The decision to make the above headline to this post was deliberate, because frankly, I would have been shocked years ago to think that something like this would ever become the norm.
As a sign of just how far we have fallen as a nation and as a people, headlines like these not only fail to shock people these days, but have indeed become pretty much standard, every day headlines. Nothing to see here, folks, just keep going about your day.
And you know what?
I am tired of it, too. Had this been any other president, even one who I did not like, such as George W. Bush, it would have truly been shocking, and rightly regarded as a new low. People likely would have condemned it as not just unpresidential, but incredibly immature and disrespectful. It would have possibly become Bush's legacy.
Now, we have a man in the Oval Office who is so incredibly immature, that you not only expect him to lash out at a teenager who he clearly feels threatened by, and who is also clearly stealing some of his thunder, but if you are honest, you will admit that it would be shocking if he did not lash out publicly, in some form or other.
Trump was warned not long ago by retiring New York Republican Representative Peter King not to punch down. But this man - rather, this poor excuse for a man, let alone a president - cannot help himself. He does not have it in him to be a better person, to rise above. He simply cannot let anything pass that he feels takes away from the attention, from the spotlight of the world, always being squarely on him, all of the time.
Nope, this man who many Evangelicals feel embodies Christian values, attacked Thunberg and took shots at her being named "Person of the Year" by Time Magazine.
Clearly, a title that he wanted for himself, and feels deserving of.
Has anyone ever told Trump that Time's "Person of the Year" does not necessarily go to the best person, or the person who it is felt did the most good? Hitler was voted "Man of the Year" by Time. So was Josef Stalin. This is not an endorsement by the magazine of the best values, only the person who had the most impact.
And let's face it: considering how openly mocked Trump was at the NATO meeting just a week and a half or so ago, and also how a growing number of countries are going ahead with treaties and world bodies without the United States, increasingly simply ignoring Trump and clearly no longer taking him all that seriously, I think that this is fair. Trump's ridiculous behavior had some shock value at first. It widened people's eyes, mostly in horror. But his act has not changed much. Hell, it has not changed at all, frankly. And by now, it has grown old and stale. Frankly, Trump's behavior is not mysterious, and once you get used to it, it becomes frankly boring and predictable.
Even I looked at the story and just rolled my eyes.
Hell, I was not even going to post it, until I realized that this was a 73-year old man, supposedly the most powerful man in the world, who is taking petty shots at a teenager.
And it occurred to me that we really should not - frankly cannot - get used to this kind of behavior or think of it as somehow acceptable.
Yet, I grow tired of it, too. It seems so obvious, so basic. A powerful man should not be picking on a teenager. Duh.
But somehow, we have sunk so low that this obvious thing is apparently not so obvious. Tens of millions of his supporters - the most stupid and blind ones, frankly - will go out of their way to excuse this behavior, to make it seem normal or justifiable. It is neither.
Perhaps worse, though, are those people who still support this man, even while holding their noses or turning their faces away in disgust at this man's behavior. They should know better. They should hold him to certain standards. We are not talking about impossibly high standards, here. Just clearly grown up standards, to prove that this man really is an adult.
Clearly, though, he is not an actual, real grown up. He is still a child, stuck in an elderly man's body. He can comb his very thin hair any way that he wants to cover his bald head, and he can get as many fake tans as he wants. He can claim to have a tall build and an athletic build that his actual, flabby body proves a lie as often as he wants. But he cannot pretend to be younger in any real fashion. He is an old man, and he should know better. The fact that he does not know any better is telling. The fact that tens of millions of people endorse this behavior by blindly supporting him is, frankly, unforgivable and inexcusable.
Obviously, I went ahead and wrote something on this, because we cannot normalize this ridiculous behavior. We cannot turn away and pretend that everything is fine, even if we are all sick and tired of such stories. There is nothing normal about any of this. Trump is a sick man, and I am not saying that in anger right now. Nor am I saying it to be humorous, which I have done sometimes before. There are times when I feel free to mock Trump, because he makes it so easy. But there are also times like this where it really just all grows old, and I want to return to the days when we did not have to see such absurd stories and headlines about still more atrocious behavior from the man elected to be President of the United States.
