Empathy is a sign of maturity, which is why Trump is so childlike

It's difficult to define morality, or for that matter, to define any other characteristic that most people would agree is part of being a decent human being. But that shouldn't stop us from speaking about morality, since common sense and intuition are a pretty good guide here.

In the February 2025 issue of Scientific American, there's an article about how the adolescent mind develops, "Growing the Adolescent Mind." 

The geeky details are interesting. However, what caught my eye was the mention of transcendence, which I usually think of as referring to something in the religious or spiritual sphere. After all, TM is shorthand for Transcendental Meditation, which has been popular since it started being taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the 1950s.

The psychologist who wrote the Scientific American story, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, says that transcendent thinking takes us beyond the here and now.

This emerging capacity to muse in abstract ways enables teenagers to understand themselves, their family, friends and society at large and to imagine what their own place in the world might be. Over time such transcendent thinking constructs resilience to adversity and places young people on a path to future satisfaction with life, work, and relationships.

No matter what age we are, being able to look beyond the narrow confines of Me is key to a mature vision of reality. The more we can expand our circle of caring, the greater our morality will be. Sure, it is natural to care most deeply about the people closest to us, family, friends, co-workers, and such. 

Knowing them intimately enables us to recognize their joys and sorrows, pleasures and pains, hopes and fears. Empathy is fairly easy to come by when we feel like we know someone's interior life in addition to their exterior appearance and doings.

Yet we also can empathize with strangers, people we've never had any contact with and likely never will. For they share our basic humanity, no matter how their nationality, religion, political leaning, or any other characteristic differs from ours. 

And why stop with humans? Animals also deserve our empathy. This is the main reason I became a vegetarian about 55 years ago. I knew that I'd be upset (to put it mildly) if someone killed me in order to eat my flesh. So I empathized with the animals that often die cruel deaths to become a human meal. 

In the book I wrote for Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Life is Fair, which presented the karmic rationale for vegetarianism, a quote from Albert Einstein was included:

A human being is part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited by time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts, and feelings, as something separate from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. 

This consciousness is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few people closest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.

There are many reasons why I dislike Donald Trump. I readily admit that I have a lot of difficulty mustering up much compassion or empathy for him.

Still, when my wife watched The Apprentice, a movie about Trump, I did feel some empathy, as it was clear that his father didn't shower him with love and his relationship with Roy Cohn, a jerk of an attorney who schooled Trump in how to manipulate people for his own ends, seemed to be a second-chance attempt with a father figure.

(My parents divorced when I was very young, and I only spent one hour with my father, so I understand the pain of not having what so many people take for granted.)

What bothers me the most about Trump -- even though I realize this isn't under his control -- is how he demonstrates such little compassion and empathy. Every relationship is transactional for him. He always wants to know what's in it for him, not what is best for the other person (or group, or nation). 

Not once have I seen Trump show that he deeply cares about the suffering of others. I've never seen him shed a tear for those less fortunate than he is. Yesterday I wrote a post for my Salem Political Snark blog, "A USAID worker I know died helping others. Trump is trashing his memory."

In the post I shared some of the wonderful things that the United States Agency for International Development does for people around the world. Sure, this agency isn't perfect. No government agency is, just as no person is. I wouldn't mind if Trump set out to fix the things that are wrong with USAID, leaving its core humanitarian mission intact.

But Trump is taking a wrecking ball to USAID. His America First policy is the political equivalent of a Me-Me-Me narcissist who only wants to see their own reflection in a mirror. In my blog post I shared an excerpt from a New York Times column by Nicholas Kristof. 

I’ve seen genuine improvements in U.S.A.I.D. over the years. Its public-private partnership to tackle lead poisoning, announced last year, was a model of American leadership. And so from my travels, this is what U.S.A.I.D. has come to mean to me:

I’ve seen women and girls with obstetric fistula, a horrific childbirth injury, get a $600 surgery that gives them back their lives — and this is something that U.S.A.I.D. supports.

