It is tempting to think that the current Trump administration is uniquely bad. In reality, in many cases they have continued polices that liberals and Democrats tended to downplay when they were done by the Obama administration. The harsh treatment of undocumented immigrants, the wars, the bombings and drone killings are things that Trump did not initiate but continued and intensified. This is not to say that Trump is just the same as Obama. He is worse and I think that Kevin Drum has put his finger on one trait that clearly characterizes this administration and current Republicans.
Donald Trump has made plain what’s long lurked barely below the surface of American politics: it’s not so much a contest between liberal and conservative as it is between kindness and meanness. God knows, not every liberal is kind and not every conservative is mean. But that’s sure the way to bet these days.
Republicans are mean and getting meaner. It’s now the foundation of their party, and Trump has decided to make it a selling point, not something to be ashamed of. They’re just plain mean and they’re proud of it.
We have seen this in the way the Trump administration seems determined to deny health care to poor people and to cut food stamps for families with children. But nowhere is this meanness more glaring than in the policy of separating the children of undocumented immigrants from their parents and keeping them in detention centers for extended times without the parents knowing where they are. This is not done with any signs of regret but with relish, as if they enjoy doing it. And it is clear that Trump supporters like it.
It seems as if any act that creates pain and harm to marginalized groups is done just because it causes pain and harm, whether it makes sense or not in terms of policy outcomes.
I also seems to be that the goal is for others to lose. If others are losing then by definition you are winning even if you can’t say what you are winning or if you’re gaining anything. So the goal is to make as many losers as possible. And if someone else loses more than you do, you’re still the winner.
Trump has always believed in zero-sum games
“It seems as if any act that creates pain and harm to marginalized groups is done just because it causes pain and harm, whether it makes sense or not in terms of policy outcomes.”
.
With respect to the separation of children from their parents this will definitely have “policy outcomes” favorable to stemming the influx of illegal immigrants. These immigrants are very family oriented and when word reaches those planning to come here of the possible separation from their family members, illegal entry is guaranteed to diminish.
.
Mean? Yes. Effective? Very likely.
.
To the Anarchist every legal encroachment of their autonomy is mean. The reason being that all such legal encroachments are merely political crimes. I see very little political empathy by Progressives and Liberals when it comes to the “meanness” of the State in general.
.
So the question arises as to why the Progressives and Liberals are so empathetic towards immigration policies? Republicans claim the empathy of Progressives and Liberals is rooted in their selfish desire to increase their voting base. That claim is starting to appear very probable.
.
Why can’t we be logically consistent about all political meanness? Oh!, I remember. If we did that we would have to recognize the moral position of the Anarchist.
Seems the price of hypocrisy is worth it to the Statist no matter which side of the isle of meanness he finds himself.
One of the traditional (but somewhat obsolete) meanings of “mean” is “miserly”. It’s not much of a stretch to see Trump in the role of Scrooge.
Quirky, many of those coming across our southern border are refugees, fleeing from violence and persecution in their home countries. Have you no empathy for them?
@ DonDueed,
Of course I do Don. I consider myself to have much more than any of those who by their allegiances and citizenships believe in borders and States.
.
One doesn’t have to believe in imaginary things to have empathy.
I was just pointing out the effectiveness of the State’s meanness. Don’t forget, if you voted, Trump’s your president too. You validated the process.
Republicans are born mean, stupid, and cruel. No one but subhuman monsters would treat children the way these people do.
DonDueed
Quirky considers themself to have bigly empathy.
chigau, that was a good one. LOL
@2 naturalcynic
Frankly, zero-sum would he a vast improvement over what they do. Current Rethuglican policies are negative-sum.
@3 Quirky
A valid, factual analysis of the policy. Now pull your theoretical head out of your abstract ass and realize that they are TRAUMATIZING CHILDREN on a large scale for petty political goals. It is a crime against humanity, far out of proportion of the crime. The Constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishment.
You know what else might slow down illegal immigration? Open season. Go ahead, advocate for that.
Anarchy is a fantasy. You have no way of protected your liberty without violence. If you have to rely only on your own personal strength to protect yourself, you are at the mercy of someone stronger.
You might argue that that is already the case. I might agree with you. The problem isnt any particular form of government, or the abstract difference between State and Private power. The problem is that most people SUCK. Stop pretending they won’t suck if you could just get the right (lack of) government system in place.
Quirky #8
Bless your heart and Have a nice day.
oops
wrong blog
Mark you don’t read very well. Maybe it’s you that has your head in the black hole.
.
I have certainly never advocated for Trump’s policy. I agree it is despicable. Equally, nay I say more so, despicable is every other piece of public policy ever written, including the Constitution. Do ya think some words on paper will save the day?
.
Well words on paper may save the day if those words awaken folk to an understanding of 1st Principles. But the Constitution doesn’t do that. As a matter of fact, its words for example purport to grant Congress the right to steal. Now I wonder just who authorized that.
Anarchy isn’t a fantasy. And you don’t need violence to protect your liberty. You might need to exercise force, but force isn’t violence. When force is wielded in self defense or in defense of others its not violence. Violence denotes the violating of the autonomy of another.
No, Anarchy isn’t a fantasy. It is the only consistent and principled political position.. It is based upon those Anarchic principles we teach our children when they are 2-3 or so. The same principles that as a child you were likely taught. Funny how we believe them to be True and funny how the children can usually immediately understand these 1st principles until they witness the hypocrisy of adults initiating violence when we want them or others to do something. These 1st Principles are as simple as ‘do no harm’ and ‘initiate no aggression against another’. What about it Mark? Do you believe in these principles, or do you consider them abstract?
