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posted by janrinok on Monday November 14 2016, @09:17PM   Printer-friendly
from the not-a-different-president dept.

I've come across an article on The Atlantic that analyses Trump's personality:

Many questions have arisen about Trump during this campaign season—about his platform, his knowledge of issues, his inflammatory language, his level of comfort with political violence. This article touches on some of that. But its central aim is to create a psychological portrait of the man. Who is he, really? How does his mind work? How might he go about making decisions in office, were he to become president? And what does all that suggest about the sort of president he'd be?

It's a long, but very interesting read.

Here's a list of sentences the article itself highlights:

Combined with a gift for humor, anger lies at the heart of Trump's charisma.

Trump appeals to an ancient fear of contagion, which analogizes out-groups to parasites and poisons.

Narcissism in presidents is a double-edged sword. It is associated with historians' ratings of "greatness"—but also with impeachment resolutions.

Andrew Jackson displayed many of the same psychological qualities that we see in Trump.

Trump has never forgotten the lesson from his father: The world is a dangerous place. You have to be ready to fight.

And the final paragraph summarizes:

Who, really, is Donald Trump? What's behind the actor's mask? I can discern little more than narcissistic motivations and a complementary personal narrative about winning at any cost. It is as if Trump has invested so much of himself in developing and refining his socially dominant role that he has nothing left over to create a meaningful story for his life, or for the nation. It is always Donald Trump playing Donald Trump, fighting to win, but never knowing why.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 14 2016, @09:22PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 14 2016, @09:22PM (#426665)

    The Murican People done elected Trump and he can be as crazy as we want him to be.

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 14 2016, @09:28PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 14 2016, @09:28PM (#426668)

    Indeed. On the crazy meter he clocks in at "batshit insane". The next four years are going to be very rough.

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 14 2016, @09:34PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 14 2016, @09:34PM (#426675)

      He's not insane, just so narcissistic he says whatever is convenient. Pathological liar who cares so little about each discussion he probably has no recollection of he actually has said. Maybe he's secretly the Russian's Manchurian Candidate?

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 14 2016, @09:41PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 14 2016, @09:41PM (#426679)

      On the crazy meter he clocks in at "batshit insane".

      But isn't the gist of the article (which I haven't read) that all bets(bats) are off on what will happen, next? Batshit insane, apparently, was rather helpful in winning the elections, but now that this feat is complete, will it be continued crazyness, or just your regular republican agenda?

      Muerican white male: Person who trusts a billionaire to not be part of the establishment...

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by jmorris on Tuesday November 15 2016, @01:50AM

        by jmorris (4844) on Tuesday November 15 2016, @01:50AM (#426802)

        Person who trusts a billionaire to not be part of the establishment...

        I trust it when THEY don't consider him one of them, and haven't ever considered him such. I think it is very possible he has always hated them for that snub, for being new rich from the wrong part of NYC. And that he will now pay them ALL back with interest.

        I wanted SMOD, I settled for Trump because in the end there is a very real chance he will cause about as much damage. I'd like to think he could defeat the establishment, that he could Make America Great Again. Hell, every oddsmaker said he couldn't possibly get this far so maybe he can and I'll cheer him on and raise money to erect statues of him when he is done. But the far more likely scenario is the establish burns it all down rather than allow control to escape them. That works too. Because until this sick and diseased society is cleared away the rebuilding phase can't begin and the longer we postpone the burn the worse it is going to be when it finally hits. We have made far too many promises that can't be kept, debts that won't be repaid.

        They say every election cycle that it is the most important election ever. I say that in 2012 it really WAS the most important, it was the very last exit where we could have at least had a survivable crash landing. Now there is only the kaboom, we have elected to get it over with instead of dragging it out. Soros is kicking off his "color revolution" and Trump will smash it, chaos will follow. That is the most likely scenario now.

        • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 15 2016, @02:13AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 15 2016, @02:13AM (#426813)

          > I trust it when THEY don't consider him one of them, and haven't ever considered him such.

          Why would you ever think that?

          Didn't you hear how the Clintons attended his most recent wedding? [politifact.com] They weren't the only elites there, it was packed. Who do you think spends money at all those over-priced Trump-branded properties? Not the hoi-polloi that's for sure. Mar-a-lago joining fee was $100K with yearly dues of $14K just for the privilege of being able to walk in the door and spend money on actual services at a Trump property. He spent christmas eve in 2009 with George Soros who also gave him a loan. [conservativereview.com] Surely you know that Trump famously attended the washington correspondents dinner in 2011? If there is a big public gathering of elites, Trump was there because that's his community.

          That "blue-collar billionaire" shit was so laughable, nobody with an ounce of sense would believe that.
          It sure had catchy alliteration and cadence though, so it must be true!

        • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday November 15 2016, @02:14PM

          by LoRdTAW (3755) on Tuesday November 15 2016, @02:14PM (#426955) Journal

          I trust it when THEY don't consider him one of them, and haven't ever considered him such.

          Who's THEY? Dude's got plenty of millionaire and billionaire friends.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 15 2016, @03:07PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 15 2016, @03:07PM (#426982)

            I think the "they" in question is the established political class, and those who feed from their teats. That "they" LOVE millionaires and billionaires, and will entertain, wine and dine with them, because those people have money, and US politics runs on money.

            But if one of those moneyed men decides to try and usurp the power of that political class - "drain the swamp" of the middle-men, rather than continue funding them - you bet your ass that the establishment will fight tooth and nail against their former supporter and ally.

  • (Score: 2) by turgid on Monday November 14 2016, @09:38PM

    by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Monday November 14 2016, @09:38PM (#426677) Journal

    On the positive side, Climate Change doesn't exist. The American People proved that once and for all when they voted.That's democracy.