I’ve seen men humiliated by elephantiasis and grotesquely enlarged scrotums, occasionally requiring a wheelbarrow to support their organs as they walk. And U.S.A.I.D. has fought this disease and made it less common.

I’ve seen children dying of malaria (and I’ve had malaria), and I’ve seen U.S.A.I.D. help achieve major strides against the disease over the last two decades.

I’ve seen southern Africa ravaged by AIDS. And then President George W. Bush’s landmark program against AIDS, called PEPFAR and implemented in part through U.S.A.I.D., transformed the landscape. I saw coffin makers in Lesotho and Malawi grumble that their business was collapsing because far fewer people were dying. PEPFAR has saved 26 million lives so far. (In the coming months, I’ll see if I can calculate how many lives are lost to Trump’s cuts in aid.)

I’ve seen the suffering of communities where people in middle age routinely go blind from trachoma, river blindness or cataracts — and the transformation when U.S.A.I.D. helps prevent such blindness.

Trump scoffed that U.S.A.I.D. was “run by radical lunatics.” Is it radical lunacy to try to save children’s lives? To promote literacy for girls? To fight blindness?

If this is woke, what about the evangelical Christians in International Justice Mission, which, with U.S.A.I.D. support, has done outstanding work battling sex trafficking of children in Cambodia and the Philippines? Does Trump believe that rescuing children from rape is a radical lunatic cause?

Trump’s moves are of uncertain legality, not least because U.S.A.I.D. was established by Congress, but the outcomes are indisputable. Around the world children are already missing health care and food because of the assault on the agency that Kennedy founded to uphold our values and protect our interests.

To billionaires in the White House, it may seem like a game. But to anyone with a heart, it’s about children’s lives and our own security, and what’s unfolding is sickening.

Comments

[um]

>> And why stop with humans? Animals also deserve our empathy. This is the main reason I became a vegetarian about 55 years ago. I knew that I'd be upset (to put it mildly) if someone killed me in order to eat my flesh. So I empathized with the animals that often die cruel deaths to become a human meal. <<

Wherever and however I look at nature there is killing that killing is part of an process of keeping alive.

Life energy is transformed from one form into another.

Plants do live from the life-energy of the sun
animals life from the life energy of the plants or other animals.

If humans, that are to live in places where they by nature cannot survive, they had to come up with a solution. and they did. No Inuit etc. can survive in the artic without hunting and killing and it seems to me that they do not lack compassion for life in general or animals they hunt.

In short ..ALL life forms are to be kept alive by something other than themselves ..there are no "perpetuum mobile|" anywhere in the universe as far as I know.

Everything is changing.

[sant64]

He comes again with the politics on his "church" blog.

This is the guy who fretted that if Trump were elected he'd somehow "create financial waste" that he'd distributed "to his billionaire friends."

But just the opposite happened: Trump and Elon have uncovered billions of dollars of wasted taxpayer money. The waste from USAID alone is an enormity. Likewise, the $100 billion dollars that Zelinskyy says he never received from the Biden admin are ignored. The number of line-item incontrovertible boondoggles totaling billions of dollars is too many to list here.

This guy says it better than I can:
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1888576449499611389

Somehow, Trump's uncovering this waste makes you angry.

You don't have a leg to stand on. Thanks to Trump billions of dollars of government waste were uncovered -- waste, as in money that helped no one but NGO grifters and bureaucrats. Not money that actually helped and fed the deserving.

Instead of celebrating Trump's accomplishment to make the government more honest (I thought you were all about honesty? You write pieces celebrating the doxxing of Elon's aids and ludicrously recommend people "take to the streets." Some would say that sounds like beta code for violent insurrection when democracy doesn't go your way.

