It is that moment where some people admire an individual’s pathology when it’s enabled by a keleptocracy.
Even in the micro-aggression of wearing a MAGA hat made in China, there’s a pathology at work. But even the secondary characters in Trumpworld have their issues:
POTUS* as kingpin, is easily explained not by analysis but by some very American fascinations with sociopathy.
Americans don’t just like sociopaths. We admire them. What is it about a “free people” that makes us appreciate those who lie to us, cheat and steal from us? Is it the psychological attraction of power unbounded by accountability?
Yet there are added underlying ideological reasons we find sociopaths so alluring. Many are based on our founding myths and colonial history, our vision of an American nation created by noble rebels. From Robin Hood to Bonnie and Clyde, from Gordon Gekko to the bank robber-killers of Oscar nominee “Hell or High Water,” sociopathy has a powerful place in American life.
Lots of people fantasize, "could I be someone else?" Sociopaths tap into deep seated psychological desires for:
1. Unfettered freedom. Once you are amoral, there are no rules.
2. Fearless power. Finally you can do whatever you want. Anything. Wrong or right, it does not matter.
3. Dominance and excitement. Sociopaths enjoy taking power and acting without accountability, because it’s so exciting.
[...]
The Madoff Prize
Sociopaths are now such an important part of our society that they deserve greater recognition (see “The World Sociopath Olympics.”) So I invite you to write in your nominees for this year’s Madoff Prize, which will recognize the Sociopath of the Year. The winner will receive a truly Madoffian prize—a complete packet of Chocolate Swiss Miss.
Bernie Madoff has previously cornered his prison’s market in the popular Swiss Miss, buying all the prison commissary’s supply and selling it out at a profit. Some of his clients revere his pluck. One of his fellow inmates declared, “he’s the biggest thief in history.”
It’s not just sociopaths who admire sociopaths.
www.psychologytoday.com/...
According to Trump, Aretha Franklin "worked for [him] on numerous occasions". A frequent employee or hired entertainer may get to know their employer very well over the years.
There's only one problem. Trump's statement is not exactly true.
Internet sleuths and news agencies alike tried to substantiate that Donald Trump knew Aretha Franklin well and that she worked for him numerous times.
According to Snopes, the Queen of Soul was contracted on a few occasions to perform at Trump-owned properties, but she was never a direct employee of Donald Trump. There is also little evidence the two met more than once or twice—and only in passing—at functions they both attended or where Franklin performed, in the 1990s.
Only two events, both in the 90s, provided photo evidence that Trump and Franklin were ever in the same general vicinity at the same time.
There probably is an argument that the “soft” libertarianism embodied by the Kochs and the GOP has some romanticism about “swashbuckling” privateering, but is largely a pathological rationalization for so-called laissez-faire capitalism.
The reality of social banditry is that more of us are infatuated with the collective myth of Robin Hood as redistributing wealth rather than the Sheriff or King John sitting on their accumulated wealth.
Rand Paul’s pseudo-libertarianism is more about whatever he’s getting from the Russians (and from Trump), while the rest of us might want other outcomes.