Thread by @JoshuaCypess

1/ The fable of the Emperor's New Clothes, like most educational stories, is placed in the tone of kid lit, but clearly:
(a) it's really for adults b/c it reflects that world (& the kid is the hero, showing he's not the audience)
(b) many people haven't learned the lesson at all

2/ Now that I'm living under a personality cult w/ a powerful monarch who's surrounded by blind, yet also powerful, sycophants & worshiped by a pathetic plurality of greedy cowards, I appreciate the story not as a fable but *satire*

We're seeing this tale EVERY DAY under DJT!

3/ I appreciate the story's satire so much better now. And why 'satire' not 'fable': fable is a fantastical story with a heavy one-to-one allegory. Satire is real life with exaggerations meant to highlight wrong-doing or wrong ideas

Satire *could* happen

4/ Many satirists have discovered, under Trump (ym'sh), that what they think is absurd comes true in a few days or weeks (the satire below is just hours... but that's not inconceivable)

The Emperor's New Clothes is acted out every day to our eyes.

5/ Living through a plague gives me more perspective on a lot of lit. Living under a delusional tyrant with a violent personality cult has as well.

I said back in December 2016 that the upcoming years will be hell & I hope it'll lead to innovations in philosophy like WWI did

6/ I say 'philosophy' b/c this time of crisis, extremes, depravity & stupidity strips away a lot of ideology from the views of reality. We can't imagine that people are rational or that society is always for the common good. See how WW1 gave power to existentialism

7/ Even tho I've spent my career as a philosopher & social scientist trying to answer essential questions of human nature, these past years have proven or disproven many theories in a short period of time

I hope I - and we - can remember the hard bought lessons this time around

PS1/ Another example of satire being outstripped by reality during the #TrumpCrisis

https://twitter.com/danielsgoldman/status/1263105478562807808