Sometimes I get really caught up in wondering whether all the humor originating from Trump's mistakes and ridiculousness actually keeps us from grasping how truly terrifying our current situation is. 1/
The revolutionary war airports line was so absurd, and delivered so comically, but, I mean, that guy is in charge of the nuclear stockpile. He's obviously unwell. Meme it up all you want, but humor is about defusing tension. And that's what we're doing. 2/
I noticed this early on in the 2016 Campaign. People were doing impressions of him everywhere as his linguistic patterns started defining terms and conversations. He became a clown. A clown can be disturbing, but the artifice of the clown character blunts the terror. 3/
There's a ton to unpack there, particularly the fact that many in this country find it perfectly fine to laugh about mental illness and senior citizens, but we have a president who is obviously very, very unwell and is deteriorating before our very eyes. 4/
I know much of this is gallows humor, an attempt to survive an upsetting and tense time, but laughter is about deflecting tension and fear. We should be tense and we should be fearful. This is a serious situation, no matter how you look at it, and I worry we're looking away. 5/5
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