Insults

We live in a time when people seem quicker than ever to throw out insults in response to criticism or differences of opinion.  Rather than use facts to dispute criticism, many people’s go-to response is to simply insult the other person.  Nowhere is this more evident than with our President, whose use of insults (often fallacious) about his critics and opponents is thoroughly documented.  For example, Never Trumpers are human scum; Omarosa Newman is a crazed lowlife, a dog; Megyn Kelly is a bimbo, with blood coming out of her… whatever.  And war hero John McCain was an incompetent dummy, about whom 5-time draft dodger Trump explained: I like people who weren’t captured.

Trump is both a sign of the times in this regard and also a model for others to copy, as insults beget insults and become ever more acceptable. 

But simply stating a FACT isn’t the same thing as an INSULT, especially one that is FALLACIOUS.  Here’s how two respected sources define those terms:

Fact                 (Cambridge Dictionary) something that is known to have happened or to exist, especially something for which proof exists

(Wikipedia) a thing that is known to be consistent with objective reality and can be proven to be true with evidence

Insult              (Cambridge Dictionary) to act in a way or say something that is offensive or rude to someone

(Wikipedia) an expression or statement (or sometimes behavior) which is disrespectful or scornful

Fallacious       (Cambridge Dictionary) not correct; false

(Wikipedia)  invalid, deceptive, or otherwise faulty

For example, we know that President Trump is very often untruthful.  It is easy to document, to prove beyond any doubt, that he lies on a regular basis.  This link will take you to a short essay that summarizes just a few of his falsehoods, though only those made before he took office.  https://jstrebler.blogspot.com/2017/01/  Countless more have been documented in the three years since.  Therefore, we might reasonable call him a liar.  That is not really an insult, certainly not a fallacious one; it is simply a provable FACT.

Because of Trump’s countless insulting, bullying, and egotistical statements and tweets, we might think of him as an egotistical narcissist.  Rather than a fallacious insult, such a claim is supported by large amounts of objective proof.  According to John Gartner, Ph.D., a psychologist who taught at Johns Hopkins University Medical School for 28 years, the president has malignant narcissism.  Here’s what he says: “Trump suffers from malignant narcissism, a diagnosis [that is] far more toxic and dangerous than mere narcissistic personality disorder…  the closest thing psychiatry has to describing a true human monster.”⁷

Gartner goes on to describe Trump’s narcissism: “… (he knows “more about everything than anyone” and “has empathy for no one but himself”); paranoia (“his demonization of the press, minorities, immigrants, and anyone who disagrees with him, are all signs of paranoia”); sociopathy (“a diagnosis that describes people who constantly lie, violate norms and laws, exploits other people, and show no remorse”); and sadism (“He takes gleeful pleasure in harming and humiliating other people. He is undoubtedly the most prolific cyberbully in history.”) https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/5-types-people-who-can-ruin-your-life/201903/malignant-narcissism-does-the-president-really

Wow!  But the bottom line here is that we can say that Donald Trump is a paranoid narcissist, a sociopath, a sadist, and a prolific cyberbully.  While those claims are surely negative, they are NOT fallacious insults.  They are FACTS; facts that should be acknowledged and dealt with. 

Actually, we can go a bit further and just say that Donald Trump is a truly horrible person.  From his countless lies and insults, to his ridiculous claims of knowing more than (fill in the blank) about (fill in the blank), of being a “very stable genius”, and his famous “grab ‘em by the pussy,” few unbiased people would see Trump as being a good person.  Interested in more evidence of what kind of person Trump is?  Take a look here: https://jstrebler.blogspot.com /2018/11/  Calling him a truly horrible person is therefore just stating a FACT.

