Trumpziism cult is a terrible and dangerous throw back to the Middle Ages!
Echo opinion published by Scott Lehigh, in the Boston Globe:
From MAGA to medieval🏰 : How Trump’s team echoes the past
For example, a lawsuit by former SpaceX employees alleges that Trump alter ego Elon Musk ran “his company in the dark ages — treating women as sexual objects to be evaluated on their bra size, bombarding the workplace with lewd sexual banter, and offering the reprise to those who challenge the ‘Animal House’ environment that if they don’t like it they can seek employment elsewhere.”
Which is to say, Musk enabled pretty much the same atmosphere that Defense Secretary designate Pete Hegseth created at one of the veterans’ advocacy organizations he ran, according to a detailed, devastating article in The New Yorker.
That sounds disturbing. Unless, that is, “Animal House” is your lifestyle guide and you believe the Dark Ages are highly underappreciated. It was, after all, an era of traditional gender roles, a time before vexing vaccination regimes, an epoch when everyday life proceeded happily apace, save for those occasional periods when the bubonic plague would swoop in and carry off large segments of the population.
And as anyone familiar with the Dark Ages or adjacent historical spans will tell you, Henry VIII certainly didn’t treat his wives, consorts, or courtiers particularly well, as several lopped-off heads would surely attest. Yet today Henry is considered one of England’s most remarkable kings❗ (born 1491- died 1547 IOW, GMAB😡) (Ahhhh❓ Maybe🤔 Henry was remarkable because he was the father of Queen Elizabeth I - ya'think❓)
Meanwhile, don’t forget France’s Francis I. According to historian William Manchester, he traveled his kingdom exercising the royal “right of the first night” — that is, the kingly prerogative to have wedding-day sexual relations with the nation’s newly married brides.
Sullen brides and grooms may have objected, but today, no one doubts Francis’s greatness. He, after all, is the king who invited Leonardo da Vinci to France. Leonardo brought the Mona Lisa along for the ride, and just think how many grateful Americans now have a prized selfie taken in front of that timeless painting, all due to Francis’s gracious instincts as a host!
History has a trickier time explaining Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who in addition to being a reported groper, also frequently says things that make it seem he’s stayed out too long in the brain-baking sun or has otherwise been touched in the head, and by something much worse than a worm. But don’t forget that George III of England is said to have buried a steak outside Windsor Castle in the hope it would grow into a beef tree and mistook an oak for the king of Prussia. At least RFK Jr. hasn’t done anything like that (Frankly❓ I would not make that assumpion).
And though public health professionals are unhappy to see him heading to HHS, this is hardly the first time self-satisfied subjects have disliked a new ruler. History reports that the people of Bohemia chafed under King John when he took the throne in 1311, considering their Paris-raised ruler an alien sovereign.
Yes, indeed, Trump’s Cabinet nominees are pretty far out there.🚀⋆｡ﾟ🪐｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆💥
As Lord Acton said, we can’t expect great men to be good men.
MAGA supporters seem inclined to support felons (i.e. "Felonx34"), sexual predators, philandering politicians, right wing fake news reporters, wanna-be TrumpBFFs without any FBI vetting ❗.....what is wrong with these insane cult followers❓
I’ve heard from a number of triumphant 😒MAGA correspondents and commenters. Their message? That I am completely out of touch with America, clinging desperately to obsolete notions.
Upon reflection, they may well be right. MAGA America has moved on. Not back to the future, but forward to the past. So I’m trying to look at things through wider and wiser eyes as Trump goes about staffing his new (extremist) government.
Our once and future leader frequently boasts of surrounding himself with “the best people,” and it’s certainly true that the team he’s building is unexampled. So much so that they’ve got me pondering Lord Acton’s observation that “Great men are almost always bad men” — and looking to history for greater understanding.
Some modern sticklers, after all, objected to the way Trump’s MAGA men are treating women. And to those who, like me, apparently cleave to outmoded standards of conduct, that seems like serious stuff.
I’ve heard from a number of triumphant 😒MAGA correspondents and commenters. Their message? That I am completely out of touch with America, clinging desperately to obsolete notions.
Upon reflection, they may well be right. MAGA America has moved on. Not back to the future, but forward to the past. So I’m trying to look at things through wider and wiser eyes as Trump goes about staffing his new (extremist) government.
Our once and future leader frequently boasts of surrounding himself with “the best people,” and it’s certainly true that the team he’s building is unexampled. So much so that they’ve got me pondering Lord Acton’s observation that “Great men are almost always bad men” — and looking to history for greater understanding.
Some modern sticklers, after all, objected to the way Trump’s MAGA men are treating women. And to those who, like me, apparently cleave to outmoded standards of conduct, that seems like serious stuff.
For example, a lawsuit by former SpaceX employees alleges that Trump alter ego Elon Musk ran “his company in the dark ages — treating women as sexual objects to be evaluated on their bra size, bombarding the workplace with lewd sexual banter, and offering the reprise to those who challenge the ‘Animal House’ environment that if they don’t like it they can seek employment elsewhere.”