All I can say is keep it up! Every day since the election has been like Christmas to me and other Trump supporters. Actually, more like Christmas and the 4th of July rolled together! It's win after win for the Trump team, exceeding everyone's expectations. And the country is for it. No more men in women's sports, No more trillions wasted on trying to change the climate. No more...well again, the wins are too many to list here.

And the cherry on the cake is how much each these Trump wins must sting like sin to you progressives!

Sorry to bring you down. Hey, why not spend today driving around town looking for highway memorial crosses you can report to the mayor?

[um]

@ Sant64

Reading your words brought me back to the schoolyard ...the fights .... AND ...the yelling by-standers yelling ... HIT HIM,.... hit him .....hit him and when the looser was on the bottom ...KICK HIM ..kick him ...kick him.

In those day I had no word for it. Later I came to understand that behavior as ...Schadenfreude ....in German ...finding pleasure in the misery of others

Again later when the TV came and we over the years came to see many documentaries on the "third reich" ... the third empire ....on the raise of Hitler, his entourage, his war and his downfall ... I was hardly ever impressed by Hitler or in his footsteps "Il Duce" the Fascist ruler Mussolini ..in fact most of the time they made me laugh.

What never made me laugh were the people standing in the streets, with big smiles on their faces when these characters passed their streets ..how they rejoiced in what was going on.

Today also .. Your president, does not impress me but the people behind him and those that rejoice in his presence ...AND ...worst of all are going to act in his name.

THEY, sant will do the things that even he as a person would not dare to do.

Remember Sant ...everything comes at a price ..the things you rejoice in putting it here on the table, they too come at a price.

[Jim Sutherland]

@um and Sant64, ……Maxine Waters is the face and voice of Progressives. And they call us Hitler Trump followers!

I can’t imagine being represented by old Bags like this and voting them back in , seemingly for ever.

She should be the Spokeswoman for Church of the Churchless. She fits right in.

https://conservativebrief.com/maxine-during-89291/

[Brian Hines]

sant64, it sounds like you're angry and upset at people like me, and lots of others, who are speaking the truth about what Trump is doing. My suggestion is that the direction of these emotions is misplaced. If you don't like what I and others are saying about Trump, the blame is on Trump for doing so many things that deserve our criticism. Like allowing large numbers of preventable deaths around the world due to his shutting down lifesaving USAID health and food programs.

[sant64]

Even John Stewart gets it. The corruption is on their side. Kudos John!

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1888639936124883002

[sant64]

Big news: Trump's approval ratings are at an all-time high:

https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1888658538030850302

Tell us again why these audits, which the majority of the nation heartily approves of, are just Trump being "childish"?

Do you support millions in tax dollars going to Thailand for gender reassignment surgery and teaching journalists how to use pronouns? I guess you do. And I guess you don't want a transparent government.

[Kranvir]

Kaal, the negative power, has no empathy. He shows a fake facade, through his puppets but behind this fake face is an evil side. One puppet kaal loves is gurinder Singh Dhillon. Gurinder is the land mafia crook that pretends to be a guru. He has zero spirituality and his meditation do not lead to freedom and clarity but more tied to the web of his lord master satan/kaal.

[Trumpuniversityforme]

Oh wow, Sant64, your devotion to Trump is truly inspiring—borderline spiritual, even. I mean, who needs a hotel room when you can just bask in the glow of his greatness 24/7? And let me guess—you've got that prestigious Trump University diploma framed right next to a signed MAGA hat, right? Totally respectable.

And yes, we all know Biden's navigation skills rival that of a Roomba with a low battery, but your breathless adoration of Trump makes me suspect you've got some prior experience in, shall we say, highly enthusiastic group dynamics. Not saying you’ve been in a cult, but if the Kool-Aid fits…

Of course, Trump could probably achieve even more if he spent a little less time composing love letters to himself and maybe, just maybe, showed a shred of human decency to people he publicly eviscerates for sport. But hey, who needs tact when you’ve got tremendous ratings?

