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DURING THE US presidential campaign, the global public revelled in coverage of Trump’s personal life and character flaws. While obsessively detailing Trump’s bizarre, erratic and asinine behaviour has always been indulgent voyeurism on our part, it did at one time have an overarching purpose.
It was a legitimate means of discrediting Trump. During his election campaign, it was in every left-leaning person’s interest to shine a light on Trump’s weirdness. It was useful to magnify his hypocritical, contradictory and confusing babbling, his zany and disturbing behaviour, and his murky private life, because it was a compelling method of convincing the electorate that this man was incapable of governance. His ham-fisted, incoherent fumblings painted a damning portrait of an unelectable fool.
However, the tabloid-esque fawning over Trump did not end with the election, as it should have. The cult of personality around him persists, but it desperately needs to die.
Trump is now in office
Thanks to a regrettably immutable presidential system, far removed from the parliamentary system in the UK whereby a party leader can be disenfranchised by means of a simple vote of no confidence, virtually nothing can unseat Trump short of an impeachment or an assassination.
This sustained personal attack on Trump’s laziness and ineptitude is akin to a childish beating of fists against a brick wall. We might delight in getting in a few sly digs at the abominable orange balloon animal, but we will not deflate him.
What’s worse, our spiteful self-indulgence actually serves Trump’s aims. We are aiding and abetting him.
We are falling into his trap
When we retch at Trump’s leery comments about his own daughter, when we obsessively speculate about Melania’s facial expressions at the inauguration, when we screech scornfully about how Trump allegedly watched Finding Dory while his immigration ban was being implemented, we play into Trump’s hands.
When we saturate social media with this bloodthirsty salivating, we only help to distract from the real political issues. We only aid and abet Trump’s goal of obfuscation and contribute to his culture of “alternative facts”. It is a poor excuse for political engagement, and it reeks of reality TV culture.
Trump might be a reality star, but that doesn’t mean we should let him play us like one – we should cast this pettiness aside and take Trump seriously. Because as much as we loathe to admit it, Trump is deadly serious. He is the most powerful man in the world, and every executive order he signs brings new turmoil to the lives of people around the globe.
Giving him a smokescreen
Fetishising Trump, his relationships, his flaws, and his arrogance, provides the perfect smokescreen for the abhorrent policies he continues to implement. It shouldn’t shock anyone if Trump did indeed watch Finding Dory while countless Muslims were detained at airports around the US.
It shouldn’t shock us that Trump is a callous, flippant, uncaring monster. His policies reveal that unequivocally. We don’t need to dig into his bedroom to discover his nature.
Trump actively diverts our attention toward the mundane and the unwholesome
If we obediently run after every stick he throws, we are little more than his pawns. He hopes that we will be the sycophantic, shallow, voyeuristic, reality TV, tabloid audience he believes us to be. He hopes we will be impotent and self-pitying, and continue to throw our toys at him.
Let’s disappoint him. Let’s stop talking about what Trump watches on TV. Let’s stop obsessing about his weird relationships with his wife and daughters. Let’s stop craning our necks over the White House fence in the hopes that we might catch a glimpse of him peeing on a bed through a gold-curtained window.
Instead, let’s focus on putting every political obstacle we can in his way. Let’s focus on every action he’s taken that could constitute a crime, and let’s get him impeached before he can do more damage. Let’s share articles about his horrific policies and the havoc they are wreaking in real people’s lives. Let’s share petitions and protest groups.
But let’s not pore over Melania’s facial expressions and pass it off as political engagement. Trump is in office. As good as it might make us feel, reminding everyone what a despicable, aggressive, narcissistic monster he is won’t help anyone now.
Vilifying and cartoonising Trump is simply moral masturbation
Reminding ourselves that this man is a pig and sharing articles with one another analysing how festering and grotesque he is from new angles is nothing less than a worldwide circle jerk that will change nothing. We need to get our hands out of our pants.
Convincing yourself you’re superior to Trump won’t snatch the nuclear codes out of his grubby orange paws. We need to get serious. Because he is a serious threat.
