely unshakeable base. I have recently set up a Substack platform The Trump Temptation which aims to unpack and explain in a simple, non jargon way these various forms of allure. I am hoping people will contribute their own ideas about this important area and especially to suggest how what I have described can help design ways to counter Trump's grip on the American mind. Dr. Alan Krohn
For years now, I have been experiencing the sinking, reality-informed feeling that America is on a similar trajectory to that of 1920s-30s Germany, a nation that was also a democracy whose government and people choked from fear that trying to effectively stop Hitler's ascension to power would merely accelerate his momentum toward that objective. Lamentably for Germany and 6 million Jews and others, that fear merely produced the opposite of its intended effect, virtually catapulting Hitler into power through mass cognitive dissonance and its partners of silence and cowardice. A eerily similar scenario unfolds in America as we speak.
Can genuinely patriotic Americans bite the bullet and marshal the critical mass of requisite moral courage before they and their nation bite the dust?
You are 100% correct! I have no doubt about it. He doesn’t care about Democrats or Republicans. He’s not going down alone. It’s absolutely no joke, he’s going to take the country down with him.
My letter to the L.A. Times:
"Harry Litman's article on Trump's outlandish plan to beat the classified documents case shows us one, repetitive but predictable pattern. Trump performs victimhood to the public in order to evoke sympathy, but behind that public facade of the wronged innocent, he conspires to destroy our entire democratic system. Motivated by revenge, he hides his fantasy of outfoxing and disempowering the judicial system behind the act of the unjustly accused hero. Citizens and the media must be aware of his duplicitous plot to do all of us harm."
Dr Lee, there's a saying that "they appear to be giants because we are on our knees". I don't buy into the narrative that Trump is a master of manipulation. Actually, the environment (society & polity) has degraded to such an extent that even a MORON like Trump can swindle the system & get away with brazen criminality.
But look at this perspective. Where is the support for Trump? If this moron was so much loved by his couch potatoes MAGA dupes, there would be million man marches across American cities to protest his indictment. All we can see is few dozen idiots showing up to support Trump at FL courthouse (the FL police was prepared to handle tens of thousands of protesters, no one actually showed up!).
Trump's is about super-inflating his strength and support base. But now his support base has diminished although interestingly, the whole GOP has become more radicalized. So we have a radical party & radical leader (Trump clones) who actually have diminishing public support on the ground. My suggestion is crush the Trump machine with absolute brute force. Arrest him, deny bail, order a Psych evaluation on him, also swiftly deliver on other indictments as well (Jan 6 & fake elector plot) - Trump will crumble. I soon will write an article on realpolitik of how to best use coming opportunity.
One thing is quite obvious, Trump is getting kid glove treatment from courts. He's indicted on such serious charges that warrants immediate detentions & denial of bail. But he's allowed to do campaign rallies, roam freely, attack Jack Smith (calling him deranged), attack the prosecution & making the mockery of the system. Jurisprudence call for condition of bail depends on three things. 1) seriousness of crime 2) Accused's potential to tamper with evidence, witnesses & derailing further investigations 3) Past behavior of accused & his track record on how much he respects legal system. Trump fails on everything. A serial offender, most likely a sociopath with complete disregard to rule of law. Why court has allowed this criminal to be free? Only because US courts are failing to do the most basic duty, a moron like Trump appears to be a master manipulator (he's not).
What floors me is otherwise serious journalists saying “if he is reelected.” That should not even be conceivable, much less possible. No matter how slowly the system is acting, everyone not drinking the koolaid knows what he has done. These aren’t accusations, allegations, or persecution; he admits it all openly and proudly, and we saw it happen in real time. He is thoroughly disqualified and his reelection would be the end of the country. So why even say that, as if were something that might be impossible to prevent?