Anyway, fingers crossed for a bright future—preferably one where political fandom doesn’t require ceremonial robes and a secret handshake. But hey, if that's your thing, who am I to judge?

[sant64]

Appalling, untrue, desperate, bad-faith claim by Kristol that Trump is ending foreign aid. While the reappraisal of American foreign aid is ongoing, critical services to the deserving will still be provided:

". . . Waivers for foreign military financing for Israel and Egypt and emergency food assistance have been granted . . . On January 28, Secretary Rubio announced that he had issued an additional emergency humanitarian waiver, which allows implementers of “existing life-saving humanitarian assistance programs” to continue or resume work."

https://www.kff.org/policy-watch/the-status-of-president-trumps-pause-of-foreign-aid-and-implications-for-pepfar-and-other-global-health-programs/

Kristol's claim is almost as bad as the whopper about Elon's tech aids stealing everyone's social security numbers. Or the howler that Trump only ran for president so he could create waste and give it to his rich friends.

I'm sure it's tough when your political religion goes down in flames, but you're only making yourself look desperate and silly as you present false claims, harp about the other side being cult members, accuse them of gross hypocrisy, call the uncovering of the biggest bundle of financial fraud in US history a "childish" matter, celebrate doxxing, and urge your brethren to "take to the streets."

[hold tight]

Brian, I concur 💯

Good news:
The end of March marks the end of the Kali Yuga. 🥳

Bad news:
The transition period will be marked by constant rapid change which will be difficult for some.

[manjit]

One of the greatest obscenities & grandest deceptions, or rather delusions, held by those born and indoctrinated into the mind virus and humanity's cancer, American Exceptionalism, is the vile belief they are the most charitable nation on earth.
Something like 90% of that labelled "charity" which is "foreign aid" is actually US taxpayer money spent on enforcing it's Imperialist presence, marked by the slaughter of millions of innocent people, in the middle east.
Go check the history of US's "charity" over the past 25 years.... almost all of it is on Israel, Egypt, Jordan and other countries US is currently raping and pillaging.

Only in the good ol' US of A can billions of dollars be spent to kill hundreds of thousands of brown babies, only for it's proud citizens to then boast about how Americans spend more on "charity" than any other country!

Vile, disgusting and abhorrent.

Thank God Trump is President. Hopefully he will bring about the downfall and destruction of this virulently "charitable" country sooner rather than later. He's off to a great start! You go girl!

[manjit]

"Only in the good ol' US of A can billions of dollars be spent to kill hundreds of thousands of brown babies, only for it's proud citizens to then boast about how Americans spend more on "charity" than any other country!"

I've worked closely with accounts departments over the years, and there's a term they would use to describe this kind of sleight of hand....."creative accounting".

I think for what the US is doing here, calling money which it is using for the Hearts and Minds Dept. of their Genocidal Military-Industrial Death Machine "charity", and thereby not only excusing it's citizens from acknowledging the barbaric cruelty of their democratically elected state government, but actually imagining this is an indicator that they are the most charitable nation and people on earth, should have it's own name; destructive accounting.

[manjit]

It's crazy that the nation which created and ranks as one of the greatest movie series of all time, the Star Wars movies, doesn't get the irony that it is their very own nation which is the evil "Empire" and that it's soldiers and compliant citizens are the mindless "Stormtroopers"!

I guess if you can project these realities into art, it absolves you of ownership? 🤔

[manjit]

I've called Trump a narcissist many times over the years.

But I'm no degreed doctor, psychiatrist or psychologist.

By which I mean to say is that whilst over the past 40 years I've pretty much studied, quite intensely, every psychological, biological, psychiatric, linguistic, cultural etc perspective on the human psyche, I've not done it for academic or money making, job creating, degree holding etc purposes. IE. I know what I mean when I say it, but the words I use to describe my non verbal understanding and intuition may not correspond strictly to the academic field within which the terms I use are most frequently found.