No, I was not smiling when I saw this story. I was not even angry. I did not think about writing something to express my outrage, or to mock Trump. By now, again, we are all so used to it, that my reaction was probably shared by countless others. It was just a numb feeling. Just another day, just another unthinkably ridiculous headline that simply would not have seemed possible even five or ten years ago.
And that, I think, is the danger. Because this really should be shocking, this should be repulsive. Instead, it all just feels incredibly repetitive.
Again, my own reaction was just to roll my eyes, and move on.
Then, I went back to it, after giving some pause. Because again, we cannot allow ourselves to grow numb to this sort of thing. There is absolutely nothing normal about this, much less acceptable. Whatever you think of Thunberg, she is a teenager. One who is concerned about a crisis that most scientists in the world community have been warning about for decades now. One that this president does not believe in, and openly mocks. Like he mocks anyone and everything that he feels displeased with at any given moment.
Even a teenager, even in the most public manner possible.
During the holiday season. This supposed champion of Christmas values cannot even keep his filthy mouth shut for five minutes, or for even one story that does not even really concern him. I mean, he is literally whining about not being the center of attention enough for Time to have been the biggest newsmaker of the year.
But again, Trump is not the biggest newsmaker. Sure, he makes a lot of headlines, but that is because he is trying so damn hard. If he did not say so many shockingly, mind-numbingly stupid things, maybe people would quickly realize the obvious: this man has absolutely nothing to say at all. Certainly, nothing of any substance.
The whole world has not stopped because Donald Trump is on the scene. The budget deficit continues to grow, as does the national debt, and all Trump has done is what his predecessors have done: added to it. He pulled out of the Iran Nuclear Deal, but the other participants are trying to form a new deal, without the United States. He pulled his nation out of the Paris Climate Accord, but the rest of the world, again, is going on without him, and without the United States. It is like this with almost everything. He seems to be making a point of making his country less reputable, less prestigious, and, frankly, less relevant on the world stage. Many countries and world leaders are basically ignoring Trump. That was probably the problem during the NATO meeting of world leaders, before they ever mocked him and got caught. They were basically ignoring him, and that is the one thing that Trump absolutely just cannot stand. And increasingly, others are doing it, too. Because insults may be shocking for a while, but when people realize that that is all that you've got, they begin to get bored with you, and turn to something new, perhaps even something a little more substantive. It seems to me that this is what Time did.
After all, it was Time magazine's decision. Take shots at them, if you would like. Not the teenager who actually has made world news for holding world leaders accountable.
The whole world is watching this.
How humiliating!
How disgraceful!
Just for the record, this is the news article that I ran into about this story. it is from NBC News, and this is a snippet that serves as a good enough summary. The names and dates change, but the basic gist never does: someone does something that displeases his highness, and he lashes out, typically, with immature little tweets that betray his still astonishing immaturity.
Oh, and by the way, Trump claimed in dismissing Thunberg being shosen that she is ruining Germany. She is not even German.
Add astonishing ignorance to his astonishing immaturity.
Here is the summary:
“I told you @TIME Magazine would never pick me as person of the year despite being the big favorite. They picked person who is ruining Germany.”
"So ridiculous," Trump tweeted. "Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!"
Thunberg soon updated her Twitter bio to reflect Trump's comment, writing: "A teenager working on her anger management problem."
"Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend," she added.
Here are the links to the sources used for this story:
Why Time picking Greta Thunberg will drive Donald Trump crazy Chris Cillizza Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large Updated 11:16 AM ET, Wed December 11, 2019
https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/11/politics/greta-thunberg-donald-trump/
Trump mocks Greta Thunberg after she wins Time Person of the Year "So ridiculous," Trump tweeted. "Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!":
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-mocks-greta-thunberg-after-she-wins-time-person-year-n1100531?fbclid=IwAR2kxbxcz-VeZ2Hz7NqgvOQDKHr0LqFZVTIZ1WAKGN2hFSRKzTSdaSYAFN4
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