Why Trump Makes Me Want to Throw Up

[kpete]

Today’s Press Conference Shows That Trump Has No Value for the Truth
by Martin Longman
February 16, 2017 3:26 PM

As I watched President Trump’s news conference today (transcript here), I discovered that I was becoming more and more sick to my stomach. At a certain point, I had to repress the impulse to actually go loiter around my toilet just in case I actually needed to vomit. And I started to think about why it is that the man makes me physically ill.

It really gets to a core value I have about truthfulness. That can seem trite, and it’s hard to explain. I certainly don’t have the expectation that politicians or anyone else will always tell me the truth. Perhaps I can get closer to the feeling Trump gives me by using an analogy.

If you’ve ever witnessed some one, say a child, make a bad mistake that you know will cause them difficulties and you’ve felt a pang of empathetic regret on their behalf, that’s the closest thing I can find to the nauseous feeling I get when listening to Trump lie.

The difference is that we normally get that feeling when we feel like the person has made an innocent error or that we sense that consequences will be far out of proportion to the actual sin. We may feel like wrapping that person in a protective blanket even if we recognize that they are largely responsible for making the bed they will now lie in.

And if we sense that we’re helpless to shield them from the consequences of their actions, we make get the sinking feeling in the pit of the stomach that I’m trying to describe.


http://washingtonmonthly.com/2017/02/16/why-trump-makes-me-want-to-throw-up/

[MANative]

1. Let me count the ways... n/t

[lunatica]

2. I feel that way for the people who are lied to by people in power

It doesn't matter whether that power is the power of being a parent or a boss or a CEO. It makes me feel a very profound rage because of the consequences that will come and the innocents suffering from it while the powerful suffer no consequences.