The Trump-Shaped Stain : The Damage Done

 

 

"For me, though, the hardest thing to reverse is something more nebulous and disturbing: the way Trump has corrupted our understanding of truth and facts and simple human decency. He has turned the most ordinary commonsensical aspects of life into battlefronts in a ridiculous culture war—even wearing a mask to protect yourself from a potentially fatal disease. And no matter what Trump said or did, around four in 10 Americans stood right there with him. Nothing seemed to dent their support: not the boasts and bullying, not the disgusting insults against women, not the shout-outs to xenophobes and white supremacists and neofascists, not the crude belittling of anyone who disagreed with him, from journalists to Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Trump has turned us into a nation of braying bullies and conspiracy theorists and mean people proud of their indifference to the suffering of others. Maybe that’s what too many Americans always were, but they kept it under wraps for fear of social disapproval. That’s what “locker room talk” means, after all: Boasting about pussy grabbing is fine; just don’t do it where women can hear you. Still, I can’t remember a time when batshit paranoid fantasies like QAnon could infect the minds of so many people, including a newly elected member of Congress."

read article by Katha Pollitt​

The Trump-Shaped Stain on American Life - The Vocal Dissident