I see dumb people

And people who think the rest of us are as dumb as their party members … or minions … or cult members.  You know the cult member meme, right?  Nobody has rational reasons for supporting Donald Trump—they’re just being led by the nose.  The proof is how many people at the Republican convention wore gauze pads on their right ears.  Some people would take that as an act of admiration for and exhilaration at his having literally dodged a bullet at his Pennsylvania outdoor rally, as well as an example of national convention overdecoration.  But no, they’re just doing what the cult tells them to do.  Were they making intelligent commentary they wouldn’t stop with a gauze pad but would go full Handmaid’s Tale outfit, right?

As more evidence comes out suggesting that the shooter situation was allowed to happen, it’s tempting to credit Divine Providence with Trump’s survival.  It has the look and feel.  Those unwilling to go that far can fall back on the ancient Chinese notion that he has the Mandate of Heaven.  Or the charmed life of pre-Waterloo Napoleon.  I’m willing to thank Divine Providence for our not having been hurled into a civil war, because I feel that’s an entirely appropriate response to the near miss, logically and emotionally.

Meanwhile, when people fail to fall in line, and contradict the narrative that is ever-evolving in order to meet the demands of covering up fact, these people get angry.  The benefit of Kamala Harris now identifying as African-American after years of touting her being Indian-American is that anyone pointing out this fact rather than buying the Black narrative can be accused of racism.  And she’s not even African-American:  she’s half Jamaican-American.  But the shift in racial identity marketing is real, and documented, but pay no attention to the archived media reports behind the curtain.  The great, powerful, and moderate Kamaloz has spoken.

And so, a friend of mine posted a meme criticizing Trump for pointing out Harris’s identity switch by noting that he himself had once identified as White but had switched his identity to Orange.  Utterly stupid on its face, right?  Even if Trump had at any time expressed a racial identity, Orange would not have been one of the available choices.  This Orange thing sprang forth from the Orange Man Bad … community, I guess.  It’s appeared in everything from a jack o’lantern getting moldy by Election Day to the recent cat with a tuft of orange fur in its mouth.

If it were a Trump-generated thing, people would be wearing orange at his rallies, right?  There would be people in full orange body suits, as I saw at the previous World Baseball Classic when the Netherlands team was playing.  I think it’s another way of trying to other him, to say he doesn’t fit the John Kerry model of suave, mellifluous, sleep-inducing “dignified” politicians.  It’s all about the incessant clamor that he’s outrageous in every way, meaning not fit for the presidency.

I read a comment the other day that what Trump is is an insult comic.  It makes sense.  And insult comics are not diplomatic, which some people seem to value more than competence and a clear vision for a thriving nation.  I’ve never been to a Trump rally, but people appear to be highly entertained by them (unless they’re Never-Trumpers, in which case they get outraged).  And I’m wondering, what makes that invalid as a campaigning style?  Stump speech bombast used to be an art form in this country.  Perhaps the citizenry has become sufficiently sophisticated that they are looking for substance, delivered with style.

Done laughing?

The citizenry laps up lines they can repeat as insults against the candidates they oppose.  We’re all guilty of that, aren’t we?  We love memes that leave marks.  I think the difference is that Trump mocks candidates and positions those left of center hold sacrosanct.  When someone says the equivalent of, “You must admit, though …” he just says no.  I think his devoted voters know precisely what he’s doing, and dig him all the more for doing it.  That’s not the behavior of sheep.  That’s the behavior of people who know they’ve been called sheep, people who know their intelligence has been questioned by a self-styled intelligentsia because of positions they hold.

You know, the “just how dumb do you think I am” people?

The jokes aren’t holding up, because they are jokes that require fair unanimity of regard for the target as a buffoon.  The left, of course, thinks it’s obvious Trump is a buffoon (and not an insult comic).  But, the people who elected him in 2016 (I’ll pause a moment for those of you thinking what I know you’re thinking …) thought he was anything but a buffoon.  And, he delivered.  Buffoons don’t get Abraham Accords.

There’s groupthink that leaves people stupid, and while there are indeed conservatives who get caught up in that, it seems to be endemic among liberals.  I will leave you with a quote from D.-Md. Rep. Jamie Raskin:  “The democratic world must stand up for the rule of law in Venezuela and oppose Maduro’s assault on the electoral process and free speech.  The right-wing attack on democratic institutions anywhere is a threat to freedom everywhere.”

That’s D for Dumb:  Maduro is an avowed Marxist like his predecessor.  But here’s the assumption that totalitarianism is practiced only by the right and never by the left.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was not available for comment.