by wj
We’re overdue for a new Open Thread. So this is it.
Recently, I’ve seem increasing numbers of reports that members of the administration who speak with Trump, or with members of his inner circle, are routinely slanting (or totally inventing) what they say to him about the world outside the White House. Especially when it comes to how things are going with covid-19 and with his reelection campaign. Fake polls are especially big.
I submit that this is a good thing. Trump strikes me as, at least potentially, the kind of guy who would destroy everything around him rather than admit, especially to himself, that he has failed or is somehow a loser. But so long as he is surrounded by a bubble of (mis)information which tells him he is succeeding, he has no reason to deliberately do anything massively destructive. If he can be kept in the dark until the election, it will be all to the good.
After the election, of course, he may be unable to avoid the fact that he has lost. Not that he won’t frantically try various tactics to undo the result. But the critical fact will be that those around him will know that he is on the way out. And therefore, it is in their own self-interest to avoid letting anything happen that would trash their personal employment prospects going forward. In short, his enablers are likely to cease enabling.
Sure, it would be nice if Trump could be persuaded to do something constructive about covid-19 or about the economy. But realistically, how likely is that? Is it even possible, given how he is? And since he can’t, better he continue to be encased in a Potemkin village where everything is going great. No matter what reality is outside.
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