Brian O’Flynn is an internationally and nationally published freelance writer focusing on social justice and political issues.
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Let’s stop talking about Trump….says this author of yet another Journal Trump article.
That’s not what he said. Comprehension isn’t your strong point, is it.
We need these articles. Her husband is an arrogant obnoxious fool and now that his appeal to get his travel ban reinstated has been dismissed, today’s Trump news could be a bit more worrying than normal.
Maybe you should stop clicking & commenting on Trump articles. That’s how ad revenue works. Is this your first day on the Internet?
I read this based on the title of the article and found it quite misleading. I am curious about Melania’s facial expressions and the role she may or may not be willing to take as First Lady. The office as POTUS has traditionally included a spouse highly involved in supporting causes related to children and families. Do not take the following sentence as critical, it is not. I am curious as to whether Mrs. Trump ever had any desire to become First Lady. I’m sure that life has not been the fairytale she may have imagined when being courted by her husband. Now she has found herself in a role in which she is being expected to actively take on causes. As much as having unlimited money sounds appealing to me, her life does not sound ideal.
@Rathminder: We shall have to see whether being First Lady is to Melania’s liking. Reminds me of Princess Diana’s first visit to Balmoral castle and the realisation that her married life was not her own any more The White House could turn out to be a very lonely experience for a woman who appears to like her own space and family around her.
This is getting ridiculous
If ever there was an article that illustrated why Trump won, this is it. Trump is dangerous alright, dangerous to the worldview of SJW idiots like the author of this piece. Trump is lazy now, that’s a new one – the amount of hysterical BS from these people is getting ever more unbelievable.
There there, calm down and go to your safe space.
What does getting serious entail then, Brian?
@George Roche: he mentioned impeachment but impeachment is premature.
We’re gonna leave their immersion on
@George Roche: This months ‘Village’ magazine has a picture of Trump, with the crosshairs of a sniper rifle aimed at his forehead, & the caption ‘Why not’. The liberal left media are in meltdown over Trump. Normally they have huge power over people opinions, but this time they have met a bigger bully then themselves.
The American people voted for him and that’s it. Theres nothing they can do except sneer from the sidelines.
Of course when right wingers do it and it results in a rightwing nut job shooting a politician it’s glossed over. http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/511433 I wouldn’t waste a bullet on Trumplethinskin anyway. He’ll implode before the end of the year.
@Daisy Chai NSaw:
The Huff and Puff Post. That liberal rag?
Worse than the Guardian.
@Zoe Daly: except the American people didn’t vote him in.
This is a patently ridiculous article.
Deconstructing and satirising political leaders, whose policies are as dangerous as they are ill-formed, is actually a time-old way of undermining them. There’s nothing wrong with it.
Do you think, living in Ireland, there’s an awful lot you can personally do to take Trump down? By all means, give your moral and intellectual support to the causes you feel will force our government into national action. Don’t forget, however, that there’s little you can do to influence the political process of another sovereign country, besides giving that moral and intellectual support. In fact, when certain lobbies in the US attempt to do that here, there’s (rightly) outrage.
Satire is a tool of democracy. We should continue to use it.
@Róisín: I dont think the author meant this as satire….Ithink articles like this do more harm to democracy and it is wrong of the journal to give a voice to a clearly biased “journalist”
@Bejasus Bejorrah: Bias is fine, as long as it is not cloaked as no biased rational, as most as the msm likes to potray itself. If a news source wants to be biased, it should be front and center about it.
Agreed. .just the story and let the grown ups decide…also time for the journal to delete the multi account holders ….
@Róisín – Yes, nail on the head. Satire of lunatics like Trump is one of the best ways to address their awful policies. Couldn’t agree with you more.
@FeynmanSays: nice bit of satire there…
I do not believe the article is “patently ridiculous”.What is said is an individual’s point of view and certainly worth reading.Trump,in time,will prove to be a national and international embarrassment to the United States.
