Eric Black at MinnPost may have explained the Trump and Trump True Believer phenomenon...
Instead, Edsall, who loves to turn to scholars for understanding, asked a psychology professor, Northwestern University's Dan McAdams, for help in understanding this big gap:
“Trump personifies an approach to leadership that many men find deeply appealing. It is a primal appeal to social dominance. Everybody — men and women — knows that social status can be seized through physical power and threat; the strongest, biggest, and boldest may lord it over the rest of us. But boys and men have more direct experiences of this kind of thing growing up — on the playground, for example, in gym class, in the military, and in various other socialization venues wherein male strength and bravura are praised and deeply prized, even as they also evoke fear and submission.”
McAdams cited the comments of the primatologist Jane Goodall, who compared Trump’s behavior to that of a chimpanzee.
“In many ways the performances of Donald Trump remind me of male chimpanzees and their dominance rituals,” Goodall told James Fallows, a writer for The Atlantic in 2016. “In order to impress rivals, males seeking to rise in the dominance hierarchy perform spectacular displays: stamping, slapping the ground, dragging branches, throwing rocks. The more vigorous and imaginative the display, the faster the individual is likely to rise in the hierarchy, and the longer he is likely to maintain that position.”Thoughts?
28 comments:
Do men feel led by Donald Trump? Did someone watch "Celebrity Apprentice" and miss the joke?
I can't really believe it. I just can't view my fellow males with such condescension. We all knew what Donald Trump was and is. The question is knowing that, why did they vote for him?
--Hiram
Hiram,
My thought is that the US citizens are clearly divided into 2 tribes with 2 very different belief systems. (ie Chimpanzees (C's) and Orangutans (O's)) Therefore tribe members are not even going to consider voting for the "other" tribes leader.
Trump masterfully attacked / insulted the other C candidates and made a bunch of inconsistent promises that people liked. He worked the Chimps into a fervor...
Where as the O's are still struggling to find a leader who can do the same.
Did people really believe Donald Trump? I just don't think so. We all know he is a crook, it's just that some of us thought that a crook in office could shape things up.
--Hiram
Tee-hee. It is becoming increasingly hilarious to watch the Left try to "explain" President Trump. They never will, until they acknowledge that it was POSSIBLE for him to become President, and that there were actually good reasons-- political, personal and policy-wise-- why that was so. Since that would require them to acknowledge reality, I'm guessing the entertainment will continue.
Personally, I try not to be hilarious. I gave up humor some years ago for Lent, and have tried to avoid the funny ever since. All his life Trump has been a target of ridicule so it's not surprising that an attempt to understand or explain him now involve an element of hilarity.
I readily concede it was possible for him to become president. Even logic holds that that which happens must always be possible. Were there reasons? Certainly there were. It makes sense that after having a president who was from Kenya, we should have one who was born in Queens.
--Hiram
I am sure anyone here is trying to "to "explain" President Trump".
I am more fascinated in understanding the Trump True Believers...
Of the Conservative and Religious Right are:
- anti-communism / anti-Russia
- pro-honesty
- anti-swamp
- pro- moral behaviors
- anti-deficit spending
And somehow they as a tribe elected and whole heartedly support a man who:
- insults our democratic allies
- coddles Russia and Putin
- lies / exaggerates continuously
- has hired many "swampy employees"
- is on his 3rd wife, and cheats on her
- passes massive tax cut without offsetting spending reductions
So it seems to me that Tribe Chimp is apparently enthralled by the hairy one who is beating his chest and hitting others with sticks... :-)
HIram, you are probably correct, since the Left has no known, or even suspected, sense of humor. And that is what makes them so hilarious to the rest of us. They think they should be taken seriously. Got example, when Congressional Dems write a bill to eliminate ICE, and then wail when the GOP actually wants to vote on it. Borderline slapstick.
John.... LOL You prove my point.
Home: The Leader and Shusher
An example of Trump's sheer silliness.
"Just landed - a long trip, but everybody can now feel much safer than the day I took office. There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea. Meeting with Kim Jong Un was an interesting and very positive experience. North Korea has great potential for the future!"
Jerry, Happy to hear you are alive and well...
How do you even rationalize these stupid things that Trump tweets?
Or when Trump seemingly infers that the Europe Union is a foe in some way equivalent to China and Russia?