I know, right? They should be reminding every viewer, at every mention of TFG's name, that this man was impeached twice by half of the Congress who know him well, indicted twice, arraigned on serious charges of endangering national security, not to mention the deadly insurrection which endangered the lives of every duly elected official in the Capitol building and dozens of other acts of treason and subversion. Then they should ask the rhetorical question, is it safe to have a pathological liar, a man who blames everybody else and takes no responsibility for his own behavior making decisions which affect all of our lives? Don't we deserve someone who really has the capacity to care about people other than himself? Like us, for instance?
Whether Trump's guilty & whether he can be reelected are two different things. In politics, one can be a mass murderer, a terrorist, a fraudster, a serial offender etc but can still manage to win elections. This usually happens in failing states & Potemkin Democracies (like Russia, India, Turkey etc). But American institutions are traditionally strong & acting competently against Trump.
Sanjeev, I like your confidence in American, democratic institutions but Trump has been working in Putin's world for decades, doing deals, etc. Russia infected our election in 2016 ("Russia if you're listening...) and will continue the game of "destroy America." "Trump Contagion" has effected the minds of millions of Americans and Trump has groomed his cult-like followers to accept complete falsehoods as truth. I'm not as sanguine as you sound regarding the strength of our democratic institutions because of those who are driven by personal, white supremacist power and not by a desire to protect democracy. Many more millions of Americans simply believe the fabrications they hear (Q-anon?) and are easily led to believe what any manipulative candidate wants them to believe, sad to say. :(
Thanks for this. You told us this before we elected him and you are telling us again now. Modern media has degraded the mental acuity of the majority of the public. We no longer assess presentations with healthy skepticism. Instead we prefer things that provide entertainment value, titillation. Truth? Lies? Who cares, that's sooo yesterday. We are hooked on junk food for the mind.
Thanks again, Bandy, for another powerful summary of societal ignorance and denial of TFG's psychopathology, exacerbated by the APA's silencing of you and esteemed colleagues. Your books and dozens of others that fly off the shelves show that MANY people in our country want help in understanding what they, as yet, have no explanation for and no way of counteracting.
We need a campaign to get you and your colleagues back in the public eye because much of the media is treating him like just another candidate without recognizing that while he distracts the public with his cries of victimhood, he plots to further dismantle democratic institutions and disempower the entire citizenry.
Right you are, Madeline. The eye of the beholder approach to politics grotesquely misses the forest for the trees, since such a large portion of those beholders themselves are riven by mental disorder camouflaged as mere rational partisan political difference and contestation.
Yes, Ken...I agree completely. Tragically, many in the media still speak about "the differences" as if they were policy differences and not differences that result from the seriously disordered mind of one man and his easily hypnotized followers.
Dr. Lee, thank you for your work. It is sad that our society lacks the ability to grasp your clear, science based, warnings about such a dangerous individual. But it seems our social, political, and legal system prefers to normalize his repeated behaviors and deny his threat. The very people who can, but will not stop him, have found a way to profit or gain political advantage in the chaos he manufactures.
Your point about the ‘death spiral’ is well taken. And the real potential for increasing social and political violence accelerates as Trump and his enablers work to spread the Trump contagion to burn the house down.
Treating Trump as a ‘normal’ politician, or his criminal indictment as just another ‘normal’ legal action, misses the point and enables and encourages him to escalate with a sense of impunity. It will be handled as a ‘both sides’ event and endless ‘fair and unbiased’ reporting of the facts- which carefully ignore the larger dangerous reality.
Our institutions default to normalize and give the benefit of the doubt, shows that our society does not have the capacity to recognize your warnings and deal with this level of criminality and psychopathology. Which gives him many paths to slip through the boundaries of weak systems to avoid accountability as he has his whole life.
We watch with horror as society chooses to not recognize the threat or definitively deal with it while there is still time to act. Keep up the good work.
Ricord Winstead, MD (retired Family Medicine)
“our society does not have the capacity to recognize your warnings and deal with this level of criminality and psychopathology.”
How do we help elevate conversations about how to fix this? How do we elevate neuroscience and care for the brain from the earliest ages? Parents are Teachers Too is an effective home visiting program that supports young parents in the basics of nurturing brand new minds.