Maybe they’ll start hiding him soon the same as enda gets hidden here and America can start trolling the papers and online saying what a terrible person he is
Oh lord, what an awful piece of thrash. Even the author’s pathetic attempt to dress it up as some kind of sophisticated moral high ground blurb was an abysmal failure. I think this person, Brian, needs to get the hand out of his own pants, all of the things he says people should do or say or think regarding DT, he is doing all over this attempt at mature writing.
Even by resorting to speculating on what movie DT was watching while the immigration was being implemented is downright childish and desperate. The obsession with Trump is mind blowing, absolutely mind blowing.
is there going to be any chance that these crappy articles on trump will end soon ? has the internationally and nationally published brian o flynn turned his angst to this country? ..would he do a piece on the many gangsters we have here in ff/fg/sf?
Your the spoiled little brat Brian as far as I’m aware his own people voted him in. Try writing a few articles about the mess in your own country UncleTom.
We need to get serious . . . What exactly are you proposing, an invasion?
Launch a full on assault with your safety pins.
@Jonny: he referred to impeachment but that is a much longer term option.
@Tony Daly: “We need to get serious. Because he is a serious threat.” This is Ireland, can’t much impeaching from here.
@Jonny: Can’t DO much impeaching from here.
@Jonny: rhetoric won’t defeat Trump but hostile international political and public opinion may eventually encourage Congress and the Senate that Trump is a severe liability to US interests.
An emotionally incontinent US President is not just bad for the US.
@Tony Daly: How is that? Theresa May & Charlie Flanagan over there straight away to meet the new administration, not much hostility there. As for public opinion, I blame the liberal media & the Hollywood goons for emotionally manipulating the masses.
@Jonny: it will take time for Trump’s excesses to alienate and infuriate other politicians. Once Trump is seen for what he is, politicians around the world will start giving him a very wide berth. For now, the politicians just want to ingratiate themselves. Politicians are a special breed. They can tolerate what most of us would gag over.
shite article
G W Bush was a similar type of low brow president surrounded by hawks, who reacted to 9/11 by illegally invading Iraq which has in turn has unleashed a wave of Islamic terrorism across the world. Trump has all the hallmarks of unleashing worse on the world, including a rise in fascism, we’re right to be concerned and we’re right to speak out.
@Brendan: a well made point and comparison.
If you think the Donald is “low brow” think again. When a man takes on the Republican Party establishment , the media , the Liberal elites, and the Democratic Party machine and WINS , well all I can say , is if he is “low brow” I will have to assume you have achieved far more than him, you being a “high brow ” and all???
“hypocritical, contradictory and confusing babbling, his zany and disturbing behaviour” – sounds like the average American millennial libtard.
@TehJurolan: except that it is the 72 year old POTUS.,
@Tony Daly: oh good oneTony – pathetic – you’re all guilty of exactly what you accuse Trump of – you’re childish, petulant, exaggerating, lying, moronic, fascist leaning loons. Oh and he’s 70 by the way, you can’t even get that right.
Rarely have I read such a vapid , virtue signalling , hotch potch of Leftist/Liberal drivel. The author pompously addresses his readership under the assumption that they all share his weltanschaung , well wake up, we do not. Not everyone , here, or in the U.K. or in the USA share your hatred and dislike of President Donald Trump, the democratically elected victor of the recent election in accordance with the USA electoral system. It’s about time that you denizens of your liberal leftist media/celebrity driven echo chamber , stopped talking to each other and realised that MANY MANY people are sick to the back teeth of the main stream media, the politically correct brigade, and the various self appointed “opinion formers” telling us what we can or can not think. The whole piece reeked with the presupposition of the snowflake generation that ANYBODY who does not share their outlook is beyond the pale . It’s not new to Ireland, the Liberal Left are the new thought police filling the vacuum created by the decline of the cultural centrality of the RC Church, and you know what ….its EVERY BIT as restricting of free thought.
Ironically, this is the first article about Melania I’ve seen. I didn’t realize people were talking about her.
