Imagine a man who is one thing but pretends outwardly to be the total opposite. Doing so would inevitably create a tension between his real self and his false, projected self. To function, such a man would have to deny and suppress the real self completely in favor of the fake. All his mental energy would have to go into upholding the fake and convincing himself of the fake personality. He would have to become his fake self in order to sustain it. He would have to dissociate from his true self.
When you know you’re faking it, you’re unhappy and frustrated. The dissonance between who you really are and who you want others to think you are causes strain, anxiety, and resentment. And of course you’d always be on the alert, having to ensure you didn’t slip up and expose yourself. There would always be this constant vigilance, and the stress and pressure and tension of living in such a manner would cause a serious loss of energy and joy.
The solution? Throw yourself into the role of the fake persona so you have no awareness left of the true self. Reject your real thoughts and embrace the persona.
If this person could pull off the act and get away with it, what kind of a person might they be? It’s entirely possible that he is actually more insecure, fearful and childish than he was before. All of those qualities that he’s been repressing are now coming out in a much greater intensity, just beneath the surface of the fake persona, ready to erupt at a moment’s notice.
In this hypothetical man we have all the ingredients for a Donald Trump, the perpetually insecure and narcissistic president of the US. People often think of narcissists as being bigheaded, conceited and confident – and they are, but their need to be such things comes from deep issues and insecurities usually developed during childhood. Narcissism exists to conceal those underlying weaknesses, to cover them up. Narcs do this by engaging in a number of behaviors, including conditioning their environment, never admitting fault, refusing to show weakness or vulnerability, always projecting onto others, gaslighting, and generally believing the world owes them the whole shebang and they should get their way on everything. Often, they’ll play the victim card, while still being enormously conceited. Taken as a whole, this pantomime doesn’t really make sense. You cannot be both a victim and an over-confident prick, and yet a narcissist is able to maintain that contradictory story.
A narc’s life is driven by extremes: the extreme need to be praised and make people love them, pitted against the extreme, crushing effects of their deep insecurities and personal problems. This incredulity of the self, their unwillingness to accept or confront who they truly are, is the only thing keeping them afloat. But it never stops at just existing. They must usurp, control, badmouth, insult, and manipulate everyone around them. It is functionally impossible for a narc to exist as an equal member of a team. The word “team” has no meaning to them, since they are always out for their own self-aggrandizing ends.
Which is it, Donald? Are you a victim of the ultra liberal, radical Left, or are you the smartest person who ever lived, who will flush them all out?
He can’t stick to one story. He alternates, offering you the story that’s most persuasive at the moment. There isn’t a consistent Donald Trump; there’s only the particular facet he wants to emphasize. It’s all part of a calculated strategy to appeal to a broad cross-section of voters.
Trump is NEVER genuine or honest. He’s rude, prosaic, aggressive, insulting, and arrogant, but he sure as shit never tells the truth! You shouldn’t mistake his boldness or his bluntness for sincerity or truthfulness. He’s one of the biggest liars in existence. He tells THOUSANDS of lies in a year. Only someone who’s severely mentally ill could be so allergic to honesty and fact checking, and only someone who’s equally deranged could buy into the whole Trump circus.
MAGA can demand accountability from anyone except Trump. Trump is invulnerable, incapable of error in their blind eyes. It’s an insane and impossible standard that they’ve created for their cult leader. It is an inherently unworkable and nonsensical ideology. It’s dysfunctional inside and out. It’s a scene that only involves racists, freaks, and social outcasts.
When a MAGA person grows a brain and leaves the cult, they are IMMEDIATELY regarded as deranged by all the remaining MAGA apes, as if leaving MAGA was the act of a madman! How does that logic go? Leaving a group that supports an out-and-out criminal, a serial liar, and a bully, who openly incites people to violence, who denies science, who betrayed the working class is INSANE??
No. You are not insane to leave the Trump Cult. The people who stay are insane. They’re the ones who say manifestly psychotic things. They’re the freaks.
Why can MAGA not admit that Trump did a single thing wrong? Because that would create the scope for all kinds of doubt as to the orange president’s fallibility, wouldn’t it? Narcs cultivate environments of total positivity. They don’t want the negatives to creep in, even for a second, and thus potentially cause the entire construct to collapse. It is essential, for the narc’s sake, to convince people of their brilliance at every moment of the day, so they maintain the illusion of grandiosity. It is necessary to destroy the slightest shred of criticism of them, or their life and existence comes under threat.
Cults never countenance any dissidence. It would DESTROY them if they allowed their members to hold any opinions they wanted. Cults have to CONTROL your opinions. All MAGA loons should ask themselves what would happen if they dared to criticize Trump. Would their MAGA friends still be there for them? Of course not, and it’s precisely because the cult can’t allow the possibility of an open debate or honest critique of the leader. It’s a fundamental violation of cult protocols.
DHS secretary, Kristi Noem, doing what she always does: use tragedy for political gain. Is there any human beneath that makeup? Is there even an ounce of decency? Of course not, or she wouldn’t have her job. There’s nothing so horrific that she won’t instantly think, “How can I use this against Trump’s political enemies?” If 9/11 happened today, she’d be having a field day. She certainly wouldn’t be in horror. She’d be rubbing her hands in glee, thinking of all the opportunities it presented for MAGA to get back at its enemies.
It should also tell you that America’s political system is TOTALLY BROKEN. If the executive branch is unchecked and unchallenged in its overreach by Congress or the Supreme Court, then democracy is DOOMED. This whole situation should never have been allowed to happen. How laughable the separation of powers has proven to be under Trump!!
Yeah. Actually, everyone should start migrating OUT OF the US, like they do out of other shithole countries! You’ve got nothing left to stick around for now! The Trump Party is just an open sewer of filth, bigotry, racism, hatred, and violence.
Trump’s Nobel Prize
Trump really wants a Nobel Prize! But he won’t get one.
How much are we betting that he’ll create some knockoff called the Trump Prize for him to win instead?
Because Trump is such a terrible businessman, he has to use the presidency to make money (why isn’t that illegal?) to make up for it. And yet, the Republicans love him! The MAGA Cult doesn’t care. It’s blind to all his crimes.
Sooner or later, this is all going to implode.
Alternate Titles
“The Opposite Man: A Hypothetical”
“Why Can Trump Get Away With Anything?”
“What’s Wrong With MAGA?”