Perhaps attunement happened more easily in the multigenerational homes of folks who subsisted off the land and water, than in those working 12-16 hours a day outside the home and exhausted and stressed once they arrive at home.
How do we change our culture? Where do we start in recreating a global love for each other instead of this worshipping of material possessions, big bank accounts and power over others?
We watch in horror as the sickest of bullies murder children and destroy our only food and home. When will we figure it out? 🤷🏻♀️
Beautifully written, Ric, and well-said!
Yes, Ric, you nailed the ominous and nearly irremediable reality that the principal, heretofore unacknowledged and undiagnosed psychiatric patient is that quotient of Americans who worship, cosset or otherwise acquiesce to Trump's psychotic behavior as if he were a rational and sane person. Shared psychosis indeed!
Tonight, 6/14/23, Lawrence O'Donnell interviewed Lance Dodes, psychiatrist and colleague of Dr. Lee, who contributed to The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, which Bandy edited and published in 2017. Disturbingly, Lawrence showed the book jacket but didn't give Bandy credit. However, I'm glad that he has interviewed Dr. Dodes four or five times since Trump was elected.
Tonight Dr. Dodes explained how Trump lives in a solipsistic world of his own and doesn't have the capacity to recognize others as separate from himself. To Trump other people are not independent centers of initiative with their own feelings and concerns, they are extensions of himself and valuable only if they serve his narcissistic needs. Dr. Dodes called Trump a psychopath twice, describing how, as he feels more threatened, he will reveal more of his psychopathic mind-set.
Lawrence asked Dr. Dodes if there was a psychological explanation for why Trump wanted the classified documents and Lance explained that because Trump is not in the White House anymore, having these documents would help him feel greater about himself. In other words, being in possession of things his father-the-government says he's not allowed to have, is shoring up his fragile sense of selfhood, his sense of being important. (My interpretation)
They discussed Trump's latest address to his cult-like followers which was read from a teleprompter. "They want to take away my freedom because they know I won't let them take away your freedom," Trump proclaimed. "They want to silence me because they know I will never let them silence you. I'm the only one who can save this nation because, you know, they're not coming after me, they're coming after you and I just happen to be standing in the way." To this Dr. Dodes opined that somebody else must have written those lines because whenever Trump speaks to his followers and uses the word, "you," or alludes to "the nation," he always means himself. He really means that he is going to protect himself because "they" are coming to take away HIS freedom. He doesn't nave the capacity to recognize that he, himself, has done anything that's unethical or illegal. Dr. Dodes continued to explain that since Trump is the only one who exists in his subjective universe, he maintains the delusion that he has the right to be King. Dodes directly stated that "Trump is fundamentally different from normal people." I would add that Trump feels he has the right to be centered upon because, unconsciously, he needs that experience; he psychologically needs to feel like the center of someone's attention at all times. I surmise, from the biographies I've read, that he never felt adored and centered upon at the developmentally necessary time of infancy and early toddlerhood.
I will write to Lawrence O'Donnell and commend him for his interview with Dr. Dodes, and I will suggest that we need to hear from Dr. Lee on a regular basis as the nation needs her help in navigating the dangerous effects of "Trump Contagion." Even if Trump is convicted and imprisoned, the fantasy that he has promoted, The Big Lie that he really won the election and that Biden isn't the rightful president, still infects the minds of millions of Americans. I will call the Thom Hartmann radio program and continue to write to the L.A. Times and other media and social media outlets with the same message. If so many people can be manipulated by the messages that Donald delivers, they can just as easily be manipulated by other disordered minds who are duplicitous and "different from normal people."
Excellent post and summation of Dr. Dodes's assessment, Madeline. I was also irked and disappointed that Lawrence failed to mention Bandy and concur that she needs to be a regular guest on news shows, especially on MSNBC.
Dr. Lee,.
