How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways.

[truepenny]

So, I try very hard not to hate people. It takes energy away from things I'd rather be doing, and it's destructive of the soul. (There isn't a secular word that means quite what "soul" does--"psyche" is the closest, and it's not very close. And I'm really talking about the soul, the part of you that struggles with good and evil. Just understand that I don't mean it in a religious sense, but in a moral/ethical once.) But then you get to where we are right now, in a dystopia imagined by Monty Python (the president is "yelling at television sets in the White House," reports the Associated Press), and I realized that, yeah, okay, I've got a lot of hatred going on here, but also that this is not unreasonable, and here's why:

1. The American Health Care Act
   
2. Executive Order 13792 (the one trying to take away National Monument status from, hey, National Monuments)
   
3. The whole thing with Russia
   
4. This new policy rollback with Cuba
   
5. The general determination to undo everything Obama did, just because Obama did it
   
6. His behavior toward Israel
   
7. His behavior toward everybody in the Middle East, even leaving aside the "Mother of All Bombs"
   
8. His behavior toward the Mayor of London
   
9. His behavior toward Angela Merkel and the German people
   
10. His behavior toward the CIA
    
11. His behavior toward the FBI
    
12. His behavior toward the Pope
    
13. Also the appointment of Newt Gingrich's wife as Ambassador to the Vatican
    
14. Ditto John McCain's wife as "ambassador at large." We can see what you're doing, people.
    
15. His stupid-ass decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord
    
16. The ongoing hypocrisy of (a) yelling about "fake news", (b) yelling about "witch hunts", (c) demanding apologies from all & sundry
    
17. The lying, for fuck's sake.
    
18. The excruciatingly blatant nepotism. (Most recently, choosing his event planner--who has lied about having a law degree--to "to head up the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Region II, which includes New York and New Jersey, where she’ll oversee distribution of billions of taxpayer dollars.")
    
19. Betsy DeVos
    
20. The quiet rollback of the federal government's role in defending civil rights
    
21. The catastrophic budget cuts to the EPA, the NEH, and everything that isn't (a) guns or (b) more butter for the rich
    
22. Choosing to mark Pride Month by going to a Faith and Freedom Coalition conference, where he praised the founders of the FFC and of Focus on the Family, both of which organizations are poisonously homophobic
    
23. The "Mother of All Bombs"
    
24. The travel ban
    
25. ICE
    
26. Melissa Ortiz
    
27. That completely bizarre televised Trump-worship circle with his Cabinet
    
28. Remember way back when, when he made fun of a reporter with a disability on national TV?
    
29. And let's not forget the sexual assault thing, either, or the "locker room talk"
    
30. The "plan" (please notice sarcastic quote marks) to privatize infrastructure, starting with air traffic control
    
31. His ignorance of the basics of American history, like, you know, the Civil War
    
32. His atrocious behavior on Twitter after the terrorist attack in London
    
33. The way he fucks off to play golf, like the terrible conflicts he has sparked in his own country (both accidentally and 100% deliberately) don't matter
    
34. His completely casual leaks of classified information (and don't give me that bullshit "ignorance" excuse; a FIVE YEAR OLD would know better than that)
    
35. His complete failure to behave, in any way or in any aspect, like the actual leader of an actual country

Okay, stopping there, but, really, as Vizzini says, I'm just getting started.

I still don't think hatred is the right answer; it makes you into the monster you're fighting. But racism, sexism, classism, ableism, homophobia, xenophobia, plutocracy, religious bigotry, the hatred and fear of education, institutionalized sociopathy: every trend and tendency I hate about mainstream American culture is represented, as beautifully as if he were a metonym, by Donald J. Trump and his leadership of our country. He is actually MORE HORRIBLE than I thought he would be when I had the first of many anxiety attacks on Election Night.

My consolation is that there are a lot of us shouting that Emperor Trump isn't wearing any fucking clothes. I don't advocate hatred--I'm trying to let it go myself--but please don't stop shouting.

Comments

[rachelmanija]

But on the positive side, we know that unlike many if not most politicians, Trump is extremely upset by protests, mean stuff said about him, etc. So every time we protest, it's like sticking a splinter under his fingernails. It gets to him on a personal level, unlike most politicians who couldn't care less. So if we keep on protesting and publicly insulting him, he'll go more and more berserk and hit Twitter more and more, and that may well lead to him getting removed from office.

[archangelbeth]

*nod*

In this case, it does not waste one's time to annoy the pig, to mangle a saying and insult the porcine species.

It's not much, but hey, misery loves miserable company. Let us make him miserable. >:)

[kore]

I think the thing I most hate him and the Republicans for is that appointment to the Supreme Court, which I can't even really talk about without exploding. -- To break the government and deny the sitting President a Supreme Court choice for over a year, simply because they were shriekingly racist about a black leader -- and then turn right around and whine about Democrats supposedly obstructing -- and to have that man pick a justice who will probably set back civil rights and might kill Roe v Wade....The Republicans have been trying to break the government for a long, long time. They succeeded mostly in monkeywrenching it. But I think Trump's reign just might actually trash it, even if he's impeached or arrested or there's a sweep in the midterms or whatever. I think the body politic has been given wounds that may be mortal, and they were self-inflicted by the politicians that are supposed to serve it.

Bah.