by undo Sun Mar 05, 2017 7:30 pm
You know that GWB was probably reading before bed every night, probably presidential biographies and history books. He probably had a favorite movies list. He obviously enjoys art. He was interested in understanding the world and believed that he could learn from others. He was "dumb" but he was curious and he was at least putting in work to try to better himself. If he wasn't the world's greatest pilot, he at least got through the training and was forced to grapple with the physics of it all and could manage the mental stress of the experience.
It is definitely possible that Donald Trump has never read a novel for pleasure. He's probably devoured shelves of shit like this but he has definitely never made an effort to read up about anything that he didn't already have a strong opinion about or tried to actually learn about anything in the world that he didn't already agree with. Can you imagine Donald Trump watching a movie and actually enjoying it? Getting lost in it and not talking through the whole thing or getting his phone out and looking at Twitter after 15 minutes? Can you imagine Donald Trump giving a shit about art, aside from how much his collection cost or how much he might be able to sell it for? What's Donald Trump's favorite album? He probably likes Frank Sinatra but the idea of him actually listening to music, ever, is just too ridiculous to consider. What does he enjoy? Does he have an inner life? Does he understand science at a high school level? Can he cook his own meals? It's been 50+ years since he was in military school, I don't know if he can really do anything for himself anymore.
We always called GWB "stupid" and we did it in the same flippant, casual way that we're doing it with Trump, and that's really dangerous because it ignores the very serious deficiencies in this man's intellect and imagination that are so fucking huge that it's really difficult for most people to complete the two-step process of both comprehending and accepting. This guy is literally dumb and reflexively digs his heels in against any opportunity to change that.
Being stupid/having a low IQ has been the go-to insult against every president, even actual brilliant dudes like Obama, so it's lost its meaning and people don't take it very seriously anymore. The truth about Trump and his permanently illogical thought patters, ignorance of undisputed facts and knowledge, non-interest in reading, inability to grasp complicated concepts, actual inability to imagine people and situations outside of his own experience, cannot be conveyed by brushing him off as "dumb" or whatever. It's a reality too horrible and preposterous for most people, even his critics, to honestly consider.
I don't know what the point of this post is (probably not to convince anyone here), I'm just trying to wrap my head around this.