Every single one of us has dark thoughts - thoughts of violence, thoughts of hate, thoughts of committing crimes or other amoral or illegal behavior. These thoughts are a fundamental part of being human. (*)
But, we also have inhibition centers in the brain which prevent us from carrying out those thoughts.
The inhibitions may be due to social norms or religious pressure.
The inhibitions may be due to legal pressure (so, if it wasn't a crime, you'd do it, but, since it is a crime, you don't because the penalty is worse than the gain of doing the act).
The inhibitions may be due to an instinctive more or empathic sense.
The bottom line is that inhibitions normally exist which prevent us from saying or doing various dark acts and part of that is because of the penalties we must pay if we say or do them.
The problem with Trump is that he has narcissistic personality disorder. He doesn't have many of the same inhibitions like normal people do. For instance, he will easily commit adultery or sexual assault. He will easily refuse payment to vendors he owes money to. He will easily cheat on taxes or business dealings.
And, because he is a public persona for decades and __has_gotten_away_with_this_dark_behavior_without_penalty_, he has become an icon for others to disregard their inhibitions... that the prices they believe that they would pay for their dark acts are something they really don't have to pay.
So, for example...
It _is_ OK to lie to people.
It _is_ OK to cheat in relationships or business.
It _is_ OK to be hostile to others.
and
It _is_ OK to attack the US Capitol to prevent the lawful change of the Presidency.
In other words, he has become both a leader and an icon for dark behavior.
In a way, he is Pandora - he opened up a box of darkness in many people and now they act instead of being inhibited from those acts like they were before Trump.
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Trump is not all to blame though.
His GOP acolytes who echo his behavior are equally bad because they are showing that it is OK to be like Trump - to be dark and get away with it.
Also, though, simply the Internet and social media do not help. It brings out the darkness in all of us because the costs of bad behavior online are not nearly the same as bad behavior in person.
Case in point: Trolls and almost everyone who posts as Anonymous here. Why do they post as Anonymous? Because they don't want to deal with the repercussions of what they say - repercussions they would have to accept if they weren't Anonymous. So, the darkness flows from their minds and hearts because they can with little penalty.
Have you ever had a friend or a brother or sister and get a new friend and basically they start acting like that person in so many different ways you can't blame Trump for being who he is but you can blame people for wanting to be like him If people really did their homework on Trump you received that he has lost money after money after money it was his right-hand man George who brought Trump back a couple different times and then Trump fired him brought it back fired him again brought him back every time Trump needed to get out of a hole did he put himself in give me bring back George George to do it anyway there's a lot of people looking for something in life out there their followers the week and they need something to be apart of something and other people and since everybody is what is to be like Trump it's their fault it's also parents nowadays do not know how to raise kids I didn't even have parents and I'll tell you what parents of today's suck you're selfish just like Trump I don't even want to get into it no you can just blame politicians okay let me lay this out for you we have been sold out whether republican-democrat whoever they have sold us out America is not going to be America anymore we join NATO so so Watch What Happens in time United States becomes NATO do you want to get rid of all of our cops in all of our cities because they want their own Army to control us there's six businesses big businesses that run the United States these guys are trying to get it in control of everything that's who runs NATO there was one man that knows what's going on and that's Putin Putin says fuck you rush is going to be Russia and you're not going to get control of my people I don't want anything to do with NATO because it's a takeover of every country Putin is fighting I don't like anything Putin has done but he's one of the Smart Ones he knows what's going to happen and he doesn't want his people to be under NATO's rule under their thumb that's what America should have done to but we sold out we the American people didn't sell out it's the people that we hire to watch out for us to watch for our best interests China owns all of our national parks NATO has already moved people here if Biden keeps moving people more and more people in see he doesn't care because he knows NATO will take over and run us all you know that they have okay so I'm talking in a big circle I know you don't understand this but anyway here's the deal we are all going to go broke we are all going to run out of food Biden keeps allowing more and more people come in because it doesn't even matter NATO will be running America and every other country except for Russia Putin says fuck you I want my people to be free gas gas and food prices will keep going up there won't be any food pretty soon if you've noticed your food goes bad faster after you buy it I know I sound like a conspiracy person but I'm really not pay attention to everything that's going on that's all I have to say
No, he isn't. For one, everyone makes their own choices. For two, trump did not spew hate, he was just blunt and a lot of pansies didn't like it, especially the democratic party that he called out multiple times on their hypocrisy and their teeter tottering on some really important issues, simply to please the masses and get votes.
Sometimes politicians need to make decisions that people don't like. That's supposed to be their job as federal workers. And a lot of people didn't like Trump's decisions, but they seem to forget how much it actually helped the country.
The federal government's job is to work with state governments, not rule over them. That's the whole point of democracy and trump was the first president in years who pointed that shit out to democratic dismay.
I'm not even Republican and I voted for the guy. You can't blame a single person for an entire mass of people's actions, thoughts, feelings, and opinions.
I could swear you have the names mixed up. Everything you wrote about Trump needs to be changed from Trump to Biden. Biden hates American's! But he loves illegals. Why? Because he wants to make sure the democrats stay in the White House. This all a scheme. He is obsessed with winning and seeing that democrats win that he will do anything, and I mean anything. That's what obsession does to a person, even Joe Biden.