Have you tried meeting with President Biden's staff to discuss this. They have federal funding and may consider providing programs, public service announcements, social media programs and education to everyone. Trump's cult members need to be involved in programs to undo his damage. I think Russian money (Putin) have aided religious groups to work on convincing people to follow Trump. I think you and your staff should discuss with President Biden's staff to develop programs to assist people to understand what is happening. Mental health programs need to be set up to treat issues from COVID, pandemic, violence and Trump!
Luv ur writings!!!! Please keep educating and informing us!! I'll be contacting my federal senator to see if he can get involved and provide any assistance. My senator has a law degree and M.Div degree. He may be able to provide some assistance. I also plan to email White House to discuss issues. Staff members do respond to emails.
Please let me know if there are any ways to get involved to provide any assistance. Thank you. Janice
What an excellent summary of should've done this and that, but didn't. And now, what do you propose?
I have tremendous respect for you and your work Ms. Lee. Thank you. Thank you Thank you.
Oops. DR. Lee. No disrespect intended. You are esteemed.
Excellent synopsize of the situation, thank you for posting this. I would like to add, if I may, that there is another technological mechanism that is at play here and it is the technology that caused Havana Syndrome. It is in wide use and has been for probably decades. From my experience it has been a major factor in helping to generate Trumps personality cult, as well as many other cult situations. For instance with The lost students at Sarah Lawrence college and with NEXIUM. The technology does a lot more than cause conclusions. I would direct you to Dr James Giordano, one of the experts that helped the State Dept with the cuban embassy situation.
Some how, some way, the "media" - CNN, MSNBC, NYT, WaPo, Podcasts, etc. need to start paying more attention to people like Dr Lee and Heather Cox Richardson. They, and others like them, have warned us, and continue to warn us. Their warnings are based on facts, evidence, experience, rational thinking. We should not have to continue to live in the muck of delusions, lies, and spin. Until Donald Trump is removed, the metastatic cancer will continue to proliferate. The indictments for 1/6 and Georgia election interference need to come down quickly and definitively. You can see how the GOP are trying to justify, condone, and spin the toxin. The base is swallowing it blindly. It must be removed. He must go to jail for the rest of his life, or this country is doomed.
Thanks for this. You told us this before we elected him and you are telling us again now. Modern media has degraded the mental acuity of the majority of the public. We no longer assess presentations with healthy skepticism. Instead we prefer things that provide entertainment value, titillation. Truth? Lies? Who cares, that's sooo yesterday. We are hooked on junk food for the mind.
Dr. Lee and other readers,
Excellent description of where we are! I am a psychoanalyst who has been for a number of years writing about the many and varied ways people are drawn to Trump. My work is much less about Trump's psychology and more about what within people draws them to him. He is powerful because he elicits and leverages many and varied emotions, attitudes, drives, etc. in people who then become his largely unshakeable base. I have recently set up a Substack platform The Trump Temptation which aims to unpack and explain in a simple, non jargon way these various forms of allure. I am hoping people will contribute their own ideas about this important area and especially to suggest how what I have described can help design ways to counter Trump's grip on the American mind. Dr. Alan Krohn
For years now, I have been experiencing the sinking, reality-informed feeling that America is on a similar trajectory to that of 1920s-30s Germany, a nation that was also a democracy whose government and people choked from fear that trying to effectively stop Hitler's ascension to power would merely accelerate his momentum toward that objective. Lamentably for Germany and 6 million Jews and others, that fear merely produced the opposite of its intended effect, virtually catapulting Hitler into power through mass cognitive dissonance and its partners of silence and cowardice. A eerily similar scenario unfolds in America as we speak.
Can genuinely patriotic Americans bite the bullet and marshal the critical mass of requisite moral courage before they and their nation bite the dust?
You are 100% correct! I have no doubt about it. He doesn’t care about Democrats or Republicans. He’s not going down alone. It’s absolutely no joke, he’s going to take the country down with him.
So true, 200 percent!