Which is to say, Musk enabled pretty much the same atmosphere that Defense Secretary designate Pete Hegseth created at one of the veterans’ advocacy organizations he ran, according to a detailed, devastating article in The New Yorker.
That sounds disturbing. Unless, that is, “Animal House” is your lifestyle guide and you believe the Dark Ages are highly underappreciated. It was, after all, an era of traditional gender roles, a time before vexing vaccination regimes, an epoch when everyday life proceeded happily apace, save for those occasional periods when the bubonic plague would swoop in and carry off large segments of the population.
And as anyone familiar with the Dark Ages or adjacent historical spans will tell you, Henry VIII certainly didn’t treat his wives, consorts, or courtiers particularly well, as several lopped-off heads would surely attest. Yet today Henry is considered one of England’s most remarkable kings❗ (born 1491- died 1547 IOW, GMAB😡) (Ahhhh❓ Maybe🤔 Henry was remarkable because he was the father of Queen Elizabeth I - ya'think❓)
Meanwhile, don’t forget France’s Francis I. According to historian William Manchester, he traveled his kingdom exercising the royal “right of the first night” — that is, the kingly prerogative to have wedding-day sexual relations with the nation’s newly married brides.
Sullen brides and grooms may have objected, but today, no one doubts Francis’s greatness. He, after all, is the king who invited Leonardo da Vinci to France. Leonardo brought the Mona Lisa along for the ride, and just think how many grateful Americans now have a prized selfie taken in front of that timeless painting, all due to Francis’s gracious instincts as a host!
History has a trickier time explaining Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who in addition to being a reported groper, also frequently says things that make it seem he’s stayed out too long in the brain-baking sun or has otherwise been touched in the head, and by something much worse than a worm. But don’t forget that George III of England is said to have buried a steak outside Windsor Castle in the hope it would grow into a beef tree and mistook an oak for the king of Prussia. At least RFK Jr. hasn’t done anything like that (Frankly❓ I would not make that assumpion).
And though public health professionals are unhappy to see him heading to HHS, this is hardly the first time self-satisfied subjects have disliked a new ruler. History reports that the people of Bohemia chafed under King John when he took the throne in 1311, considering their Paris-raised ruler an alien sovereign.
But, in a way, that’s an apt metaphor for aging Prince Robert, when duty called, John answered. Although completely blind by the time of the Hundred Years’ War, he nevertheless joined the fray at the Battle of Crecy.
Meanwhile, don’t forget France’s Francis I. According to historian William Manchester, he traveled his kingdom exercising the royal “right of the first night” — that is, the kingly prerogative to have wedding-day sexual relations with the nation’s newly married brides.
Sullen brides and grooms may have objected, but today, no one doubts Francis’s greatness. He, after all, is the king who invited Leonardo da Vinci to France. Leonardo brought the Mona Lisa along for the ride, and just think how many grateful Americans now have a prized selfie taken in front of that timeless painting, all due to Francis’s gracious instincts as a host!
“Take me to the place where the noise of the battle is the loudest!” commanded the sight-deprived sovereign. And so, just as RFK Jr. charged into the vaccine battle, Blind King John and his knights rode valiantly forth into the arrow-filled air, John swinging his sword so wildly as to endanger his own entourage.
Yes, the king and his knights perished during that foray. But history has no truck with minutia. Today they are remembered as romantic heroes in paintings and busts in Prague museums and cathedrals — and what, really, can be better than that!
This, then, is what I’ve learned so far in my struggle to understand modern medieval MAGA America. History doesn’t care about character or competence. Tragically, as evidenced in this essay, power is all that counts.
Until the public declares otherwise, that is.
Meanwhile, don’t forget France’s Francis I. According to historian William Manchester, he traveled his kingdom exercising the royal “right of the first night” — that is, the kingly prerogative to have wedding-day sexual relations with the nation’s newly married brides.
Sullen brides and grooms may have objected, but today, no one doubts Francis’s greatness. He, after all, is the king who invited Leonardo da Vinci to France. Leonardo brought the Mona Lisa along for the ride, and just think how many grateful Americans now have a prized selfie taken in front of that timeless painting, all due to Francis’s gracious instincts as a host!
“Take me to the place where the noise of the battle is the loudest!” commanded the sight-deprived sovereign. And so, just as RFK Jr. charged into the vaccine battle, Blind King John and his knights rode valiantly forth into the arrow-filled air, John swinging his sword so wildly as to endanger his own entourage.
Yes, the king and his knights perished during that foray. But history has no truck with minutia. Today they are remembered as romantic heroes in paintings and busts in Prague museums and cathedrals — and what, really, can be better than that!
This, then, is what I’ve learned so far in my struggle to understand modern medieval MAGA America. History doesn’t care about character or competence. Tragically, as evidenced in this essay, power is all that counts.
Until the public declares otherwise, that is.
Sinclair Lewis: 
Labels: Animal House, Boston Globe, Elon Musk, MAGA, Pete Hegseth, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Scott Lehigh
posted by Juliana L'Heureux | 2:40 PM
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