The sleeping giant has been awoken! It’s been nine days since the inauguration of the Ol’ Pussy Grabber, and we’ve had protests every day, and we have our first Constitutional crisis! Yippee! Skippy! Along with the lowest approval ratings of any new president, the Ol’ Pussy Grabber has set all kinda records: none of them good.
While I am deeply ashamed and insulted and angered by the Ol’ Pussy Grabber’s Muslim ban, but I am heartened and proud of the protests that have sprung up around the country. However, there is a lot of raw emotion running on the streets and through the internet. There are some very positive emotions, but also some very negative ones. People on both sides of the political divide are angry about the Ol’ Pussy Grabber’s Muslim ban and are at lager heads. For example, A mosque in Victoria, Texas was burned to the ground and six were shot and killed at a mosque in Quebec City in Quebec, Canada.
The Contagion of Violence
What is the likely effect of all of this emotion that is ricocheting about the country? Like Meryl Streep said — that seems like so long ago, don’t it? — disrespect invites disrespect! And, anger begets anger. Thank you mirror neurons! So, use your anger and disrespect carefully. It will only make the person receiving your ire more likely to be ireful towards you.
In fact, violence behaves like a contagion. The CDC monitors the population to detect clusters of a particular disease or a contagious disease — measles, anti-vaccers? — and interrupt the spread. With violence, friends do what friends do as if infected with violence by their friends so that clusters of violence form. The question is do these guys become friends because they are prone to violence and are attracted to each other because of it, or does the violence of one convince the other to commit violence?
This is a fairly strong effect: 6,000 interviews done in the 1990’s of middle and high school students were recently analyzed. If an interviewee had a friend who had pulled a weapon on someone, they were 140% more likely to pull a weapon, too. If an interviewee had a friend who had been in a serious fight, the interviewee was 48% more likely to be in a serious fight, too! For boys, the likelihood of seriously hurting someone rose by 82% with every friend they had who had seriously hurt someone. The more violent friends you had, the more likely you were to be violent. And, the contagion spread as far as four degrees of separation. Studies of violence strongly support the notion that violence spreads like bacterial and viral infections spread.
Prejudiced Norm Theory
These findings match nicely with prejudiced norm theory which suggests that those who are prone to a behavior, like racial discrimination, are more likely to act in a discriminatory way after being exposed to racially discriminatory behavior. Even innocuous behavior like a racist joke can have a ripple effect and negatively impact those around them. So don’t tell those jokes, okay?
So, right now, we have “Nazis” being punched in the face on the street and good peaceful progressives believing it is okay to commit violence on a person in the street. The likelihood of such behavior spawning further behavior so that not only are progressives are punching known Nazis in the face, but progressives will be punching racists in the face. It will very likely lead to counter-violence so those on the right will be doing the same. No matter how justified you feel no matter how great you righteous indignation, don’t punch Nazis and other political opponents. Don’t do it.
It is very likely that violence spreads like a contagion from friend to friend, but, also from casual exposure through jokes, memes, and internet video. People who are prone to violence on both sides of the political divide will be emboldened to commit violence. We are dangerously close to spinning out of control into complete chaos.
We are less than two weeks into the Ol’ Pussy Grabber’s presidency, and we have seen turmoil and chaos since the inception of the transition. We are likely to continue in this way for some time until someone can put some limits on the Ol’ Pussy Grabber. It will be very difficult. Earlier in the campaign, I diagnosed the Ol’ Pussy Grabber as an ineffective narcissist, a narcissistic personality disorder with weak executive functioning.
The Leaks
His aides have leaked the following details — another dubious speed record set — to the Washington Post , Politico, and the New York Times about the conduct of the Ol’ Pussy Grabber:
- After the interfaith prayer service on Saturday 21 January, he “grew increasingly and visibly enraged” while watching news coverage of the attendance at his inauguration.
- He, then, ordered his press secretary, Sean Spicer, to literally shout at and chastise the WH press corps and dispute the numbers.
- He thinks that the coverage of him and his administration has failed to reflect the “magnitude of his achievements” in his first two weeks in office. His. First. Two. Weeks.
- He has been “demoralized” because he perceives that the public’s perception of his presidency does not match his own. Again, it has been less than two weeks.
