Okay, I figured out why the conspiracy theories about Trump’s motives for pushing hydroxychloroquine bug me.
Trump’s narcissism is very simple. It compels him to avoid shame and seek admiration. Those two impulses control him.
He is ALWAYS serving his broken ego.
1/
To make his actions about some other thing (e.g. a secret connection to one of many companies that make the drug) overlooks why he does EVERYTHING:
To manipulate how people see him.
That’s the dysfunction. Plain old greed is actually more functional than that.
2/
Finding a theory for his behavior based on a shitty but rational motivation like greed excuses him from his actual dysfunction: being solely focused on serving his own ego needs.
Being greedy is a character flaw. Being compulsively driven to serve your ego is worse than that.
Trump covets money because he thinks it makes people hold him in higher esteem.
Right now, his biggest problem isn’t about money and can’t be solved with more of it.
His biggest ego problem is how people are judging his handling of this crisis.
4/
Making the story about some profit motive actually distracts from the real danger of Trump’s dysfunction:
He will lie through his teeth about anything he thinks will make people judge him less right this minute.
Even if it gets people killed.
5/
He cares solely about manipulating today’s headlines to seem worthy of admiration.
He’ll say he’s doing a great job.
He’ll say he already has COVID-19 under control.
He’ll say he has people closing in on a cure.
6/
He’ll say anything - no matter how dangerous or wrong - just to manipulate the media into making him look good (or less bad) right this minute.
Consequences be damned.
That’s the danger. That’s the dysfunction.
7/
There are a lot of greedy people in the world.
Trump’s greed isn’t what makes him dangerous.
He is dangerous because his narcissistic compulsions are so severe, he will happily do massive harm if he thinks it will serve him even for just one day.
That’s the problem.
8/8
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…which contributed to 20 players bolting for other teams or the NFL
And then, having shot itself in only one foot, FSU picked an expensive, losing legal battle with its own league… while alienating their best remaining quarterback - which made him decide he’s done there.
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Now, FSU has managed to put itself in a position where, after making a national spectacle of itself, it has to go up against an actual powerhouse Georgia team with what’s left of its own disintegrating team.
FSU threw such an epic tantrum, it ensured high ratings…
3/
On the morning of 9/11, a casual friend of mine was on a high floor of the World Trade Center above where the first plane struck. He called another friend of ours to tell him he was trapped and it didn’t look good. He didn’t make it out.
There is a 9/11 memorial near me…
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It has the names of everyone who perished on 9/11 etched in marble.
The memorials sits high on a ridge with sweeping views toward New York City twelve miles east.
It’s a beautiful spot. I used to park there at sunrise with my son when he was a baby.
2/
Every time I visit the place, I walk the wall and find Tommy’s name.
We were only lightly acquainted. Our circles overlapped but our worlds only overlapped one weekend a year up in Saratoga.
Still, I look for his name as a duty of remembrance.
3/
So, I’m in a notorious mob hangout today. An Italian-sounding place. Panera. And there are two older guys about 5 feet away. Straight in front of me.
It isn’t entirely unheard of in my area to cross paths with some goodfellas. I live in Sopranos Country. It ain’t fiction.
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So, I’m trying to write but my table is facing theirs and I can’t help but overhear (mostly because I was eavesdropping, but still) and these two guys are talking about “The Chin” which I cleverly deduced was Vinnie “The Chin” Gigante from having watched quite a bit of cable.
2/
And then they roll on to talking about somebody who was low-level loansharking and another guy who something something I don’t know.
And then the one guy says “That’s all Gambino now…”
And I’m pretty much feeling like I’m wearing a wire at this point.
3/
I entirely understand people’s beef with “Do Something” Twitter.
However, there is a difference between screaming “DO SOMETHING” and agitating for our federal government to do *some specific thing*.
When we need something specific to be done and it isn’t being done, telling the people pushing for it to shut up isn’t being anti-‘Do Something Twitter’.
It’s being pro Do Nothing Government. It is literally working against our own interests.