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BLM started in 2013. Obama was president then. Trump was elected in 2016. He never got to accomplish anything outside of twitter really as his entire presidency was spent being indicted. Literally any decision he tried to make was hobbled, and not just by democrats, republicans threw him under the bus and beat him down too.
He got to meet with other leaders, and talk on twitter. What concrete thing, besides preparing to build a wall, not being able to, and getting the building materials stolen, can you think of that trump did?
I blame both parties for escalating rhetoric and the internet for making it easier to dehumanize other people and their points of view. I also blame the people who get hoodwinked by it and carry out violence, pushing that wedge and divide deeper between ideologies, sex, and race.
Whatever, everything has a rubber band effect, this one will be horrendous. You can't stop people from hating, you can authorize police, national guard, PMC, and others to not be penalized, or actively encouraged, to pursuing a stop to the escalating crime though. That would be interesting.
u And there is no hate coming from the left? You aren't old enough to remember the 2000 election and all of the hate that spewed from Democrats when they lost that race.
If you want to point the finger at just one side of the political spectrum, then you are merely fanning the flames of that fire!
The hatred was absolutely coming from left-wing news sources/communities. Even before he took office there was admission of attempts to remove him from office. And largely, Trump's abrasiveness came after he received such unfounded hate from the left.
I mean, nobody hated Trump before he said he was running as a Republican. Trump was on The View and the interactions between him and the cast was not hateful. Joy Behar even openly referred to him as her friend. Fast forward to during his presidency, what did Joy Behar and the view have to say about Trump? Positive, friendly things? No. Hateful, firm opposition. Before his presidency, you have a bunch of black rappers taking photos with him. During his presidency, you have a bunch of people calling him racist.
Did Trump just randomly flip a switch one day and say "yeah, I'm done with my current way of life. I'm actually just going to become a mean, racist Republican." Or perhaps are Republicans simply treated poorly and unfairly by the left, and Trump isn't the type of person to bow down and take it? Perhaps the left just uses "racist!" as some childish attempt to discredit their adversaries.
He is partly to blame, but Democrats and liberals are just as guilty as Trump and his followers because they use things like racism as a political tool to divide Americans and keep them angry at Republicans in order to garner votes.
The best way we can get rid of or minimize racism is to stop trying to find it where it doesn't exist. Take for example the claim that blacks are killed at the hands of police at a higher rate than whites, which is completely false. I highly recommend a podcast by Sam Harris (a liberal) in which he lays out all the facts about this issue and others and how guilty Democrats are of fanning the flames of racism in an effort to divide Americans and keep racism alive for the purpose of political gain.
https://www.samharris.org/blog/can-pull-back-brink
I also recommend another of his podcasts in which he interviews John McWhorter, a black American professor at Columbia University, and a liberal, about the issue of racism in America. It's fascinating and spot on.
https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/217-new-religion-anti-racism
Is Trump guilty of fanning the flames of hate in America? Yep. Are liberals every bit as guilty? Absolutely.
If you look back at our past Presidents, you can see a pattern that existed until Trump. Prior to Trump, the half of the nation that voted for the other guy would at least afford the President the respect due the office. I wasn't happy either time Obama won, but I respected his position and hoped he would do good. That ideology went out the window when Trump was elected. All the hate began with a lie claiming that Trump had colluded and stole the election. This was not true; in fact it was recently discovered that a lawyer with the Clinton campaign lied to the FBI to initially start the investigation on Trump. If you want to know where the blame lies, look no further than who was hated, and who fanned the flames. I recall countless stories that occurred almost weekly, all revealing another Trump crime, all claiming to have evidence, individual one and Ukraine and on and on, none of it was true. If you doubt this, then you would believe that, in spite of hundreds if not thousands of violations of the law, a crack team of investigators hellbent on removing Trump from office were unable to find a single piece of evidence to prosecute any of these alleged crimes. So either Trump is the luckiest man in the world, or it was all fabricated to manipulate half of the nation into hating Trump, but not just hating him, they convinced these people to loathe Trump, to outright reject him and everything he did or would ever do, before he even did it and without any thought or consideration. Not only did they encourage disrespect due the office, but they had given the nation a greenlight to hate Trump far beyond what any sitting President had endured. People have argued this point, but in the end they have no ground to stand on. There has never been a President so hated that people wanted him removed by ANY MEANS NECESSARY UP TO AND INCLUDING HIS DEATH.
Which team was cheering on Antifa and BLM rioters? Which team allowed the Portland riots to continue for 6 years? Which team welcomed terrorists to set up shop in Seattle? Which team is letting criminals out of jail? Which team doesn't want voter ID?
Which team wants open borders?
Trump isn't to blame for the atmosphere in America. Hate, prejudice, racism, sexism and more were all present before he was president. The only thing Trump DID do was make it OK to spew more venom. That's all he's responsible for.
Tucker Carlson does the same thing and I'm sure there are others.