- His aides do not think he is likely to climb a flight of stairs to consult Kellyanne Conway his favorite.
- He “gets bored and likes to watch TV.”
- He lacks discipline.
- He has been described as conspiracy-minded, easily distracted, TV-obsessed, a bully paranoid, having feelings of inadequacy, and being prone to flashes of blind, irrational anger.
Malignant Narcissism
Wow. Sounds like a swell guy. Very capable, don’t you think? Let’s now compare that to a popular arm chair diagnosis known as malignant narcissism, which was the diagnosis given by John Gartner, psychiatrist at the Johns Hopkins University Medical School and published in the US News & World Report.The symptoms are as follows:
- Narcissistic
- Entitled
- No conscience or “Super-ego lacunae” (Holes in conscience)
- Sadistic
- Egocentric
- Regressed
- Grandiose
- Paranoid
- Destructive
- Manipulative
- Use of projection (attributing one’s own untoward actions or qualities to another)
Doesn’t this sound like what we’ve seen out of the Ol’ Pussy Grabber throughout the campaign, the transition, and now the first nine days of his presidency? I hate to say, I told you so, but, Jesus fuck-me Christ, I told you so. And, it isn’t like lots o’ people didn’t agree with me just look at the number of times that gaslighting gets used in conjunction with the Ol’ Pussy Grabber.
Shame
It is oft said that emotions like shame, guilt, and remorse are necessary to limit our worst impulses and allow social groups to function. What we’ve seen so far is a complete lack of any shame, guilt, remorse, contrition, penance, humiliation, or any similar emotion from the Ol’ Pussy Grabber, anyone in his administration, or his supporters. It is very very troubling that we have reached a point in our political discourse that the people who voted for him cannot fess up to the colossal mistake that they made when it is so so painfully obvious that this man is not capable of discharging the duties of the presidency that our egos and pride are now more important than the country and the safeguarding of the world. We are, indeed, collectively, the United Fucking States of Fucking Stupid.
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Categories: The Resistance
The Psy of Life 
Trish, Now I’m feeling as though I’ve missed out on something in my life, I’ve never grabbed a pussy in my life, always had too much respect for women to do that, you have me wondering now, anyway back to the subject at hand (pardon the pun) this bloke is shaping up to be another tin pot dictator usually found in central Africans countries, he has taken the credibility of the United States back 100 years.The photo of him and seven of his mates standing around a table dictating to women what they could and couldn’t do was the most disturbing so far for me. The Australian conservatives want to take us back to the 1950s the United States conservatives want to take them back to the 1920s.
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Howdy Townsville!
I can honestly say that you aren’t missing much. The pussy grabbing part is okay, but it is all the screaming and slapping and hullabaloo afterward that wrecks the whole experience. Not to mention being banned from various and sundry bars and restaurants. I guess that’s the advantage of being a rich boar.
On a more serious note, though, I’ve thought that the GOP wants to bring us back to the 1880’s. Monopolies, no regulation, exploitation of the masses and natural resources… I get that from the wealthy: it would be nice for them to rob everyone of their milk money without any accountability, but what I don’t get is why the GOP voters who are being figuratively raped in the process (see Louisiana and Kansas for two prime examples in the States or alternatively my blog post, The Making of the Republican Stooge Voter: A Review of “Strangers In Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right; https://thepsyoflifeblog.com/2017/01/25/the-making-of-the-republican-stooge-voter-a-review-of-strangers-in-the) continue to vote for these rapscallions. I would greatly appreciate any insight into this phenomenon that you might be able to offer.
And while we’re at it, explain the obsession of conservatives with controlling the private lives and privates of others, especially women.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Jack, In my humble opinion there is nothing personal in it, just the 0.1% of the global population who own the multinational corporations afflicted with the mental illness called insatiable greed, where enough is never enough and they always have to have more. We recently learnt that 8 men owned as much wealth as the bottom 3.6 Billion people on Earth, and if that was not enough to shock the everyday citizen out of their apathy coma then I don’t know what will. It is overtime that the ordinary everyday person stood up and screamed “what about me, I’ve had enough, now I want my share”!!! A revolution is required, as Bernie Sanders has said, the current situation is nowhere near good enough.
