Dealing with two. One of world importance and one just personal. Take the first first and you can probably guess it.
Psychology is not my field. I had to look up difference between sociopath and psychopath. Both totally lack empathy but psychopaths are cold and calculating while sociopaths are emotional, prone to outbursts of temper, and see themselves as victims. Sound familiar? Narcissist. Looked that up. They are center of the universe. Every person and event is about them. Everything they do is perfect. They don't make mistakes. They always win. If they don't win someone cheated them. Trump keeps bringing up 2020 election because he cannot believe or accept he could lose.
Boccaccio wrote
Decameron in 1348 while in isolation due to outbreak of bubonic plague. The first sentence reads
To take pity on people in distress is a human quality which very man and woman should possess
. More than 600 years later, a
Superman movie is about kindness and MAGA heads explode. Superman is woke! A Fox commentator said they will put MS-13 on his cape (I was not aware kindness was an attribute of MS-13 but what do I know?) Kindness is bad. Pity for those in distress woke. Trump gives his cult permission to be their worst selves. To be assholes proudly and never apologize.
None of this is new about Trump or his cult.
But something else is.
I have argued with people, mostly but not all on the left, who use the term "fascist" loosely. Fascism has a specific meaning. Nixon, Reagan, the Bushes, Clinton, I've heard all called fascists and they were not. All were career politicians operating (mostly) within the institutions of what Marxists call bourgeois democracy, or what is commonly called "Western democracies" even when it includes Japan and Australia. Basic laws and institutions of the Republic. Nixon, to be sure, crossed a lot of lines but the institutions held, which was his eventual undoing. Reagan began the practice of naming people to jobs who explicitly opposed the function of that job; a union busting lawyer headed National Labor Relations Board, a woman opposed to sex education and birth control headed Office on Teen Pregnancy, etc. Bush II fired experienced civil servants and replaced with unqualified "loyal Bushies". But bad people can be replaced. As long as the institutions exist.
What is happening now is the wholesale destruction of the institutions of bourgeois democracy and replacement with one man rule. Loyalty isn't enough; you can be totally loyal to a person and disagree with them. Absolute obedience is the standard. Like in Arabian Nights, when the Caliph gives an order and the reply is always "I hear and obey".
When we think of nazism we think of world war and extermination camps but they came later. What happened earlier was the destruction of the normal institutions and crushing of all opposition. Many just surrendered out of fear of what might happen.
Congress and Supreme Court are rubber stamps for Trump. Worse, independent organizations, media, business, universities are lining up to bend the knee. Others are just silent. The unions are not what they once were but still have power. They could shut the country down if they wished. A few are defending immigrant members, which is good, but on the whole, nothing. Some faith leaders have taken opposition stands but many consider opposition to gays and abortion more important. Most distressing to me personally, in 2024 84% of Jewish Americans voted for Harris, 88% of Jewish women. Yet establishment Jewish organization are silent as Trump sends people to concentration camps based on ethnicity. I mean, they should be first to scream! Can they be so naive as to believe a lifetime anti-Semite with a cabinet of Christian nationalists and Hitler admirers is really fighting antisemitism, or even really cares about security of Israel or bringing back hostages?
Sometimes it's too much. I am stressed.
But one thing. Opposition is not crushed. We are still fighting. Mostly we don't win but sometimes do. They have to try Kilmar Abrego Garcia in a court with all due process. They do sometimes back down. So I handle stress by protesting. And protesting again. And tell myself no one ever died of sore feet even when I sometimes wonder if I'll be the first.
That's my first stresser.
