49 Comments

I put his Paul Pelosi comments on Facebook, even though I knew some people wouldn’t like it, because I thought it was too important to worry about what they thought. There can be no excuse for such relish over violence.

Expand full comment

Good for you!

Expand full comment

It sparked some good conversation.

Expand full comment

I’m afraid that our views align, Brian. There are tremendous parallels with 1920s/30s Europe amongst voters too, in my view. So the phrase “The Banality of Crazy” is well chosen. I say all this as someone who’s not American but am fascinated by it. Thank you. All the best.

Expand full comment

It is indeed riffing off Hannah Arendt, so well spotted.

Expand full comment

I am puzzled! Virtually nobody mentions Trumps psychiatric condition which drives everything he does. He's not quirky, he is an extreme Narcissist, a Sadist, a Sociopath. He is psychiatrically very unstable. Until he left Twitter the psychiatrist penning as Duty2Warn frequently raised the topic. His replacement group, OurShallowState has picked up the psychiatric condition banner. So whet one wants to call Malignant Narcissism mental illness, the question, "would you vote for someone who is mentally ill to be POTUS, would give most a huge cause for pause not to mention an Audible gasp.

Expand full comment

Brian, this is very important. Thanks. The lesson I get from this piece revolves around your phrase "...I can't believe I have to say this...". I think we all have to include some form of the parade of horribles that spew out Trump's gub every time we speak to someone on the topic. We can't assume that we're all speaking and reasoning from the same accepted facts. I f we continue with that easy way of discussing him, we'll likely be speaking past each other. Thanks again.

Expand full comment

People who cheer and support Trump and those who blindly vote partisan need to be educated as to how an authoritarian and fascist state would affect them personally. They believe they are in some favored or unaffected special group. Likewise, they believe immoral acts are funny because they don't think it applies to them. Media needs to report Crazy but it needs to also report the damage Crazy can do to everyone.

Expand full comment

Couldn't agree more. I've spent a lot of time in authoritarian regimes and I truly wish people could see what they're like. It's terrifying and horrific - and Americans are blind to how lucky they are, but also to how it all could collapse.

Expand full comment

Brilliantly and accurately said. Yes we are all sick of it- but read and write and study we must, sucking black hole or not. Can you imagine Churchill’s ‘fight them on the beaches, fight them in the air, fight them on the seas, except if we’re sick and tired of it?

Expand full comment

You're right, Karen - well said!

Expand full comment

Excellent writing about such an important topic. I too am sick about hearing Trumps zealotry but people need to hear it! He is what my Grandparents would have called the “Anti-Christ” spreading lies and the sheep lay down and listen. The wolf has easy hunting. I’m ready to get out.

Expand full comment

Thanks, Kat! It will be a fine day when I no longer have to devote any brain cells to Donald Trump.

Expand full comment

Ron Desantis made the curious choice of appearing on Bill Mahr’s first post writer’s strike show last Friday and Mahr let equally crazy rhetoric pass. Specifically, DeSantis praised Floridas education ratings that Mahr could have pointed out were going to tank due to book banning and Desantis insisting that prosecuting the 41 of 14,000,000 Florida voters accused of voter fraud was essential where Mahr could have pointed out that a quasi-problem (likely more confusion than fraud) that has a decimal point and 5 zeros before the number shouldn’t be a priority.

It could be that Mahr is just off his game but arguably, the banality of crazy is spreading.

Expand full comment

Yes, John, I fear that the Overton Window has moved considerably where things that used to get challenged are just let slide now. And the drumbeat of book bannings and going after teachers who tell the truth about racial inequality and slavery is chilling. As for the voter fraud...I co-wrote a book called "How to Rig an Election" and it boggles my mind that one of the things that the US is best at (vote tabulation) is what Republicans are now convinced is the source of mass phantom fraud. It's extraordinarily depressing.

Expand full comment

Bill Maher shares more traits with Repubs than Dems. His favorite guest used to be Ann Coulter. My friends & I can’t stomach his nastiness.

Expand full comment

The media will destroy democracy in their desperate quest for clicks. The last capitalist will sell the rope etc. Thanks for speaking out; I hope someone listens.

Expand full comment

Thanks, Johnny - and yes, the model of a press that relies on corporate revenue has always been a problematic one. The BBC isn't perfect by any means, but it's a good funding model and it does provide a better public service than US political news.

Expand full comment

NPR and PBS aren’t significantly better, but I suppose that’s because they rely on the public for most of their funding as well.