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Thanks for that comment, Townsville. There is a blog post in there about how those large numbers are so difficult to comprehend that they don’t move people and the belief that your life situation reflects your moral deservingness (an old Puritan idea that the US and other British-based cultures have yet to shake).
Huzzah!
Jack
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I agree that no legal ruling will ever stop Trump. He paints the masses of his opposition as unpatriotic but he has no clue what loyalty means except to his mismanaged wealth.
Comparing the vast scale of world protest against him now, , the pitiful appeal to his red state followers by rushing through these executive orders is merely an act of political desperation.
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Howdy Usfman!
The most troubling thing about all of this is the defiance of court orders by the executive branch. This is the first time since President Jackson and Chief Justice Marshall way back when Jackson was slaughtering Cherokee.
Huzzah!
Jack
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What Pisses Me Off About President Trump’s “Muslim Ban” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OVnqerWUHg
Did President Trump Just Save Western Civilization? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b0bIEMsHwM
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No
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Your last sentence says it all!!! His supporters get more stupid and blind daily. I had a fight with a friend of 40 years the other day because she honestly was clueless about Trump. It finally dawned on me that many Trump voters are old school republicans who watch Fox News only and never hear real facts.Their entire lives are made up of listening to fake news and many of his base are not tech savvy so they are unaware of what we more informed folks are reading on line.
Trump has a large ignorant base who continues to be manipulated and fooled and still cannot see the light. And he is as just as unaware as they are because his advisers haven’t informed him of reality either. He surrounds himself with “yes sir” people. So he does whatever he wants and then is stunned and angered when things blow up in his face. And compound that with the young people who rebelled against Hillary because they didn’t want to listen to their older and wiser parents or grandparents and now suddenly they realize, oh shit, they were right all along. So yeah…Over night we became the United States of stupid. I just hope we can stop things before it becomes the United fascist states of stupid. These are very Scary times.
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Howdy Lesley!
It is so hard to understand how the good folks of Southern Louisiana cannot understand how the GOP has sold their health cheap to the petrochemical industry. It makes no sense. But, the real troubling thing is the relationship between Bannon and the Ol’ Pussy Grabber. Ol’ PG can only fight. He knows only chaos and conflict. If the Ol’ PG feels he’s being ordered or manipulated or in any way made to do something, he’ll just defy them. But, Bannon is a master manipulator. He can pull the Ol’ Pussy Grabber’s strings so subtly that he won’t even realize it.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Yes! You described it perfectly. If we could just get rid of Bannon and let someone else manipulate Herr Twittler, at least things wouldn’t be so devastating. But it’s crazy how trump’s biggest supporters are the people he’s hurting the most. Make America smart again!!!
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Howdy Lesley!
I agree. Getting rid of Bannon would be a huge step in the right direction. The man just creeps me out. At least, it seems that Flynn is on his way out, and maybe just maybe Kellyanne is too.
Huzzah!
Jack
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unfortunately this will not stop just because the ” world” tells him to… he feels that no one can tell him any thing that he doesn’t want to hear. It appears to me that only two things will actually make him stop.. death or being placed behind bars. or both ,,, and any of those would suit me just fine.. I wonder what this is going to do to the mental state of those who voted for this idiot. I’ll bet there is a huge run on the liquor stores… In fact I think I’ll go out today and bring back a nice bottle of wine…..or two ” Buckle up …. it’s going to be a bumpy ride” and a dangerous one to boot
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democracy depends on voters… we can make or break it
democracy and voting should be carefully explained in primary and secondary schools
(of course all schools should be fully funded and operated as a public good for society)
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Howdy David!
Unfortunately, it has to go beyond an explanation. It has to be instilled in the mind of children and adults that (a) their vote matters. There has been a concerted effort to convince the public that all politicians are corrupt and out for their own good, so it doesn’t matter who wins. This is not true. And (b) voting has to be made easier: universal registration, extended voting periods, election day holidays, and other such attempts to make voting easier.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Reblogged this on The Red Window and commented:
An interesting article about the contagion of violence where progressives are punching Nazis in the head. Includes other insight about the ol pussy grabber and his spicery team. By Calico Jack
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