So I will defer to the "investigative psychiatrist" Robert J Lifton referenced in this article who says Trump isn't a narcissist but instead a solipsist:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/08/donald-trump-media-coverage

I mean, I don't know what you want to call him, but it's obvious who and what he is, and always has been. As are all the Musk and Trump cuckold fanboys.

The tragedy, the truly incomprehensible reality, is that this insufferable imbecile is actually an improvement on the previous president! At least this one is honest about his lunacy, and doesn't pretend his intense self interest and allegiance to billionaires and genocidal monsters is some sort of "progressive" decency.

[um]

@ Manjit

In the Italian dark humor movie "Brutti, sporchi ed cattivi" / the ugly, dirty and bad, there is a scene, if I remeber well where the father knowinly shoots his son that tries to steal from him and after that laments him.

No problem for the Italian mind that is quite good at preventing psychological dissonance....looking at a person as an thief and the next moment as son ...hahahaha

hahahaha ,,.. the days I came to know about the wisdoms of the east
For those that have a strong stomach ...hahahaha
https://www.effedupmovies.com/ugly-dirty-and-bad-1976/

[um]

Hahaha ..kranvir and other bad language lovers should all see that movie so that they can understand what real shouting from the heart is all about
Hahahaha

[manjit]

Hi Um.

The human psyche is a very strange thing!

Thanks for the link, that looks like a great website! I'm going to have to find some movies to watch, looks like lots of great films I may have missed there. I love effed up films 😅

Maybe I'll start with the one you've just referenced....

[um]

@ Manjit

Well if you have a strong stomach, do so.
I am curious how you and others could digest it.
Understanding italian, is a great bonus ...Italians are very vocal

[sant64]

Try to understand. Put down all the hysteria about the world coming to an end, put aside the bs about people starving to death, pause the TDS for 5 minutes, and try to understand why it makes sense to audit the government.

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1888872418812281262

[um]

@ Sant 64

>> ..... and try to understand why it makes sense to audit the government.<<

Nothing wrong with that, santo ji ....nothing at all ....BUT ...BUT ...BUT
there can anything and all be wrong WITH .....

WHO does it
and ...
WHY
and at
WHAT COST
for
WHOM

Just seeing the body language of those gentlemen ..Mr. Trump and his Lieutenant Mr. Musk gives makes people like me wonder if it is in the very interest that needs the most.

[um]

And Santi Ji

It can not be said often enough ..forget about those that give orders, those that are in the lime light ...be aware of those that act in their name

The president and the prime minister of Israel, do not enter the prisons were the Palestinians are held, nor do they torture, they do their best not to know anything about it and try to be called in history books as saviors of the nation ...they was h there hands in innocence ...but wait... maybe a week, a month a year or longer but that we will know what evil is done in THEIR NAME

Your presidents are nothing to worry about but those that are made to act in their name, ...you call them red necks .. people with minds and bodies poisoned by anger.

Be aware of them and YOU Sant see to it that you do not become one of them.

[Ron E.]

Goodness me. Just heard Trump say we'll go back to plastic straws as paper ones are rubbish and plastic straws won't hurt the shark.

The man has no understanding of the real world and how plastic degrades into micro plastic and infests the ocean food chain.

[sant64]

Trump has done a lot in the last 2 weeks. I doubt if any president has done more in that time span.

Putting aside for a moment whether you like what Trump's doing, the contrast between his actions and those of the previous administration is stark, to say the least. In the last 4 years, what did Biden and his team do to make life better for Americans?

Yes, right now you're thinking hard to come up with anything!

Let me help you out. In the last 4 years, the progressives spent all their time and energy doing this for you:

1) Wasting money on efforts to stop climate change.
2) Crying about January 6th
3) Crying about abortion
4) Crying about the Supreme Court
5) Doing everything they can think of to put the last president in prison
6) Supporting men in girl's bathrooms and sports teams

Honestly, that's about it. That's the sum of what the progressives did these last 4 years, while they kept the border open. (And they still don't understand why they lost the election).

