Before we can adequately respond to the frontal assault that Donald Trump launched in our lifestyle, we must attack with Whatboutism. It destroys our ability to make rational judgments. Faced with an unprecedented challenge of law, tradition and constitution, too many of us find ourselves so muddled in a polarized thought that we cannot see directly.
Humans have always been seduced by black and white thought. Something is good or bad. You are with us or against us. Greek or barbaric. Saved or damned. Sigmund Freud invented the term “Madonna / Whore Complex” to describe the state of mind of men who relegate women in one of the two categories: pure or saved. A related error in the logic is called “you quoque»(You too), a form of ad hominem Fallacy because he attacks the person rather than refuting his argument – which should seem familiar to anyone who has lived in the last years of American politics.
The tendency to engage in polarized thought is hardly new, and yet it seems that we have regressed in recent years. We live in an era of overflowing information and knowledge, and yet we seem more inclined now than in the recent past to succumb to what is most.
It is perfectly clear why Trump and his many catalysts rely on what the bypass. It is the simplest deviation. What is the appropriate response to Trump’s unfair treatment of women? And Bill Clinton? How can you assess your pardons of insurrectionists on January 6? What about all those who caused protest against the murder of George Floyd and have never been prosecuted? (They were.) Trump’s refusal to return the highly classified documents a serious violation? What about Joe Biden keeping files in his garage? (Biden returned them when asked.) Trump Corrupt-law with his pardons of friends, donors and political allies? What about the pardons of Hunter by Joe Biden and all his family?
This game can be played endlessly, and it has been played aggressively in the last decade. It is important to dwell on the consequences. Some people who are taken in a lie,, treasonor other transgression Admit their guilt and seek to repair damage. This is how people and mature societies remain civilized.
Really depraved people do not take this path. Trump uses what is not only to change the subject or disarm the accuser (“you quoque“Was roughly the theme of the 2016 presidential breed) but also to raise cynicism. If “everyone does”, it is unfair to hold it responsible. And because people who are constantly transgressing cannot work with the fact that they are immoral, they must believe – and teach – that everyone is just as corrupt as they are; The world is made up of killers And the losers and that you have to choose one or the other?
Although Americans are sometimes perceived as idealists, there are other strains from our character from which demagogues can draw, like cynicism about politics. A line perhaps inactive to Mark Twain is a basic speech food after dinner for more than 150 years: “America has no indigenous criminal class, with the exception of Congress.” Or as a more modern WAG said: “Politics comes from the Greek” poly “(many) and” ticks “(small boring blood suckers).”
A certain amount of skepticism with regard to politicians is in good health. But cynicism is corrosive because it invites the very thing it deserves. Once you have chosen a sociopath and you agree with its yellowing point of view that everyone is corrupt, you have lost the chance to maintain basic values. If you cherish honesty, integrity, law and decency, you must be ready to reject what the balance sheet and risk a mockery by insisting that no, not everyone does, and we do not want to accept the type of society in which this is supposed.
As David FRUM emphasized in the Atlantic::
Nothing such has been tempted or even imagined in the history of the American presidency. Throw history books; Throw weak comparisons with the scandals of the past. There is no analogy with a previous action by a former president. The radiance of self-enrichment is unlike the anterior white house. It is American corruption on the scale of a post-Soviet republic or a postcolonial African dictatorship.
Trump’s corruption is so out of the charts (a Qatari luxury jet, hundreds of millions of memes and tokens, offering wars for dinner with him like his club) that he challenges comparison. Thanks to the same, anyone anyone for any reason can put hundreds, or thousands, or millions of dollars directly in Trump’s pocket. Not in a campaign fund, not in a political party, but in the hands of the president. And as we saw during his trip to the Middle East, impatient stranger Leaders and businessmen are trim To do it. Vietnam, hoping for the relief of prices, is in talks To help Trump build a luxury golf course. Almost entirely entirely of its crypto participations, Trump has, by an estimate, double Its net value in just four months.
The Constitution could not be clearer. Article I, section 9 reads as follows: “No title of nobility will be granted by the United States: and no person occupying any office of profit or confidence under their way should, without the consent of the congress, accept any present, emolument, office or title of any kind whatsoever, of any king, prince or foreign state.”
Are we so cynical that we cannot invoke indignation by a blatant contempt for our founding document?
In accordance with the current bracelet which is not naked, the Trump administration announced last month that it dissolved the unity of the Ministry of Justice devoted to the distress of cryptographic crime, and the Securities and Exchange commission abandoned an investigation into one of the greatest donors of Trump – the one who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, given Top dollar (or even for dinner with Trump in his country club outside DC
Yes, the pardons of his Biden family were dirtyBut they were a few pebbles compared to Trump’s avalanche of corruption. The current president points out with his pardons that anti-democratic violence is encouraged if it is undertaken on his behalf, and that no action, not even murder, is beyond redemption if you are in his camp. He forgave a corrupt thief who was the son of a great donor, granted A “complete and unconditional forgiveness” at a sheriff of Virginia which was found guilty of sale of government offices but which was bought by its loyalty Trump. Ashli Babbitt’s family, who violently took the Capitol in storm and was killed by the police, received a generous payment from the government controlled by Trump. Murderers, politicians on the catch, crooks, stars of reality TV, gangsters – all were pardoned by Trump in recent weeks. If you are a supporter of Trump, you have an exit card without an honest task. The watchword of the Ministry of Justice is no longer “Equality of justice under the law“But, in the words From Ed Martin, the newly struck advisor to Trump, “no Maga left on behalf”.
We owe disintegrate ourselves of the state of mind Whatboutism. There are honorable politicians. There are honest businessmen. There are police officers and soldiers and teachers and programmers and athletes and integrity judges. Millions of Americans are dismayed and deeply embarrassed by the Kakistocracy that we have raised. Wait for this outrage. It is the road back from this disaster.