I’m afraid I didn’t read your article Mr O’Flynn because all I can think of when I see your profile picture is the movie…
“ERASERHEAD”
The article assumes that the people ridiculing Trump are spending all their time trying to find stupid things he’s done rather than study his dangerous policies. In reality most people study the policies first and then do the ridiculing. It’s not taking away from anything.
Nonsense, Melania’s facial expressions tell us all we need to know about world politics
Author thinks he is the voice of us all. Speak for yourself Brian. You might be browning your pants over trump being president but i for one believe that after the tyranny of George W Bush and the pure shnakeyness from Obama and the Clintons, Trump might be the first man that actually pushes on with what he said during the elections and bring about some change for the american people. George bush setup 911 and killed thousands of his own people in order to start a war over oil. But hey trump grabs em by the pussy and we cant be having that, right brian?
Pore? Is that a play on words considering your are talking about her face…..
Abominable orange balloon animal???? FFS Journal. Gutter journalism
No the phrase is pore over did you think it was pour
It may well be the case that the US Federal Judiciary will play a crucial and central role in restraining the abuses of Presidential power by the US President and of his illegal actions.
The granting to the TRO by Judge Robart on the Application by the Washington State Attorney General is the first effective legal curtailment of Trump. It is to be hoped that the US system of checks and balances will contain the excesses of a volatile, capricious and wilful President.
I have no comment on Trump’s hair.
I’m sure it’s a terrific article but all I can think of when I see the head on Mr O’Flynn is the movie “Eraserhead”.
Trump is a dog a rat a lier a boso
To Pore ? Or Pour….??? Hmm
People do, for the most part, have an insight into the true nature and intentions of Trump. He’s been very clear all along. Focusing on vacuous non-issues around him is probably a way of finding some humour or outlet for how powerless people feel to influence anything about the situation.
“Let’s stop talking about what Trump watches on TV. Let’s stop obsessing about his weird relationships with his wife and daughters. Let’s stop craning our necks over the White House fence in the hopes that we might catch a glimpse of him peeing on a bed through a gold-curtained window.”
Not too many Trump critics are doing this, Brian. Most critics are applying the same tactics to Trump as he applies to his opponents. Denigrate them, play up their deficiencies, and thus lessen their credibility. It’s usually done in the context of challenging his latest policy “decision.” He will be destroyed with his own weapons. It will be a good lesson for budding demagogues and for the electorate who bought in to the fantasy.
Whats wrong with the commies is they are jealous
We live in a celebrity obsessed world
@Rosa Parks: That’s why America has a game show host for president.
Brian, Obama was mad in office and Hillary was not a good candidate either.
Trump can be seen as what is wrong with U.S. society while Hillary represents what is wrong with U.S. politics. Trump got in because people hated Hillary more than him in the right voting areas.
…”moral masturbation” See how long that stays up for now lol.
Trump won because Hillary made him win, so the fault was Hillary, as her fault was that she was not a proper candidate as the search engine Yahoo can prove better than google can show.
Hillary had everything wrong with her starting with global fracking, George Soros, arms sales to Saudi Arabia, those who donated to Hillary and to her foundation, her brother in Haiti, Haiti and her charity, her emails, her wanting to declare war on Russia, the way she acted in public, the way she was always with celebs and not farmers, her hubbies 23 victims, the books and films about what she got up to in her past, how Bill and her were CIA spies at college / university, etc etc… She was not a proper candidate but Sanders was?
http://www.un.org/en/ga/third/69/docs/voting_sheets/L56.Rev1.pdf
Under her and Obama, they seemed pro Ukraine and pro neo nazi as well?
I have reported the disturbing story to face book for its politicks views based on male phonography.
Love the hypocritical way the writer tells us we should stop “fetishising” trump because it distracts from the real political issues yet is free himself to comment on his “grubby orange paws”! Lol.
https://www.facebook.com/BlastAvenue/videos/1566668930011636/
Trumps grin at the end just makes me think he is a sociopath?
What facial expressions are they on about….the once beautiful model has had so may procedures and botox she really doesn’t have any facial expressions
have your say