Keyword: me
Another thing about Trump’s bottom of the sewer tweet – a thing that’s obvious but needs underlining anyway.
It’s the “promise TO ME” bit. It’s the radiant, glowing conceit that burns out of those two words. You peasants just don’t understand, it’s between the two of us: he promised ME, and it’s intrusive and blasphemous for you to try to get between us.
It’s that and it’s also the conceit of thinking a promise to him is magically unbreakable because it’s to him. It’s the radioactive conceit and confidence of this bloated nitwit that is so astonishing, along with our helplessness to stop him. It’s as if Daffy Duck or Yosemite Sam were pirouetting in front of the cameras with Kim Jong Un.
Kinda related—it’s interesting to me to think about how long you, Ophelia, have been talking about narcissism and self-regard. It’s one of the key themes of your writing I noticed since when I first “met” you on here maybe 10, 12 years ago (is it that long?).
It always made sense, what you wrote about, and what you noted about the toxicity of self-regard. But it wasn’t until narcissism as a pathological state became a serious issue in my real life that I really understood how important the topic is.
Kim is leading him around by the nose. Kim’s “promise” has just as much value as DJT’s “promises.” DJT never met a promise he couldn’t break. His word, his agreements, are utterly worthless. The entire concept is beyond his ken. He is so egotistical that he thinks only the things he does, only the things he thinks, are real. If someone mouths words in the formula of a promise in his presence, he thinks that makes it a reliable brute fact.