Walter and I will be doing one last short hit from Milwaukee before we head out, assuming planes aren’t falling from the sky by this afternoon. Kid Rock, Trump speech, and QAnon symbolism galore, wrapped up here.
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I appreciated and was impressed by Walter’s inquiry into Trump’s post-trauma state of mind. I’m a trauma therapist and I think Walter got it right, including the “corrective experience” analysis regarding the content of his speech, and that interplay of conscious (“I’m at a convention so I’m fine”) and unconscious (“last time I was in front of a crowd I almost died”). This is incredibly challenging to navigate for anyone. When people are too busy other-ing (like the left calling Trump evil, but also the right thinking Trump is superhuman) it dehumanizes him, cuts off the possibility of a more nuanced empathy. Personally I wouldn’t call Trump a “good” person but I also wouldn’t call him a psychopath - someone incapable of feeling and building real relationships. There’s a lot I don’t like about Trump but when he’s being incessantly assaulted legally and physically I can only imagine this takes a toll. For all the “trauma-informed” obsessions of the left it’s striking how little they apply that lens to people they don’t like, and bleeding-heart empathy has never been a strength of the right. So I really appreciate how Walter is constantly grounding himself in story and psychology, that’s the corrective wavelength our society needs, whether one likes Trump or not.
How can I say this calmly, acceptably and without hyperbole? HOLY FUCKING SHIT am I glad to have been a subscriber since the very early days, but never more so than during your heroic work this week. I don't know if you and Walter are happy with how many of us have been tuning in, but goddammit, having you and Walter report onsight, in this volume, across all the topics of the day and weaving those topics into the integragted fabric within which they really exist... This has been the best news cycle participation I've ever been afforded, ever been a part of, really beginning with your reporting on the Biden Helmets and Crayons debate performance, the incredible after action shit storm on that which blew into the approaching convention with the assassination attempt and slammed right into Milwaukee. You guys have literally been flying an AWACS (Airborne Warning & Control System) in the eye the whole time, keeping me grounded, calm, aware. I'm the best informed citizen in the U.S.. I walk with my back straight and my head held high, quietly confident and serene in my complete knowledge, feeling (but hiding out of charity and magnanimity) no small pity, and, yes, some disdain for lesser citizens walking around me in a fog of confused and wrong-headed angst. They know they don't know what they don't know, but I am all knowing because you and Walter have made this superhuman effort. Here is a single example of the superior knowledge you have implanted in my head like pre-knowledge: I know how Amber Rose fits in, why she's awesome, why she was a perfect add to the RNC lineup, and why her presence indicates Trump's perfect, bigly idiot savant open tent approach. To have you wrapping this morning from your hotel rooms before decamping is brilliant. I'm kind of hoping Amber lifts her head into camera view behind Walter, bed-headed off of the hotel pillow after post RNC celebration. Well done guys. I've never been a happier subscriber, to anything.