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Changing This Bumbling Narcissist Impossible, So We Must Depose Him
Jun 06, 2017
Dear Donald Trump:
I write this short note to you shortly after you have moved to cancel participation of the United States in the Paris Climate Accord. I know that many believe you are a stumbling, bumbling narcissist who does not think deeply about anything but himself and the mood of the base he is so eager to maintain. But I see things just a bit differently.
I suspect you now know full well that climate change is real and is accelerating. Perhaps you even welcome the fascist pressures that are apt to intensify as expanding droughts, glacier melts, rising oceans, stressed water supplies, power outages, extreme storms, ocean acidification, and refugee pressures grow. Perhaps you think that rich people like you can escape the consequences, as large zones of the world are progressively decimated. I am not sure. But it would not surprise me. What some see as a blind tendency to stumble into huge blunders I see as a kind of aggressive nihilism that is much more primed to stumble in some directions than others.
If such an assumption is on the right track, it makes no sense to appeal to you or to try to influence your thinking. You have gone over the edge. It makes the most sense to link protests against your destructive actions at home and abroad to a host of voluntarist actions in localities, schools, universities, churches, universities, corporations and other countries to alter the norms of consumption, to shift the power grid, and to enliven one another. For we know that several zones in the world and inside the United States already feel the results of your destructive mentality and will do so much more in the short term future. We will do our best to hold you accountable for this, as we show as many poor people, working class people, and minorities as possible what destruction your policies are wreaking now and will wreak on their children. Nihilism, of course, is not far away from the pursuit of Fascism.
From this day on you and your ilk have become people to oppose and expose, not to try to convince. We will do the best we can to separate you from your base and to help them to see the con job you have fed them, even as we work more actively upon ourselves to appreciate better than we have in the past the real grievances that propelled so many to take a fateful shot in the dark with you...
Sincerely,
William E. Connolly
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Dear Common Dreams reader, The U.S. is on a fast track to authoritarianism like nothing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, corporate news outlets are utterly capitulating to Trump, twisting their coverage to avoid drawing his ire while lining up to stuff cash in his pockets. That's why I believe that Common Dreams is doing the best and most consequential reporting that we've ever done. Our small but mighty team is a progressive reporting powerhouse, covering the news every day that the corporate media never will. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. And to ignite change for the common good. Now here's the key piece that I want all our readers to understand: None of this would be possible without your financial support. That's not just some fundraising cliche. It's the absolute and literal truth. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. Will you donate now to help power the nonprofit, independent reporting of Common Dreams? Thank you for being a vital member of our community. Together, we can keep independent journalism alive when it’s needed most. - Craig Brown, Co-founder |
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William E. Connolly
William E. Connolly is Krieger-Eisenhower Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. His most recent book is Stormy Weather: Pagan Cosmologies, Christian Times, Climate Wreckage (Fordham, 2024)
Dear Donald Trump:
I write this short note to you shortly after you have moved to cancel participation of the United States in the Paris Climate Accord. I know that many believe you are a stumbling, bumbling narcissist who does not think deeply about anything but himself and the mood of the base he is so eager to maintain. But I see things just a bit differently.
I suspect you now know full well that climate change is real and is accelerating. Perhaps you even welcome the fascist pressures that are apt to intensify as expanding droughts, glacier melts, rising oceans, stressed water supplies, power outages, extreme storms, ocean acidification, and refugee pressures grow. Perhaps you think that rich people like you can escape the consequences, as large zones of the world are progressively decimated. I am not sure. But it would not surprise me. What some see as a blind tendency to stumble into huge blunders I see as a kind of aggressive nihilism that is much more primed to stumble in some directions than others.
If such an assumption is on the right track, it makes no sense to appeal to you or to try to influence your thinking. You have gone over the edge. It makes the most sense to link protests against your destructive actions at home and abroad to a host of voluntarist actions in localities, schools, universities, churches, universities, corporations and other countries to alter the norms of consumption, to shift the power grid, and to enliven one another. For we know that several zones in the world and inside the United States already feel the results of your destructive mentality and will do so much more in the short term future. We will do our best to hold you accountable for this, as we show as many poor people, working class people, and minorities as possible what destruction your policies are wreaking now and will wreak on their children. Nihilism, of course, is not far away from the pursuit of Fascism.
From this day on you and your ilk have become people to oppose and expose, not to try to convince. We will do the best we can to separate you from your base and to help them to see the con job you have fed them, even as we work more actively upon ourselves to appreciate better than we have in the past the real grievances that propelled so many to take a fateful shot in the dark with you...
Sincerely,
William E. Connolly
William E. Connolly
William E. Connolly is Krieger-Eisenhower Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. His most recent book is Stormy Weather: Pagan Cosmologies, Christian Times, Climate Wreckage (Fordham, 2024)
Dear Donald Trump:
I write this short note to you shortly after you have moved to cancel participation of the United States in the Paris Climate Accord. I know that many believe you are a stumbling, bumbling narcissist who does not think deeply about anything but himself and the mood of the base he is so eager to maintain. But I see things just a bit differently.
I suspect you now know full well that climate change is real and is accelerating. Perhaps you even welcome the fascist pressures that are apt to intensify as expanding droughts, glacier melts, rising oceans, stressed water supplies, power outages, extreme storms, ocean acidification, and refugee pressures grow. Perhaps you think that rich people like you can escape the consequences, as large zones of the world are progressively decimated. I am not sure. But it would not surprise me. What some see as a blind tendency to stumble into huge blunders I see as a kind of aggressive nihilism that is much more primed to stumble in some directions than others.
If such an assumption is on the right track, it makes no sense to appeal to you or to try to influence your thinking. You have gone over the edge. It makes the most sense to link protests against your destructive actions at home and abroad to a host of voluntarist actions in localities, schools, universities, churches, universities, corporations and other countries to alter the norms of consumption, to shift the power grid, and to enliven one another. For we know that several zones in the world and inside the United States already feel the results of your destructive mentality and will do so much more in the short term future. We will do our best to hold you accountable for this, as we show as many poor people, working class people, and minorities as possible what destruction your policies are wreaking now and will wreak on their children. Nihilism, of course, is not far away from the pursuit of Fascism.
From this day on you and your ilk have become people to oppose and expose, not to try to convince. We will do the best we can to separate you from your base and to help them to see the con job you have fed them, even as we work more actively upon ourselves to appreciate better than we have in the past the real grievances that propelled so many to take a fateful shot in the dark with you...
Sincerely,
William E. Connolly
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