So what is Trump doing? In short, he's battling the bloat of bureaucracy. And that's no small thing.

It turns out that billions and billions of our tax dollars are wasted or stolen. This has gotten worse every year, and it's something that the Dem Progressives have done zero about. Why haven't the progressives done anything? Because much of this wasted and stolen money is going into their pockets.

Again, this is why it's beyond ludicrous to claim that Trump became president to somehow create waste to give to his friends.

Everyone in America should be FOR reducing the bloat of bureaucracy. This evil is everywhere.

For example, it used to be that health insurers only took about 5% of what you pay on your premium. Now it's upward of 30% that they're skimming. University administrators have likewise ballooned; the more people they hired, the more expensive an education.

And that's just the private sector. Government spending from city to federal is far worse, and far more bloated. That means $ out of your pocket, going to things that do not help anyone.

And it means our national debt is at a critical level.

What is the progressive solution to this serious problem? No audits, just more taxing!

Trump and Elon's efforts to audit the government and cut the waste is something everyone should support.

[sant64]

Here's the deal:

1) We are taxed
2) Taxes go to USAID
3) Progressives create an NGO
4) NGO is funded by USAID
5) Progressives in NGO do zero real work
6) NGO pays progressives huge salaries
7) Progressives donate salaries from NGO to DNC and other progressive orgs

This is why the screaming from progressives. They're not worried about big balls stealing their credit card info. They're screaming because they've been running a scam for decades, got caught, and are freaking out that the gravy train is about to stop.

[um]

@ Sant 64

On our TV there was an program were was explained that the US-AID was a tool of your CIA, to influence local politics all over the wiorld.

[Jim Sutherland]

@um,..instead of nosing in to U.S. Politics, you should notice more important events in your own area! Especially, contributing your 5% share to keep Russia from invading your borders, instead of continuing the bad mouthing the U.S., who has been paying your share to protect non contributors and free loaders from being invaded by Putin.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2024/02/26/sweden-now-a-part-of-nato/72748762007/

[um]

Hahahaha ..Jim

These 5% are for you military industry that produces the machinerie ...hahaha

Don't get upset whether I say something or not doesn't change the facts of life.

Remember ..america first ...and if you are ready with that .... remember the mentality of those that escaped from Europe

We are just a "forward military post" for the american interests

America firs and
Inside america
who is first?

hahahaha ...I'll make me some coffee

[Jimmy]

God created this world and Trump. Why should I worry?

[um]

@ Jimmy

That depends how his actions will affect your life.

[Jim Sutherland]

@um,…when I traveled BOTH Sweden and Denmark, several years ago, both Guides of each country were still complaining about the War Booty the Swedes stole from Denmark in the 1600s, and still refuse to return! In fact, Denmark isn’t the only country Swedes have ransacked either, before they started free loading to other Countries for protection.
But once they join NATO, their free loading is now over. PAY UP!

https://www.historynet.com/the-war-over-plunder-who-owns-art-stolen-in-war/

[sant64]

Still don't understand?

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1889400433132630126

[sant64]

Still don't understand?

https://x.com/WallStreetMav/status/1889415361109373328/photo/1

[um]

@ Jim S.

The Abrahamic religions have a MISSION.
They inherited that divine order from their father, that got it from his God.

Just think for a moment Jim.
Take a sip of coffee
And than let it linger in your mind what the so called divine revelation to just one man caused to humanity

You see it working out now in Gaza and in the decisions your president is going to take
...forcing all palestenians out of BIBLICAL Israel = The promised land = promised to just ONE person = an elder from a nomadic tribe in search for l;and to settle down = without other elders than and until today being informed.

Just let it linger in your mind for a moment, what has happened

Peace can only be when these religions are no longer around to be used as an divine excuse to subdue the rest.

and when you let it linger in your mind think about Nagasaki, Vietnam, afghanistan, Irak, Syria etc ..and you will have an idea what is going to happen in the middle east.

