SUNDAY, JANUARY 25, 2026
We Blues don't know how to describe it: Almost surely Ezra Klein's latest column was written before the latest fatal shooting.
Below, you see the (insightful) way the column starts.
But let the word go forth to the nations. In the wake of the latest fatal shooting, one part of our national circumstance should now be abundantly clear:
Trump Just Proved Carney’s Point
“Dear Prime Minister Carney,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. “Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Everything Trump has done over the last week has made him look tawdry, addled and small. He began his latest play for Greenland by complaining about being passed over for the Nobel Peace Prize and ended it by disinviting Mark Carney from his “Board of Peace.” For Trump, nothing—not even peace—transcends his brutish transactionalism.
The president believes, or says he believes, that his cockamamie snd kooky "Board of Leaders" is destined to become "the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time!"
With that, let's be honest, just once:
Does any journalist need any further proof that, at the very least, that most powerful person is, at the very least suffering from some sort of cognitive shortfall? Perhaps from some ongoing cognitive decline? Perhaps from some such decline layered atop something potentially worse?
Cognitive decline is a human tragedy. So is the "lack of empathy" associated with several (clinically diagnosable) personality disorders, including antisocial personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder.
Just to be clear:
That "lack of empathy" is seen as a lack of empathy only when compared to the shortfalls of empathy which are more typical of everyone else. For the record, all of us are gifted with limited stores of empathy. Those of us who suffer from certain clinical disorders are even less inclined to empathy than that.
It's also true that those diagnosable medical disorders may have a physiological base. The leading authority on "sociopathy" starts its discussion of that matter like this:
Antisocial personality disorder
[...]
Causes
Personality disorders are generally believed to be caused by a combination and interaction of genetics and environmental influences.
[...]
Research into genetic associations in antisocial personality disorder suggests that ASPD has some or even a strong genetic basis. The prevalence of ASPD is higher in people related to someone with the disorder. Twin studies, which are designed to discern between genetic and environmental effects, have reported significant genetic influences on antisocial behavior and conduct disorder.
In the specific genes that may be involved, one gene that has shown particular promise in its correlation with ASPD is the gene that encodes for monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A), an enzyme that breaks down monoamine neurotransmitters such as serotonin and norepinephrine. Various studies examining the gene's relationship to behavior have suggested that variants of the gene resulting in less MAO-A being produced (such as the 2R and 3R alleles of the promoter region) have associations with aggressive behavior in men.
The discussion of possible physiological causes continues at length from there. Let's put it in slightly simpler terms:
Some unfortunate kids may be born with a wire hanging loose in their heads! In that sense, a diagnosis of ASPD would be the diagnosis of a disease (i.e., of a mental illness).
It would be a diagnosis of a physiological affliction which leads to certain kinds of behavior. It would be the diagnosis of an illness. It would not simply be a high falutin way of describing undesirable behavior.
Our nation is facing a world of hurt at the present time. That said:
In the presence of the president's ludicrous assessments of his own superior moral and intellectual greatness, is there any excuse for our major journalists to continue along as if they've spotted nothing to look at with respect to this powerful person's overall mental/medical makeup?
There are many problems to be examined in the wake of the latest fatal shooting. For one example, you need to see the way the fatal shooting was reported and described by all three co-hosts on this morning's Fox & Friends Weekend.
It was Charlie and Rachel and Griff oh my! The agitprop was general over the broadcast. The thumbs on the scale were endless.
That said:
Given our current state of tribal division, our nation is currently locked in a virtual civil war. But let the word go forth to the nations:
Some of the problems we currently face originate Over Here, within the warrens of our own Blue America.
Some of the problems are found Over Here! That said, a major circumstance driving all these matters is the president's apparent medical / cognitive circumstance. Journalists who still behave as if there's nothing to see there enable that tragic but dangerous syndrome.
Unfortunately, Blue America's leading journalists don't seem to have the slightest idea how to handle this problem. Long ago and far away, Bob Dylan sketched the outlines of this Blue American shortfall in his most famous song:
Like a Rolling Stone
[...]
You’ve gone to the finest schools, all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it.
Nobody ever taught you how to live on the street
And now you find out you’re gonna have to get used to it...
Many went to the finest schools, but there seem to be things they weren't taught there. Being human like everyone else, they seem to be massively over their heads at this profoundly dangerous time.
As a general matter, we Blues don't see this lack of skill among our own elites as part of our national problem. Massively, though, it is.
Fox & Friends Weekend was awful today, but we Blues have our large shortfalls too.
