Supporting Trump may damage your life
13 September 2024
"If your father or grandfather behaved like Trump, you’d be taking away the car keys, not handing him the nuclear codes."
The Harris-Trump debate showed that Donald J. Trump is barely mentally competent and makes nonsensical statements much the time:
Trump’s life is dominated by delusions, which are beliefs that are clearly false and that indicate an abnormality in the content of thought.
Trump appears to suffer from dementia (declining mental capacity) and severe personality disorders that affect what he says and does.
Trump appears to think that what he sees on television, his main source of information, represents truth even when all objective evidence points otherwise.
Many of us have friends or relatives who are like this but we would never want them to serve in a position of importance.
I believe that many Trump supporters are and will continue to be less successful in life than they would be otherwise, for these reasons:
Trump’s past statements about COVID and vaccinations have killed hundreds of thousands of his supporters who did not follow recommended precautions early in the disease and did not get vaccinations. This is confirmed by the higher COVID death rates in red versus blue states.
The world is complicated and demands a sound and honest intellect to navigate its challenges. Those who are not grounded in reality (i.e. believe Trump’s statements) will fare worse than others.
Although Trump supporters may believe Trump’s version of reality is accurate, the rest of us do not, and we will not respect the intellect and capacity of those living in a world of untruths.
There are many reasons that Americans support Trump, all of which are damaging to the individuals involved because the rest of society finds these points of views reprehensible or at least irresponsible:
Some Trump supporters don’t care about politics and haven’t paid much attention to the election.
Some Trump supporters agree with his philosophy of living primarily to benefit oneself with little to no concern to how one’s actions affect others.
Some Trump supporters are doing well in society but are consumed by greed. They want more and more and Trump offers them that promise.
Some Trump supporters agree, directly or indirectly, with Trump’s prejudices against immigrants, non-whites, women and LGBTQ individuals.
Some Trump supporters have been conned by him, despite repeated warnings.
Some Trump supporters are supportive or indifferent to his felony convictions for fraud, his court adjudication for rape, the judgments against him for fraud and defamation and his leading the January 6 insurrection.
Some Trump supporters claim to be religious (evangelical or something comparable). However, to many of us, their religious training has blinded them to evil and, amazingly, they cannot tell right from wrong or simply do not care regarding Trump.
As noted previously, we should try to listen to Trump supporters. However, we must recognize that their lives may be severely damaged by their support for Trump and the belief system that leads to that support. We should also recognize that evil is contagious and may want to limit our interactions with these individuals and with the institutions supporting him.
Those of us who live in the rational world must do more to preserve democracy and prevent chaos by supporting the Harris campaign and the Democratic Party, even if we don’t agree with them on all issues. I believe, based on my cancer research involving complexity theory, that every action we take makes a difference, even if we don’t see the result. This is analogous to dropping grains of sand on a sandpile - each grain may not seem to have an impact, but eventually, one grain will cause the pile to collapse.
Here are some suggestions on what you can do:
Check your voter registration and make a plan to vote.
Join a Volunteer Welcome session to hear about all the ways YOU can do something to get Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz to the White House.
Ready to start calling voters? Join a daily phonebank.
Looking to take action in your local community? Sign-up for events near you.
Donate to the campaign
Make sure the young adults in your life have a voting plan
Write letters to voters
If you like these essays, please subscribe or share them with others. These essays will always be free. Instead of giving me money, please repost these essays, strive to make our world a better place and try to make yourself a better person.
The index to this blog is here.
I have another blog on Cancer and Medicine.
Follow me on LinkedIn, Threads and Instagram (npernickmich) and Tribel (@nat385440b).
Email me at Nat@PathologyOutlines.com.
I also publish Notes at https://substack.com/note. Subscribers will automatically see my notes.