Expand full comment

Thank you, Brian, for the clarity and sanity you bring to this topic. I have a quick question and a quick observation:

Q) Would it be helpful if Biden were to point out that he's only running for four more years - one more term, while Trump (regardless of whether he's willing to admit this) is running for forever? It seems to me it could be a salient point for folks who are genuinely weighing their decision. We now know he never had any intention of leaving office the first time. Are we so obtuse that we believe he - or his party - will respect (or even hold) a free and fair election that he loses in the future?

O) At the risk of fatalism, this all feels like what I've been observing for most of my adult life (I'm 66): To a rather absurd and increasing degree, Democrats are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Yet, regardless of their severity, Republican transgressions are consistently subject to only minor and fleeting consequences. I worry that this is a dynamic that is becoming insurmountable.

With love and gratitude from a fellow Minnesotan for your courage and your voice.

Expand full comment

Hi Mary, thanks for reading and for your comments/questions.

For the first one: I don't think that would move the dial that much, but it can't hurt. I think everyone knows he's only in for one more term; in fact a significant proportion of voters worry that he won't complete his full term (and some of the Republican disdain for Biden's candidacy is derived from worries that Kamala Harris will become president, some of which is likely due to who she is rather than what she stands for).

On the second question: I take your point completely, but I do think this moment (or the moment since 2015/16) is fundamentally different. A lot of people will say to me "It's always been like this!" which is just not true. In the past, a candidate calling to kill a general would have ended their political career and launched an ethics investigation -- in both parties. People resigned from shame alone, including in the GOP. Others were forced out. Scandals produced consequences. That's partly why the key here is to provide real consequences to Trump: both in the criminal justice system and electorally. Thanks for reading and for the kind words!

Expand full comment

Thanks so much, Brian! This moment IS exceptional; it’s different in both type and magnitude from what we’ve seen over the last 50 years.

I also think that when we consistently justify the application of a different standard to others than we do to ourselves, it becomes easier over time to do so on a more and more extreme scale – which is why I agree that amplifying the cruelty and insanity of Trump’s message is vital. I was thinking about a passage from the spiritual tradition I study (in a section espousing the Golden Rule), which warns that “The whole danger of defenses lies in their propensity to hold misperceptions rigidly in place. This is why rigidity is regarded as stability by those who are off the mark. A rigid orientation can be extremely reliable, even if it is upside down. In fact, the more consistently upside down it is, the more reliable it is. One of the more horrible examples of inverted or upside-down thinking (and history is full of horrible examples of this) was the Nazis’ “Final Solution.”” [circleofa.org, ACIM.CE T-1.43.7:6-9,8:1]

I’m not equating this moment with that one, but there do seem to be some rather similar processes at work.

With love and gratitude for your wisdom and expertise.

Expand full comment

So well-stated and, unfortunately, so very much needed!

Expand full comment

this completely sums it up. We can look to the Stockholm syndrome or PTSD or Domestic Violence survivors, etc., etc., etc. for precedents. Statistically, how much of the dependency on advertising rhetoric enable this behavior and where does de-programming factor in as a possible solution. Draconian, and yet how else can we excise this cancer without succumbing to it ourselves?

Expand full comment

Terrific article, Brian. Chilling. If folks want to read a book on the banality of crazy, with terrifying parallels to today, I suggest Timothy Egan’s “A Fever in the Heartland,” which is about the rise (and fall) of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. (Hint: It failed because its disgusting premises were challenged and outed.) I also suggest Brian Klaas’s book, “Corruptible,” which is another terrific and essential read.

Expand full comment

Thank you, J!

Expand full comment

thanks again. and sure, I don't want there to be a binary. Everything matters. Much of the media is a detriment, so improvement is always welcomed. I get concerned when some press critics -- not you - think that if only the media would do a better job, there wouldn't be a problem. And of course the same media could try to portray "listening" as some kind of gimmick. So the campaign would have to be serious about it, with numerous visits to battleground states and conversations with voters, not just speeches. ( I also think Biden needs to have a public event with Gen Zers. It might not be easy for him. but everyone needs to think they are being listened to ) I look forward to your future writing.

Expand full comment

Agreed. Political scientists joke about the green lantern theory of politics...where just with one silver bullet and a bit of effort you can defy political constraints. I don’t think the press is going to solve structural problems. But I think fairer press coverage might be worth a point or two in swing states. And that’s a lot. Thanks, Don!

Expand full comment

Wow, what a great, insightful piece. I will quickly also read the Atlantic article which I am sure is equally good.

Expand full comment

I live in the UK, but I have subs to NYT and WaPo. I knew about the General, and quite a lot of the rest of it. I find it terrifying how many US voters haven't a bloody clue about what Trump really is, although he has shown them so clearly time after time.

Expand full comment