The madness has been general from MAGA elites in the wake of the latest fatal shooting. (Kristi Noem: Astounding!) If the power stays on in Baltimore even after the snow and the ice stop descending, we'll struggle to begin sorting it out, starting tomorrow morning.
For now, in closing, this:
What will be the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled at any time!
The man from ICE, per law, neutralized the assassin.
ReplyDeleteman from ICE??????
DeleteWhat the fuck is wrong with you?
Gotcha , Trumptard, so it’s FAFO, just like Charlie Kirk. Time to get back on your computer and beat off to a loop you created of a Capitol Policeman wedged in a door by your felon’s mob.
Delete
ReplyDelete"The president believes, or says he believes, that his cockamamie snd [sic] kooky "Board of Leaders" is destined to become "the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time!" "
It's sad that you, Bob, and the Klein idiot are so horribly envious of not being invited. So envious that you can't even type straight.
Yes, sad, very sad. Try to get over yourself, Bob.
You can maybe take up one of the empty seats. It will take a while for them to invite the very lowest dregs to fill them, but keep an eye on your inbox.
Delete"That "lack of empathy" is seen as a lack of empathy only when compared to the shortfalls of empathy which are more typical of everyone else. For the record, all of us are gifted with limited stores of empathy. Those of us who suffer from certain clinical disorders are even less inclined to empathy than that."
ReplyDeleteThis is bunk. Humans have empathy because it provides survival value to a species that has depended on group cohesion to stay alive during the very long period of human evolution. Having empathy is normal. Lacking empathy is a deviation. When Somerby proposed that lack of empathy is normal, he is wrong and contradicts the knowledge of most experts who study humanity.
When Somerby claims that it is normal to lack empathy or to have limited empathy, he is trying to justify Trump's failings and the failings of those in power now -- the people who are pursuing only their own self interest and who don't give a damn about the people they are supposed to be governing. But that is not the normal human condition -- it is an aberration.
The NIH (National Institutes of Health) have conducted many studies showing that empathy is an innate, inborn human trait that appears in early childhood, as when one baby's crying sets off another baby to cry. It is instantiated in the brain via mirror neurons. As children develop empathy is nurtured by prosocial teaching. Somerby's contention that failures of empathy are normal and that humans fall short when it comes to empathy is self-serving nonsense that serves his own purposes of excusing the aberrant behavior of our president and his appointees, notably Kristi Noem, Kash Patel, Pete Hegseth, and others who reveal themselves to be sociopathic and emotionally disabled as human beings.
Nancy Eisenberg studies empathy and prosocial emotion. Her work is a good place to start understanding the role of empathy, sympathy, and social learning:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10751984/
Bob Dylan doesn't excuse Kristi Noem or Trump (who attended military school).
ReplyDeleteSomerby's idea that these people have ASPD and thus are allowed to deviate from social norms because of loose wiring is ridiculous. First, those with ASPD largely learn to obey cultural via other types of learning, even if they lack an empathetic response to the distress of others. Most grow up to be useful and productive members of society, form relationships and live their lives because they are taught how to behave and benefit from that teaching.
It is only when ASPD is combined with severe abuse in early childhood that such people become deviant enough to break the law, hurt others and become criminals of one sort or another (Bernie Madoff is a different kind of criminal than Hannibal Lecter or Donald Trump). Our laws are sufficient to remove deviants from society, and that system fails only when combined with great wealth, so it is the combination of control system failure that produces someone like Trump or Ted Bundy. But the deviance and rareness of such people is a hallmark -- it is not the case that these people are widespread in our culture because we all lack sufficient empathy, as Somerby claims today. That is a major insult to both humanity and to the many kind and good people who have built inter-dependent communities in which people help each other to improve their lives.
The fact that there is a special category in psychiatry for anti-social personality disorder is itself an indicator that this condition is abnormal, not typical of us all.
It seems clear that some cultures value empathy more than others, as a value held by a self-aware society. The right wing seems to be emphasizing cruelty these days. That doesn't make every person on the right a cruel person, but it places value on ignoring kindness as a weakness and emphasizing cruelty as a strength. That may attract those with less empathy (or a desire to be hard) to the right wing. It doesn't change humanity as a whole. The left has similarly emphasized the capacity for caring about others. There are lawn signs in CO urging kindness, and t-shirts with such slogans in the Denver airport. That may attract those who are kind or who want to be more kind to blue culture and community. That doesn't change humanity as a whole either -- as witnessed by the existence of ICE agents.
