re: #17 The Ghost of Quesos Past

Everyone’s thinking about this in terms of Trump being part of the demand side of this shit, but he’s been proximate to people on the supply side. too. Trump also hung around with Nick Casablanca and a bunch of other dudes that ran “modeling agencies” that (1) trafficking teenaged girls under the guise of modeling contracts, (2) were abusers as well as exploiters. Trump Modeling was built on the exact same methodology as Casablanca’s Elite Modeling.

Also, while anyone can end up coping with the experience of discovering an abuser amongst their circle of acquaintances, it is very fucking weird for one guy to have multiple instances of social connection to more than one set of organized traffickers/abusers.

Not that it matters. Trumpism is libertine nihilism with a thin coating of conservative tropes, and the cultural institutions of the right prior to Trump have created elaborate justification systems for why powerful dudes can be forgiven and people who’ve been victimized are actually to blame.

That’s the bottom of this shit: these are people who don’t believe in anything, but cling to the externalities of belief—religious ritual, legal formalities—because it shields them.

im actually seeing two sides to this - the side you describe - sort of from the base

and trumpism from he himself. as krugman said last year, he is no populist

Watching Trump in action, it’s hard to escape the impression that he knows very well that he’s inflicting punishment on his own base. But he’s a man who likes to humiliate others, in ways great and small. And my guess is that he actually takes pleasure in watching his supporters follow him even as be betrays them.

…

Anyway, whatever his motivations, Trump in action is the opposite of populist. And no, his trade war doesn’t change that judgment….Furthermore, the Trumpian trade war is being carried out in a way that produces maximum harm to U.S. workers in return for minimum benefits.

While he isn’t a populist, however, Trump is a pathological liar, the most dishonest man ever to hold high office in America. And his claim to stand with working Americans is one of his biggest lies.

Which brings me back to media use of the term “populist.” When you describe Trump using that word, you are in effect complicit in his lie — especially when you do it in the context of supposedly objective reporting.

And you don’t have to do this. You can describe what Trump is doing without using words that give him credit where it isn’t due. He’s scamming his supporters; you don’t have to help him do it.

i shoulda just bolded the whole thing