[sant64]

And if you s t i l l don't understand...
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1889442712983630013

[sant64]

..and if you still don't get it, and say it's somehow very rude to audit USAID because you have a friend who worked there and he died so we should just leave it alone (true story, someone actually said that)...

https://x.com/bennyjohnson/status/1889428073004544145

[Jim Sutherland]

@um,….there is nothing new under the sun, since the beginning of creation, and the birth and dominance of Male humanoids. As long as humans keep incarnating, than nothing will change.

If born a Male, than your mission is to fight.

If your born a female, that your mission is to f - - k!

So if born ugly, than just exist with out doing much of either.

Nothing changes, in the big picture, in material realms.

There will always be another dominant to replace the worn out relics of the past, forgotten in history.

Yes, I am a Seeker! I seek to experience hidden secrets of the Universe not yet exposed to the walking dead humanoids that are only interested in fighting and f - - king!

We are all fractals of the Whole, where all history of the Universe is revealed, to those Seekers who know how to unlock the Gate to The Kingdom Within. Fractals only know tiny portions of the Whole, while The Whole knows every thing that the totality of fractals know.

We Seekers keep discovering what’s within, while you others keep fighting and f - - king, and killing each other.

The only things of value I have ever experienced were discovered within , within the layers of hidden consciousness, never taught by the fighters and f - - kers!

Enjoy your coffee, while I keep seeking my next new Revelation never taught by humans !

[arun marwah]

Thank God and Thanks to Donald trump for ending this farce of charity by USA under USAID. USAID was involved in destabilising elected govts everywhere in the world. This agency was used by CIA to fund wokes and anti nationals in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and everywhere else. We do not need American charity. Let them look after their own homeless.

[sant64]

So I get into it someone who keeps spewing the same propaganda as if anyone who voted for Trump lost their minds and relied on him like God to make our lives better. He also accused me of being willing to sidestep democracy to get the things I want.

I may have lost a friend, because my correction was as follows:

“You folks and your propaganda are nauseating. You think it’s about making my life better? It’s all about me?

You know what I wanted out of Trump?

The same damn thing I wanted out of Obama, Biden, Bush, Big Bush and and Clinton.

Those those things are the following

- Transparency
- A secure border
- Honesty
- Common sense leadership
- Doing exactly what you campaigned on
- A strong military
- An end to political indoctrination in our schools
- Respect for personal freedom
- And someone who would think about America first before giving everything to the world while his own people suffer.

Not one of them came through. Each one of them failed. Most didn’t even try. They just faked it well enough that you are still pining for their pipe dream. But guess who did come through? As flawed as he is as a person, it was freaking Trump. A man I was never a fan of personally but respect because he does the hell what he says he’s going to do or tries.

That’s what I voted for. Not some polished fake politician who pretends to be an angel but is doing the devils work as we are distracted by their platitudes and symbolic gestures that get us absolutely nowhere.

No one is side stepping democracy, genius. By the way, we don’t live in a democracy. We live in a constitutional republic.

But let’s go with your twisted idea of democracy.

Was it democracy when Biden coerced Big Tech into silencing millions of Americans for their opinions and thoughts?

Was it democracy when that old man lied to you and told you he didn’t know about his son's dealings and that the laptop didn’t exist? Because for many that may have changed their vote in the 2020 election if they knew then-candidate Biden was compromised.

Was it democracy when he got 51 intelligence agents who we are supposed to trust, to go along with the lie and call it Russian disinformation?

Was it democracy to force people to choose between feeding their damn family and a damn shot in the arm that is causing damage to a lot of people?

Was it democracy when Biden flew in hundreds of thousands of migrants in the middle of the night without telling us and also opened the borders? Did we the American people have a say in that? No the heck we didn’t.

Was it democracy when if we question elections or vaccines that we get silenced and are forced to self-sensor just to survive?

