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Bruce E. Levine - Surviving the Pain of an Authoritarian Demagogue Any Way We Can
Until recently, the predominant life pains that I have long seen in my psychologist day job include: abusive and neglectful parents, dysfunctional families, loveless marriages, lifelong loneliness, soul-crushing jobs, oppressive bosses, dehumanizing bureaucracies, and a variety of losses. However, the rise to power in the U.S. of an authoritarian demagogue has resulted in another major source of pain created not only by his actions but by his very being. From what I gather, many other mental health professionals are also hearing about the pains generated by him. The pains created by the authoritarian demagogue certainly have resulted from his ICE, DOGE, and other reckless actions, but it is not his policies alone that have created pain. His very being of incessant attention-demanding self-absorption, childish petulance and cruelty, blatant lies and even more blatant stupidity create pain for many people. In response to his incessant attention seeking and his efforts at branding his own name on damn near everything, many people have intuitively recognized the empowering tactic of refusing to use his name when referring to him. They brand him with their own names, a sample of which I’ve heard include: “the idiot,” “orange man,” “asshole,” “fuckface, and “the draft-dodging coward”—this...
