An interesting interview regarding Trump, mental health, and fascism

An excellent interview regarding Trump, mental health, and fascism:

• “LIVE: TOP Psychiatrist BACK with MAJOR UPDATE on Trump Mental Collapse | The Weekend Show”   https://www.youtube.com/live/Npp5XEuDBz4   The commentary on circumstances where personal interviews are not necessary or are even unhelpful was informative, surprising, and interesting - and has given some nuance to the Goldwater Rule, IMO. However, IMO, the suggestion that mental fitness evaluations should be performed is potentially dangerous: consider if that were to be set up by Trump appointees, or was assessed through the racist / sexist / ableist / ageist / other biases/bigotries that have historically plagued the psychiatric/psychological industries and the politico-economic-social soup they operate in ... Having made that point, if that can be managed, it is similar to something I have thought about fairly often: testing for unconscious biases, including authoritarianism, so those biases/favouritisms can be managed.      The point that fascism is a mental health issue, rather than a political one, at around 24:38, is MAJOR - and fits what we see in history.   At 40:00:   “Yes, you’re right - because his speeches are dangerous. He may not be able to form sentences, but he knows how to manipulate minds, yeah. Now A____ H_tl_r was was said to be a seismograph of crowds, meaning that he could sense the needs of the crowds - sense their, uh, emotional vulnerabilities and dispositions, and to be able to play on those things, uh, as if playing an instrument. To be able to uh essentially turn them into his instruments, and, uh, Donald Trump has the same ability. It may be seen as an in-as an ingenious skill, but it’s actually compensatory. It’s compensatory of his lack of empathy, compassion, conscience, his inability to connect with other people emotionally, and so he has seen people not as other human beings,  but as instruments to attain his goals”   It all reminds me of what Voltaire wrote:   “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”   https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/20527-those-who-can-make-you-believe-absurdities-can-make-you   And the final comments about Trump spreading symptoms of mental illness are both credible, based on what I have seen, and terrifying ...      Additional relevant links are:   “Bandy X. Lee”   https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bandy_X._Lee&oldid=1242347221      “Goldwater rule”   https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Goldwater_rule&oldid=1240380818   “(the evil that is known as) fascism”   https://gnwmythrsglossary.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-evil-that-is-known-as-fascism.html     
  

 

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

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Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/