It that’s your democracy? You can keep that crap bro, respectfully.

Trump is no God or saint but it’s a damn shame it took a flawed man to do right by the American people. He’s showing you how corrupt your government truly is and I’m here for it. No regrets whatsoever.”

[umami]

Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, but sow the wind, reap the whirlwind, and as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. Obviously.

[sant64]

Trump just freed Fogel from a Russian prison. Something that Biden failed to do.

What else?

Oh, Trump just spoke with Putin. Again, something that Biden failed to do. And it looks like the Ukraine war might be over very soon.

What an incredible tragedy that this war was allowed to happen, indeed, MADE to happen by the Biden administration. Remember that Kamala dumbly, foolishly, announced that the US intended Ukraine to join NATO.

Then we had years of the US sending billions and billions of dollars to Ukraine, on a pathetically doomed mission to try to defeat the Russian army. All that's to show for it are thousands of dead soldiers. Oh yes, and half the money we sent there was stolen by Ukrainians.

Trump is finally putting an end to this enormity.

My God you progressives F'ed everything up, and like cult members, you won't take ownership of any of it.

"Take to the streets!" "My friend worked for USAID!" "Doxx Elon's computer experts!" Jesus..

[sant64]

The Constitution is doing just fine. It's the Democrats who are in crisis.

[sant64]

Trump is the hypocrite?

https://x.com/GuntherEagleman/status/1889734112799260967/photo/1

[Appreciative Reader]

Hmm, apparently it is entirely geography-agnostic, a global proliferation of vileness as it were.

The age of Caliban, indeed.

--------------------

We are appreciative of this graphic demonstration of this vileness, this complete absence of the smallest bit of intellectual or moral virtue, that becomes more and more apparent with every comment here. The dramatic, emphatic demonstration of having tipped over irrevocably away into delusion and actually into evil, if an impotent and banal form of evil.

Appreciation, because the demonstration leads to understanding, of a kind, of what had hitherto been a complete mystery. It is understanding only of a kind, because it still does not explain just how human beings can think and believe and feel in this manner; but still, it underlines the nature of what we're up against.

Not that that appreciation leads to anything other than hopelessness, as one contemplates the nature of large swaths of one's fellow man, and the nature of the world one lives in, apparently. But clear understanding is better than its lack, no matter how dank and dark the reality.

[Burningincense]

Fawning over politicians is like fawning over cult leaders—same script, different robes.

Just human, all too human. The need to kneel never really goes away, does it?

Sure, acknowledge the good, criticize the bad—but if your admiration starts sounding like scripture, maybe take a step back.

Otherwise, it's just hero worship with a ballot box.

And let’s be real: in this forum, those who breathlessly defend Biden or Trump were probably chanting mantras in some guru’s ashram not too long ago. The incense has changed, but the devotion remains the same.

[sant64]

Don't look at Elon & Trump the wrong way -- This is what it's all about. Great things are in store for us -- here's why. Here's why cutting waste will have such a great effect on everyone in the US.

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1890291174508056688

[um]

@ Sant64

In one of the books of Dr. Woei-Lien Chong, lector in Chinese Filosophy, on Taoisme she has Lao Zi say, that both in times of war as of peace:

"The gentle forces will win in the end."

The author, adds:
He who rules with gentleness and compassion does not create friction among the people, which,
[1], creates space for mutual flourishing, and
[2], does not build up aversion, that ultimately leads to the overthrow of the one who rules,

[manjit]

Burningincense wrote: "And let’s be real: in this forum, those who breathlessly defend Biden or Trump were probably chanting mantras in some guru’s ashram not too long ago. "

I have said pretty much the same thing to Sant64, aka YN from the RSS forum, a while back!

I'm glad you mention both Biden and Trump cultists though. There is no doubt they are merely two sides of the SAME IDENTICAL COIN.

You seem somewhat familiar with YN despite the new and anonymous username?