CSotD: Trump l’Oeil
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The difference between trompe l’oeil and Trump l’oeil is that the first is an artistic technique that relies on the skill of the artist to create an illusion, while the second is a political technique that relies on the loyalty of the viewer to preserve an illusion.
Wuerker has it right: There’s nothing clever on the part of the artist in this. Rather, he’s shrewd enough to know that he could shoot someone in the middle of 5th Avenue and his loyal followers would barely notice, much less be disillusioned or repelled by his actions.
The technique is known as “walking in like you own the place.” It’s the sort of jaw-dropping, casual confidence that once allowed two men to shoplift a canoe simply by picking it up and walking out of the store with it, secure in the knowledge that nobody would think a pair of thieves would act with such calm bravado. Though that’s obviously an example of “walking out like you own the place.”
Trump has relied on it most of his life, though I’m sure it helps that his father bailed him out of some financial imbroglios when he was just starting. Elsewise his brilliant career might have come to a premature conclusion, though if he hadn’t been backed with family wealth, he wouldn’t have been able to get into some of those situations.
When I was about 13, I read The Great Imposter and I’ll admit I was intrigued and envious of Ferdinand Demara, but the few times I tried to pass myself off as someone I wasn’t, I was so ashamed of myself that I would stop in midstream.
Frank Abagnale, the subject of Steven Speilberg’s movie Catch Me If You Can is just two years older than me, so perhaps he read the book, too.
But Donald Trump makes Demara and Abagnale look like pikers, not just because he managed to get himself elected President of the United States but because they would cut and run when they felt the walls closing in. By contrast, his comment about shooting someone, and his comment about how women let him sexually assault them, indicate not just the confidence of a conman but confidence so unassailably brazen that he brags about it.
I don’t think it’s a clever plot. I think he falls for his own con.
There are gaping holes in his logic, and Pett wouldn’t be the first person to point out that the Bible contains some hair-raising stories of sexuality that would be banned under rightwing laws, but that’s not his point.
He’s cutting deeper, noting that the Bible is “woke” and so the people who thump it most stridently are against what it teaches. The hypocrisy of self-described “Christians” who renounce every teaching of Jesus Christ has been a burden in large and small ways, like condemning alcohol when Jesus made gallons of it to keep a multi-day wedding party rocking.
But none of them have ever had the nerve to declare everything Christ taught unacceptable. It takes an immeasurable amount of pride and gall to renounce his teachings and then sell a tarted-up copy of his book, while claiming to particularly like a passage in it that doesn’t exist.
There are some that do.
In the Old Testament:
You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns. — Deuteronomy, 24:14
And in the New:
Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you. — Hebrews 13:1-25
There is a census in the Bible, though it doesn’t make a lot of sense on any level. But we’re working on reforming our census so it, too, makes no sense, by counting only citizens, or maybe only counting people who can prove that they are citizens.
I got a passport last year. It cost a total of $150. So maybe we’ll just have a census of citizens who can afford $150 for the privilege of being counted by the government, and of walking down the street without being abducted by masked government thugs.
Meanwhile, though the GOP has long called for states rights, Republicans want the feds to intervene in Texas’ internal politics, and Trump also wants to have the federal government take over Washington DC because a person he knows was mugged, which indicates a massive crime wave.
As Milbrath notes, there’s crime all over the place, including at Fort Stewart, which is already under federal control.
Dear Leader got elected on a promise to round up millions of violent rapists, murderers and drug dealers, but the latest FBI report indicates that the crime rate was already falling, and other reports show that ICE roundups of immigrants include a smaller number of violent criminals than were deported under Biden.
However, fear is a strong selling point when stoked by a confident man.
This bullying con game is contagious: Trump’s loyalist legislators are telling Canada to stop having wildfires because the smoke is troublesome. And like Fearless Leader, they don’t bother to look into the facts before launching their furious diatribes, though even if Canada’s fires were caused by people (only 7% are), stopping them would still be a major challenge.
Perhaps they need more rakes. It takes a lot of rakes to groom 3.67 million square kilometers of forest.
“If seven maids with seven rakes
Raked it for half a year,
Do you suppose,” Langworthy said,
“That they could get it clear?”
“I doubt it,” Ms. Stefanik said,
And shed a bitter tear.
Good thing we’ve outlawed climate change or it would only get worse.
The smoke, that is. We’re stuck with the frauds.
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