1  How to Make Deals and Fix Things, or Not

The #toadstool is like a Greek tragic hero, except of course without the heroic part.

1. One of his fundamental tragic character flaws is that he doesn’t understand how deals are made. He doesn’t understand the first thing about it.

   In reality, almost all deals are win/win propositions. Wealth is created by the transaction, and both parties turn a profit.¹ This is the foundation of all commerce, indeed all civilization.

   He, alas, sees things differently:

   • He believes that every transaction is at best a zero-sum game — like poker, or like pickpocketing — where the only way to get ahead is by taking the other guy’s money. He thinks any talk of a win/win solution marks you as naïve.

     This makes him the world’s worst deal-maker, quite the opposite of what he claims.

   • It’s actually worse than that. He believes every transaction is a negative-sum game. That is, it’s a fight, where the only way to get ahead is by hurting the other guy. This is way beyond poker; it’s more like vandalism or lynching. He believes that if he hurts somebody else, he wins, no matter how much damage he does to himself in the process. This is where he crosses the line from “bad deal-maker” to “psychopath”.²
   • He makes it even worse by teaching millions of followers to think and act the same way. This does serious long-term damage to the foundations of civilization.
2. Another tragic flaw is this: He is preternaturally disinterested in solving problems; instead he specializes in deflecting blame for the problems. In other words, he’s not just Voldemort but also Gilderoy Lockhart.
3. He has the world’s worst poker face.

   He tweets about whatever is bugging him. The words he says are lies, but the topics he chooses to lie about tell you a lot. This makes him easy to read, and therefore easy to manipulate.

   Also, he projects his faults onto others. Remember when he accused Hillary of running a corrupt charity? How about when he accused the Bidens of running a scam in Ukraine? When he accused Obama of cheating in school?

Figure 1: Migrants in a Cage

2  Some Examples

1. He thinks it’s a great idea to sabotage the United States Postal Service. Even more than Tricky Dick, he is obsessed with hurting people he perceives as enemies, such as Jeff Bezos, Democratic voters, et cetera.

   He is blind to the fact that his own supporters are getting hurt just as badly (and probably worse).

2. Consider the family-separation policy. Babies in cages and all that. Some observers asked how he could do such a thing, without realizing how cruel it was. The answer is simple:²

   Cruelty is the point.

   He is constantly looking for somebody he can hurt. As long as it doesn’t hurt him personally (and sometimes even if it does), he likes to hurt people. And his supporters adore him for it. They think he’s a tough guy, and that’s what they want to see in a leader.³

   Like most bullies, he’s fundamentally a coward. He picks fights with people who can’t fight back. (In contrast, when faced with a fight he might lose, or even a fair fight, he runs away.)

3. Jar-Jar actually developed a virus-fighting plan early on, but it was discarded for crass political reasons: They figured the virus would primarily kill Democrats.⁴ Since then it has spread to red states, and Rs are dying in droves, but the all-propaganda no-solutions strategy remains in place.
4. Saturday September 5th, 2020, during a “boat parade” to show support for the #toadstool, five boats sank in Lake Travis; several others were swamped but got rescued before they fully sank. This was caused by the wakes of other boats.^5,6

   They all knew what was happening. This is a full-blown instance of the cult in action (not merely a metaphor).

3  The Scary Part: Political Failure

It is scary how few politicians understand what’s going on. Pelosi shows some flashes of understanding (“I know a temper tantrum when I see one”) but more often seems to forget the lesson. Others seem not to understand at all.

As a group they have utterly failed to explain to the voters what’s going on. When was the last time anybody called him out on this?

• He’s the world’s worst businessman. He doesn’t understand how deals are made.¹
• He’s a crybully. He’s so insecure that he needs to constantly pick fights to make himself feel like a tough guy.³
• He’s a coward. He’s not a badass, and he knows it. Anybody who is a real badass can easily manipulate him.
• He’s a malignant narcissist. In other words, he acts like a 3-year-old spoiled brat. His psychological neediness is another thing that makes him easy to manipulate.
• He never solves problems; instead he specializes in deflecting blame for the problems.

It seems to me this is the main thing politicians should be talking about.

*   References

1.

“Win/Win Transactions”
www.av8n.com/politics/peas-corn-economics.htm

2.

Adam Serwer, “The Cruelty Is the Point”
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/the-cruelty-is-the-point/572104/

3.

“Why People Vote for the Bully”
www.av8n.com/politics/goat-pecking-order.htm

4.

Katherine Eban: «How Jared Kushner’s Secret Testing Plan “Went Poof Into Thin Air”»
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/07/how-jared-kushners-secret-testing-plan-went-poof-into-thin-air

5.

Paul Murphy, “The wake of other boats in a pro-Trump parade in Texas caused 5 boats to sink, sheriff’s office says”
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/07/us/trump-boat-parade-sink-trnd/index.html

6.

Scott H Sexton, “boat parade fiasco”
https://www.facebook.com/coscharlie/posts/3691490320862995