{"id":6578,"date":"2016-10-10T04:58:03","date_gmt":"2016-10-10T04:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/?p=6578"},"modified":"2016-10-10T05:09:07","modified_gmt":"2016-10-10T05:09:07","slug":"trump-moral-monster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/blog\/2016\/10\/trump-moral-monster\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump: The Moral Monster Beyond Hope – Post by G. Stolyarov II"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"The<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
G. Stolyarov II<\/span>
\n<\/big><\/big><\/strong><\/div>\n
******************************<\/div>\n
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Two excellent recent editorials highlight the unprecedented danger that Donald Trump poses to liberty and basic human decency in America.<\/p>\n

Nina Khrushcheva, great-granddaughter of Nikita Khrushchev, writes of how Donald Trump has brought Soviet-Style politics, particularly the sweeping use of the Big Lie, to the United States. (\u201cTrump Through Russian Eyes<\/a>\u201d. Project Syndicate. September 27, 2016)<\/p>\n

Khrushcheva observes,<\/p>\n

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Indeed, from my perspective, many of the nastiest and most perverse features of Russian politics now seem present in the United States as well. The Big Lie \u2013 invented in Nazi Germany, perfected in the Soviet Union, and wielded expertly by Russian President Vladimir Putin \u2013 is today a core component of Donald Trump\u2019s presidential campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/p>\n

So far, Trump has been allowed to get away with his lies. The news media have largely been what Lenin called \u2018useful idiots,\u2019 so eager to use Trump to boost their own ratings that they did not notice or care that they were also boosting his. No surprise, then, that an emboldened Trump now delivers lies of ever more breathtaking audacity.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Harvard political theorist Danielle Allen likens Donald Trump to Gilgamesh \u2013 and not in a flattering manner. (\u201cDonald Trump is a walking, talking example of the tyrannical soul<\/a>\u201d. The Washington Post. October 8, 2016.) In the early \u201cEpic of Gilgamesh\u201d, the king Gilgamesh (before he journeys on his quest to obtain eternal life) is an arbitrary, capricious tyrant with no regard for any other individuals\u2019 rights or for basic human dignity and decency. Only when Gilgamesh realizes that death is a fundamental problem affecting everyone (him, too), is he impelled away from tyranny and toward wisdom.<\/p>\n

But it is too much to hope that Trump would all of a sudden turn from a populist demagogue and would-be tyrant into a life-extension supporter. Instead, Trump should be recognized as completely devoid of moral character, and a completely lost cause for anyone who thought that he might somehow magically transform himself into a reasonable person.<\/p>\n

It is time to break free from the spell of the Big Lie and universally denounce Trump for the moral monster he is. All people of good moral character must stand against Trump. Support anyone else you wish (Libertarian, Democrat, Green, Transhumanist, McMullin, none of the above) \u2013 but express the conviction that a decent, humane society should not allow such an unseemly, tyrannical brute as Trump to have any degree of power.<\/p>\n

This post may be freely reproduced using the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike International 4.0 License, which requires that credit be given to the author, G. Stolyarov II. Find out about Mr. Stolyarov <\/strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

G. Stolyarov II ****************************** Two excellent recent editorials highlight the unprecedented danger that Donald Trump poses to liberty and basic human decency in America. Nina Khrushcheva, great-granddaughter of Nikita Khrushchev, writes of how Donald Trump has brought Soviet-Style politics, particularly the sweeping use of the Big Lie, to the United States. (\u201cTrump Through Russian Eyes\u201d. Project Syndicate. September 27, 2016) Khrushcheva observes, Indeed, from my perspective, many of the nastiest and most perverse features of Russian politics now seem present…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4598,4542,4922,4923,1120,4920,4220,69,4731,40,4921,146,4919,377,73,1219,53,157,25,508,2940],"class_list":["post-6578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-2016-presidential-election","tag-abuse-of-power","tag-arbitrary","tag-big-lie","tag-character","tag-danielle-allen","tag-donald-trump","tag-election","tag-epic-of-gilgamesh","tag-g-stolyarov-ii","tag-gilgamesh","tag-morality","tag-nina-khrushcheva","tag-power","tag-president","tag-soviet-union","tag-tyranny","tag-tyrant","tag-united-states","tag-ussr","tag-vladimir-putin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6578"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6585,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6578\/revisions\/6585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}