Making jokes and laughing at others' jokes is next to impossible for folks with advancing dementia. Higher level cognition is fading away, rendering the ability to recognize rapidly shifting contexts inoperable.
What's been illuminating for me, personally, in listening to Trumpy talk, is how familiar I am with his communicative style. I have an uncle who expresses himself in exactly the same way-- authoritarian to a fault. In my uncle's better days, his style was plain, streetwise, direct, and authoritarian. He's racist and he uses racial pejoratives. He believes that adults lord over kids, and that physical punishment is preferred over "Doctor Spock" garbage. He believes that physical punishment is the best tool for learning. Now, both my uncle and Trumpy are in their advanced ages. My uncle's personality has gotten more authoritarian than decades ago. He can be entirely unreasonable and sometimes can interfere with his wife's medical services because he knows best. The assisted living facility staff have discussed with his kids whether or not now is the time to separate my aunt and uncle because my uncle's increasing belligerence. Times are testy. But the same will happen with Trumpy, who, in terms of cognitive decline, isn't far behind my uncle.
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