"Oh, Trump's not so bad. He can be nice and friendly. "

[leftyladyfrommo]

Quote from my clerk at the CBD store.

She is probably around 40
Just a guess.

Turns out she just has god awful taste in men. She has a history of very violent encounters.

It really floored me because she is very liberal about other issues.

[NanananaFatman]

1. Encourage her to see a therapist

Clearly she’s got issues.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. I heard similar memes about Trump about 30+ years ago.

My friend's husband was a subcontractor for one of his casinos in AC. She met him and found him very down-to-earth and friendly. She couldn't believe that he swore every other word and had a very nasty side to him.

[left-of-center2012]

3. Trump "swears every other word" ?

I don't think I have ever heard that about him before.

Hate him as much as I do,
that seems like something we would have heard before.

[no_hypocrisy]

6. If you can find a copy, read "Trumped" by Jack O'Donnell.

He cites the swearing. He was Trump's main executive.

[Scrivener7]

5. My dad's friend had a sprinkler company and subontracted to do all

the sprinklers in one of his early buildings. I remember my dad being jealous because it was such a big job and such a good connection. That kind of job could make or break a smaller company in those really difficult days in the NYC construction industry.

Of course tfg never paid for the sprinklers and put the guy out of business for no reason other than that he could.

A bullet dodged there.

[John Ludi]

4. Not sure why it is

but for some reason I've always had the ability to look at MOST people's faces and see their innate character. Trump was easy to peg, way back when I first became aware of him decades ago. He was the smarmy amoral "it's OK if I do it" boss figure that only succeeded by starting out in life ahead of everyone else.

I used to think that everyone had this ability and people's nature just broadcast itself pretty obviously to all around. As I came to find out in my late teens, that's not true. Though it's not the case for everyone, I'm certainly not the only person who does this; I've had a great many friends who have said of an acquaintance or coworker "can't anyone else see how that guy just EXUDES ethically-challenged scumbag?"

So my conclusion over the years has been that either people are blind to what seems to be written in plain sight OR they they see it and ignore it for strategic/situational reasons...or they don't care...or they actually like and admire it.

As it has turned out, after five+ years of Trump shitting all over our culture, the latter comprises a MUCH higher percentage of the population than even MY cynical self thought likely.

[leftyladyfrommo]

8. It was a shock wasn't it. Who could have dreamed

that one man could come in and do so much damage.

[John Ludi]

9. It's always

a chicken or egg question for me; is it the individual or is it a tidal force of history? If a Trump or Hitler or Pol Pot didn't happen, would some other horrible creature have gurgled up through the drainpipe to hell to open Pandora's Box?

[leftyladyfrommo]

11. It's rising all over the world. I can't make sense

Of it. Why do people all over the world want to go back to authoritarian governments?

[John Ludi]

14. It would take an essay

for me to put out all MY pet theories on it...but I think that, at the heart of it, it's a fear response from having hit a very solid Limits to Growth ceiling. Too many rats, too small a cage, too little cheese. The heavy-handed strongman daddy figure who will punish (or more to the point, eliminate) all the alleged "bad people" is a desirable figure in our rush-to-extinction. It's happening on a unconscious level, of course...most people don't look that deep into themselves to see their real motivations...which are largely based on a lot of legacy wiring, biologically-speaking.

Just my take on it...could be wrong.

[leftyladyfrommo]

15. People all over the world have a much higher standard

of living than the did 40 years ago. Sure there are still lots of poor people but there were lots 40 years ago. Too.

I think it's a lot tribalism. And the last WW was 75 years ago and most of the people who lived through it are gone. People forget. They weren't there to experience how awful that war was.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

20. Thanks to TFG, millions have self-identifed as anti-democratic.

In just one day we got a census of just how many fuckwads live in the U.S., and where they're located. It would have taken an army of grad students a decade to accumulate a less accurate database to analyze. The first conclusion: there are a lot more who prefer an autocracy than we thought.

[Ferrets are Cool]

7. Only when there is something to be gained by him

[tanyev]

10. If he wants something from you he can turn on whatever he has that passes for charm.

Not sure where a clerk at a CBD store would have ever seen that.

[leftyladyfrommo]

12. Good question. nt

[leftyladyfrommo]

17. She said she knew men that were way worse than Trump.

I just can't imagine being attracted to Trump...

[Irish_Dem]

13. They used to show pictures of Hitler with dogs and children.

And said the same thing as this lady.

[uponit7771]

18. +1

[llmart]

16. It would certainly help if more people would educate themselves...

in the basic, universal characteristics of anyone with narcissistic personality disorder. These people can absolutely charm people. They usually rise to the top of organizations/management because it oftentimes goes hand in hand with compulsive lying.

I had actually never knew about the personality disorder until several years ago when I experienced working for a boss who had NPD. A coworker who had a background in psychology and psychiatry told me that she almost immediately spotted this boss for one with NPD. She gave me some basic info about it and urged me to learn all about it so I would know how to deal with her. I ended up quitting almost immediately once I learned that there is NO changing someone with malignant NPD.

As a side note, that particular boss eventually got fired and moved out of state and got an even better job, but eventually she got fired again after only two years when some of her subordinates went to the press and spilled the beans on how this woman treated subordinates. This was in a large public entity, not a corporation.

[leftyladyfrommo]

19. My mother was one. She was passive aggressive.

She wasn't obviously mean she just didn't do anything to keep bad things from happening. No empathy. No compassion. No emotional support. It's kind of interesting if you can get some distance.

They never admit they are wrong. They never apologize.
And I have never seen one with any sense of humor.

Later she had a psychotic break so she had more problems than just narcissism.

[llmart]

21. Those are some basic hallmarks in all of them.

Especially and first and foremost the lack of empathy. But you are also right that they never admit they're wrong, and if their behavior causes problems it was always someone else's fault.

When I delved into more just so I could understand it, I read that they aren't always necessarily the one who grandstands and is outgoing, etc. Oftentimes the worse ones are very quiet and as you noted, passive/aggressive.

[leftyladyfrommo]

22. Her sister was a lot the same way. She was meaner.

They want to be in control and are capable of doing really terrible things to get control.

The only safe way to deal with them is to not deal with them. You can't win. The goal posts are constantly changing.

[MoonRiver]

23. So Chumpy is her type!

[leftyladyfrommo]

24. Exactly. I wondered about that myself. nt