.
That’s what we first tell them. Then we split their brains by teaching them that government is good and must be sustained by the initiation of violence/theft. We spend 12 years attempting to condition their minds that they owe a duty to those who regularly murder and steal. We try to convince them that government is something more that just men and women forcing us to pay them. We even enshrine documents like the Constitution in the minds of these infant ones, telling them that the opposite principles set forth there are good in order to indoctrinate them and gain their consent to the fraud..
. We then tell them that “all animals [persons] are equal” but “some animals [persons] are more equal than others”. [See the book Animal Farm”. Yes we teach them that some men and women have rights, authorities, and powers that no individual nor the whole majority of people do not even possess. Then we further split their little minds by deceiving them that the Authority/Government is of the People/Majority, by the Majority, and for the Majority when we all know the strings are being pulled by the few.
.
My head’s out of my arse. I have seen the Light for some years now..
And there is nothing abstract about reality.
BTW, thanks for confessing that my analysis of the situation is correct. That’s more honesty than I receive from many others with whom I converse.
liar
…And there we see the single issue fanatic in full gallop.
“. These immigrants are very family oriented and when word reaches those planning to come here of the possible separation from their family members, illegal entry is guaranteed to diminish.”
this was never about illegal immigrants. these were people that were illegally DENIED the LEGAL application for the sanctuary process, and had their kids taken away from them to boot.
IOW, you aren’t even realizing just how bad this really is. I can only wonder if that is intentional, because otherwise I just have to think you are incredibly ignorant, or stupid.
no matter what your answer is of any of those 3 choices, you really need to sit the fuck down and rethink where you are coming from with this.
“My head’s out of my arse. ”
no, it really isn’t. the people replying earlier to you were mistaken.
your head really is entirely up your own ass.
Holms, have you ever known anyone that sincerely liked being lied to by someone they loved or respected?
.
Recall how innocent naive children react when they discover they have been lied to by someone they care about.
.
Humans of below average to above average intelligence have a built in natural faculty that looks to discover the truth and to hate the lie. At times we may attempt to ignore the truth but the truth doesn’t ignore us. As hard as we may attempt to ignore it for whatever selfish reason, the truth still has a way of haunting us.
.
When we are finally honest with ourselves we all confess to wanting to Know the truth. None of us are pleased when we discover we have been deceived. This quality is inherent to all members of the human family. As we mature through this experience we become able to again admit this Truism, if by some chance we lost its Knowledge that we originally possessed in our childhood..
@ Ichthyic, I am sorry that you were unable to discern the fact that I don’t believe in borders that establish imaginary jurisdictions, laws enacted by imaginary authorities, immigration policies, applications or other positive legislation that has been spawned by the State. Google “Natural Law: The Science of Justice”.
.
I am not a Trump fan, nor Obama, nor Bush, etc.. If I could personally fix this I would remove the borders and let whoever have the sanctuary they seek, even personally making some available. That is what Anarchy is all about; there are no rulers or nation states. I suppose all that wouldn’t be free enough for you though. You would still need somebody, some freak in control. Well you can’t have that and be free too. With freaks in control, you and other innocents are gonna get freaked! Check out the Democide and Genocide statistics that have resulted from the imaginary phenomenon you trust and believe in, known as Authority or Government.
I thought the repubs were the party of Family Values….
“not every liberal is kind and not every conservative is mean”
Sure, but many Democrat politicians combine being mean with being sneaky. And that specifically applies to the Clintons and Obama. Really, I’m not so sure if Donald the Clown is worse.
@3: “To the Anarchist every legal encroachment of their autonomy is mean. ”
No, not every. It depends on where that encrochament stems from. To the anarchist authority to encroach has to flow bottum-up, not top-down.
“That is what Anarchy is all about; there are no rulers or nation states.”
The second is correct, the first is not. The point of anarchism is that rulers have to account for and justify what they do continuously, exactly because their authority is directly derived from the people they rule. They can be replaced at any given moment.
@9: “Anarchy is a fantasy. You have no way of protected your liberty without violence.”
The second does not by any means demonstrate the first. Spanish anarchists belonged to the best fighters in the Spanish Civil War. Nestor Machno’s army also did pretty well in Easter Ukraine just after the Bolshevist Revolution. It was them who halted Wrangels’ White Army after a severe battle with Trotsky’s Reds in 1920.
Chauncey DeVega calls this “sado-populism”, in that the desire of Trump’s base to see their perceived enemies suffer outweighs even their own consequent suffering: see
https://www.salon.com/2018/04/13/pain-is-the-reward-heres-what-pundits-keep-getting-wrong-about-trump-and-his-supporters/ and
https://www.salon.com/2018/05/09/timothy-snyder-on-trumps-campaign-against-democracy-he-is-deliberately-hurting-white-people/
@ mnbo,
I wrote “That is what Anarchy is all about; there are no rulers or nation states.”
.
mnbo responded with, ”
The second is correct, the first is not. The point of anarchism is that rulers have to account for and justify what they do continuously, exactly because their authority is directly derived from the people they rule. They can be replaced at any given moment.”
.
This is not he point of Anarchy although some anarchic group may later choose to subjugate themselves voluntarily to rulers within their group or otherwise.
But at that moment they accept rulers they are no longer anarchic.
.
The word Anarchy literally means “without rulers”. Do a search on the etymology.
.
Anarchists do require however that where claims of authority are made by anyone, those claims must be justified and provable.