Somerby's lengthy excuse for the actions of ICE is despicable, on the wrong track, and it excuses wrongdoing that is destructive to our society. But his continuing attempts to blame blue America for Trump and Noem is ridiculous. Somerby has never presented any evidence that these people are in power because of we blues. Today he blames us for lack of courage, which is adding insult to the injury committed in Minneapolis by ICE. If we were the majority in Congress there would be more action to use the law to control miscreants in our govt. We follow the law because we believe in it, while Noem and her crew are destroying evidence of the shooting to the point where the DCI has sued to force them to retain it pending investigation.
Somerby's attempt to blame blue America for ICE shows how shitty a person he is. He should be ashamed, but he perhaps lacks the social emotion of shame, as Trump does. Today, he comes here on a Sunday (when he usually does not write) to rub this shooting in our faces. Who does that? Bad people who our neanderthal ancestors would have left out in the snow for lack of community feeling, thus cleansing the species of cold-hearted evil. Too bad that isn't an option today.
Zzzzz...
DeleteJeff Bezos’ Underlings Are Ordered to Prop Up Melania’s Struggling ‘Doc’
ReplyDeleteIs that the same guy who bought the Washington Post and turned it into a rightwing rag? Why yes, I think it is.
It could be argued that every action Trump has taken in his life has been to ward off the experience of shame (a social emotion that teaches children about controlling their impulses and bodily functions). He lives in a fantasy world to ward off such feelings as failure and social awkwardness. The futility of his gilding his world is more apparent the older her gets and the more clumsy his seeking of approval.
ReplyDeleteThe irony is that Somerby is trying to hint that Trump may have ASPD, an inability to feel empathy for others, but he himself definitely feels small, inadequate, excluded, deviant, incapable of success, etc., or he wouldn't be doing so much, so continually, to cover up those feelings and puff himself up in the ways where he feels lacking.
It is easy to tell what Trump considers to be his own deficiencies, the ones he is guarding against acknowledging, by his coping efforts. The womanizing and sexual abuse of girls and women, including rape, show his sexual inadequacy. No real man has to buy an Eastern European wife. The things he lies about show what he considers his weaknesses, from his height to his achievements (business success, golf scores, compliments from Putin et al.). Now he brags about his Montreal test scores as a sign of his high IQ. He has to tell so many lies because he has so many vulnerabilities that he cannot face. That suggests too much awareness of how far short of norms he falls, not too little sensitivity to his failures. He wants others to appreciate him so he builds a gaudy gilded facade over his whole life. That is not ASPD. Those people don't care what others think of them. Trump clearly does.
Z.. *SNORT* Zzzz...
ReplyDeleteEvery time we are hurt by something Trump does, Somerby comes around to kick us while we are down, claiming that we did it to ourselves by putting Trump in office.
ReplyDeleteThe people who put Trump in office are the ones who voted for him. We blues didn't do that. We are the ones running around trying to fix the damage Trump is doing to our country. That is what Alex Pretti was doing when ICE shot him.
Somerby aligns himself with Trump, Noem and ICE today. His essay is unkind because it name calls we blue voters, but also the entire human race, pretending that we are all like ICE to one degree or another. That is false, but it is worse that Somerby would tell grieving people that we brought this on ourselves by not kicking Trump to the curb, when that is what we blues tried to do, back when Somerby was telling us (falsely) that Biden was too old and Harris's smile was too sweet, and lying about the border.
Somerby and red America own this situation in Minnesota. Maybe it will be the downfall of Trump because people will identify with Pretti and realize this evil could happen to them too, and do something about it. That is a form of empathy -- recognizing that we too can be oppressed because we are no different than illegals in the eyes of Noem and ICE.
It is the message of the holocaust in Germany. No one is safe from tyrants, so we cannot look on from a safe distance and say "those people are not like me, so I will be fine" because that is not how dictators think about you and I. They only care about themselves and that is too small a circle for anyone else to be safe from their violence, especially when they feel threatened.
Somerby perhaps thinks that aligning with red assholes will keep him safe. Perhaps he is identifying with what he considers strength, or the winners. In the long run, there are more of us blues and more good decent people than there are self-serving assholes like Somerby and his would-be protectors (who will abandon him without a thought), so sacred Troy will rise again and those mugs on the beach with their backs to the waves will be soaked and shivering without anyone to hand them a towel.
The ICE agent was probably wrong to shoot Alex Prett. Pretti could have been subdued without killing him. Having acknowledged that, what should be done to prevent this sort of thing?
ReplyDelete1. Better training and selection of ICE agents
2. People stop interfering with ICE agents
3. Walz and Frey stop encouraging people to interfere with ICE agents
Look how Somerby tries to discuss this shooting but cannot even say the victim's name. What is wrong with Somerby?
ReplyDelete