While Russia is actively trying to manipulate our citizens?
Here is an interesting example of strangeness:
A self proclaimed highly moral Conservative I know said the following when I asked about Trump having sex with porn star Stormy Daniels months after Melania had the baby.
"Why isn't Stormy honoring the non-disclosure agreement? That isn't right of her..."
What can explain rational people doing and saying the things they are?
My comment above should have started with...
"I am not sure anyone here is trying to "to "explain" President Trump".
I am more fascinated in understanding the Trump True Believers..."
I mean Trump is Trump and has been for decades.
I had hoped he would grow into the POTUS position, however unfortunately that growth is slow... And he is still performing for Tribe Chimpanzee only...
But I am not surprised that Trump is still Trump.
I just finished reading a book on the fall of the Wiemar Republic. There were lots of parallels with today of course. Like Donald Trump, Adolf Hitler was also the candidate of the condescended to, the looked down upon. He was the ultimate victim candidate for an electorate who longed for the old days.
People who vote for such candidates don't vote for things, they vote against them. There was no National Socialist program, just as there is no Trump program. Their vote was intended to reject the idea of any program at all, to reject the very notion of legitimacy.
--Hiram
There is a reason to compare Trump to a chimpanzee. There is no corresponding reason to compare Obama to an orangutan. Your analogy doesn't make sense.
Well technically I am comparing the members of both Tribe Conservative and Tribe Liberal to early primates. Not just their leaders...
I can imagine the Chimpanzees and Orangutans squawking for their Leaders and throwing their feces at the other tribe... :-)
you don't seem to understand why a comparison to a chimpanzee works for Trump but not for other leaders or groups of people. Maybe you should avoid using analogies.
Obama and Trump certainly have different styles with which to enrage the primates, however attacking the opposing tribe was a shared method.
Forbes Did Brand Obama Blunder By Running So Many Attack Ads?
It's pretty clear that by 2012, Barack Obama was more or less disabused of the notion that he could reach out and earn Republican cooperation.
Yes, so he played to Tribe Orangutan...
It is a sad state of affairs in our country. :-(
And unfortunately I see no reason to believe it is going to change anytime soon.
First-term Obama didn't lead like, that, though. He actively sought to reach across the aisle, only to be rejected by folks who decided on Day One of his Presidency that they would engage in an all-out strategy of nullification.
John can never see past his false equivalency in comparing GOP and dems
Laurie,
I do agree that Trump is worse than Obama ever was.
However as for Tribe Liberal and Tribe Conservative...
I see pretty much no difference in their wall building and feces throwing.
That is why the bi-modal humps are pretty much equal and opposite.
I would say left and right are not the same. The left is maybe split 50-50 between far left (Bernie supporters) and moderate left (Hillary supporters) If there was a lefty president as bad as Trump most of the left would not support that person.
I think the far right makes up 90% of GOP voters and those are the people who continue to support Trump. The moderate right is only about 10% of GOP voters. I would put John in this group in spite of some of his extreme views.
I would assign the percentages I mentioned to dem and GOP leaders as well.
far left 50% of dems in congress
far right 90% of GOP in congress
I am very disgusted with GOP leaders who continue to support Trump
Question: "left" and "right" of WHAT? For every serious and well-defined problem, there is a correct answer and a whole lot of incorrect ones. If "tribes" differ from one another, then it is likely that one or the other of them is closer to the correct answer. Whatever happened to the notion that Congress would agree on the problem, consider the "best" solution, and agree to do THAT? Really, does referring to the other side in vulgar terms, or impugning their motivations or character, really solve anything? Entertaining, perhaps, but certainly useless otherwise.
Conversation continuing over here.
What's notable about Trump is the alpha male behavior. He uses primitive dominance with rituals with people who he sees as his inferiors. But is respect, even deferential with his perceived equals, people he identifies as other alpha males. Oddly, these rituals aren't identified with policy policy or political interests. His perception is also limited. Trump sees power in terms of the military, an institution which is intensely hierarchical, one where alpha males reign supreme. In practice, this hasn't worked out at all well for Trump. The military alpha males he instinctively relates to, have proven too alpha for him. Among other things they lack another quality extremely important to him, loyalty to him personally, as opposed to loyalty to the country and the constitution.
--Hiram
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