Those who make it acceptable to speak against others because they're a different religion, race or country don't uphold the founding values of liberty and justice for all. Saying a country is inferior or the people from it are criminals is wrong. But Trump has referred to Mexico and its people in this manner and to an African country like this.
Encouraging hate, suspicion and prejudice are equivalent to blatantly acting prejudiced in person toward the people you're referring to.
It's sad he's so limited and blind and that so many listen to him.
Absolutely not. One person cannot "make" another person hate anyone. People are responsible for their own words and actions. There are a lot of people who hate Trump so much that they want to make him responsible for everything and anything that goes wrong in the world! This is called "Trump derangement syndrome." They were parading and chanting "Not my president" they day he was inaugurated, before he had even DONE anything, for heavens' sake! It is simply not rational. Do you like what we've got now better? I don't.
Nope. People were already degenerates before he came around lol. And now Biden amplifies it. When Biden got elected i wondered why the fuck so many people had faith in him and i thought "eh, eventually they'll see they were wrong" and now approval ratings for him are steadily going down.
Not defending him, but don't put this on Trump.
Hate was already here in America.
All Trump did was give it a mouthpiece to his benefit, no more or less.
They like Trump because he was the first person in a suit in D. C. to say what he really feels and say it with his chest, damn the consequences.
And when called out on it? Double down.
Regardless of whether people agree/disagree with him, Saying how you feel in your own words in a PC environment is going to resonate. People are frustrated and unheard. He gave voice when saying how they feel gets them ridiculed.
Good question, I hope more respond.
I'm not a Trump fan but, from my perspective, most of the hate came from Democrats who lost their shit when megalomaniacal, mass murdering, psychopath, mob boss Hillary lost. Actually, it started with Obama.
She's the one who called half the country "deplorables". And Democrats branded anyone who didn't accept their agenda with names like neo-Nazi, homophobe, white supremacist, racist, even when those characterizations were unfounded.
They were unrelenting in engaging in spin, outright lies, character assassination and name calling. They refused to unite the country.
So I blame the Democrats for stirring hatred and divisiveness.
Not completely. Republican's as a whole are. They are the party of hate. Anything different from them they hate. Kind of funny that Republican's want to "deport" everyone when every single non-Native American is an immigrant in this country. The entire party needs to be wiped from this planet.
Take a look at the poorest States in America, then see who represents them all... Republican's. They drive this country into the shitter. Then the Democrat's have to come in and save everything.
No, it was there before Trump. I saw it under Obama, all Trump did was give people confidence to speak out rather than hide it.
Liberals during Obama's years had their head in the sand, ignoring the rest problems and just expecting conservatives to take it and move on.
People hated each other long before he was in office and hated each other for many of the same reasons before America was even founded. Also you can't really say that he inspired hate without being hypocritical if you are unwilling to admit that both sides of the isle have a long standing history of inspiring hatred and division. Simply because calling out your opposed side of the isle for doing the same thing your side of the isle is doing is extremely hypocritical. Then again I'm one of those crazy people that thinks both sides of the isle need to police themselves more. Because it would quickly stop both sides from being as hypocritical as they are.
Not true at all, hate has always been in society. If anyone fanned the flames of political and racial hatred it was Barack Obama. Trump loves his country, created jobs, stimulated America to be energy independent, improved trade agreements, lowered black unemployment to historic low levels. That’s why I voted for him twice, and why he was elected twice
Trump definitely lowered the bar, basically to the point of burying it into the ground. The president of the United States is supposed to be its first diplomat. Trump with his misogyny, xenophobia, arrogance and aggression suddenly represented the crazy uncle or unhinged neighbor that just says anything aloud. I am not surprised the fringe elements in the population feel emboldened after four years of this freak show.
Please stop drinking the mass media Kool aide. Hate has always existed and will sadly continue to exist. However society has progressed greatly in the last few decades. If you want to see real hate, racism, homophobia, sexism etc take a time warp to the 1950s.
Trumps personality was definitely off putting but he spoke his mind and called out a lot of far left bullshit that is going on in society. Not to say he was always right. He often said lots of stupid ass crap but he had the balls to speak his mind.
One thing most people conveniently forget is Trump was once an atypical Democrat leftist celebrity. He used to party with Al Sharpton. He then saw how out of control the left was getting, stood up to it and found a niche. He really does love this country.
The media and leftist wackos told you Trump was dividing America and you brainwashed morons automatically fell in step. You hatred and disdain for him and his supporters overshadow you common sense and ability to think clearly! Trump is as much to blame for the division in this country as you are. The rhetoric from the left and media is NONSTOP! Biden calls for the nation to unite, two minutes later he calls anyone that supports Trump a white supremacist. Fuck off!!
Lmaooo no. Democrats weaponized hate for multiple elections before Trump. It was Biden who said "he wants to put y'all back in chains" in the election against Romney.
Trump was just the first Republican to use it back against them, which is why he won. It was refreshing and Hillary was unlikable
u No. Barack Obama was incredibly aggressive and sleazy with his rhetoric. He was just more polished and smug about it than Trump was. Trump was the Republicans' response. Sure, it had been building up for decades, but the last 15 years has been the real boiling point.
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