The man is also a proven con man, a swindler, and a tax-cheat.  Too harsh?  Fallacious insults or just opinions?  Nope.  Court records are full of examples where the Trump businesses refused to pay contractors for work done properly.  We also know that he has fudged legal records to reduce taxes paid over the decades, and that he conspired to cheat the government on hundreds of millions of dollars due on his father’s estate.  All of these things can be shown to be true beyond a reasonable doubt, as can the way he heartlessly ripped off students for his Trump “University” – which was later shown to be a total scam.  So I say that Donald Trump is a crooked conman; that may qualify as an insult, but it is not fallacious; it is merely a FACT. 

You’ve probably heard Trump being called a fascist, and done so in a way that seems like an insult.  Yet it’s also true that Trump almost perfectly fits the textbook definition of a fascist.  You can see how that is true here: https://jstrebler.blogspot.com/2018/12/fascism-back-in-fashion.html  Now that is not necessarily an insult; many people like fascism.  But simply stating the Donald Trump is a fascist, well – that is just a FACT. 

One of my biggest problems with Donald Trump is that he gained the Presidency by illegitimate means.  Much of his success was due to a campaign based on an unprecedented level of gross lies, aided by the Russians. Trump both welcomed Russian help and used Russian assistance to win the Presidency.  So said the extremely detailed Mueller Report, and so said the US’s top intelligence officer of the time.  You can read up on the FACT that Trump is an illegitimate President, put in power by the Russians here: https://jstrebler.blogspot.com/2019/04/. 

Similarly, it is not an insult to call Donald Trump grossly unqualified to be President, as much as it is simply a matter of fact.  We know that he had zero government experience before running for office; his behavior and statements once in office make it clear that he isn’t particularly bright and that he knew little about how the federal government actually worked.  Want more evidence that Trump has no business being President?  Check this one out: https://jstrebler.blogspot.com/2019/07/

There are other ugly and negative facets of Donald Trump that we could cover, but let’s skip to the present, and his responsibility for thousands of unnecessary American deaths, trillions of dollars of economic loss, and countless amounts of sorrow from the coronavirus.  How?  Well, it’s a simple matter to prove that Trump didn’t take the virus seriously back in January, February, and even into late-March, and ignored his own experts’ advice to take action.  And long before that (in 2018), he terminated the agency tasked with fighting a future pandemic!  

The results so far?  The US has more COVID-19 cases than any other nation, and the numbers are rising at an astonishing rate.  Hundreds of thousands of Americans will probably die, rather than the few thousand that would have perished, had Trump kept the pandemic agency intact and had followed the steps urged by his medical experts.  The economy is in free-fall, with signs that the country is likely due for years of Great Depression-style tragedy.  So I say it is a FACT that Donald Trump committed manslaughter on thousands of people he was elected to protect.

I’m going to end by saying that Donald Trump is a total fucking asshole.  I do mean that as an insult to the man, but yet it is also a FACT.  Here’s what it means to be an asshole:

(Cambridge Dictionary): an unpleasant or stupid person.

(Merriam-Webster Dictionary): a stupid, annoying, or detestable person

Now, a quick review of the FACTS that we established in this little essay make it clear that Trump is quite unpleasant and a detestable person.  His stupidity has also been established.  And I think it’s fair to say that having such a stupid, unpleasant, and detestable person running our country is annoying at the very least.  Since he therefore meets every descriptor of an asshole, then we are justified in saying that he is a TOTAL asshole.  The “fucking” part?  Just a bonus, a personal flair, if you will. 

But finally: WHY throw around insults, even if they are completely true and based on facts?  Here we may disagree, as many would say it is unnecessary and just makes the world a nastier place.  I agree with the second part, but disagree with the first, as I think these kinds of claims are important to put out there. 

It is important to recognize truth and facts.  Many people, including most Trump supporters, don’t know that their man is a liar, a swindler, a fascist, and all the rest.  So while very few people are likely to change their mind about the guy at this point, at least not in the near future, if we can help just one person see the facts, then it will have been worth it.  And in the long-run, I’ve gotta think that the more the truth gets put out there, the more likely people are (while seeing for themselves more and more of Trump’s assholiness) to finally see the light.

I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts. – Abraham Lincoln