THREAD
1 - Before invading, Putin made assessments. One of them was that America was fractured, heavily divided. Of course, Putin intimately experienced four years of Trump. What a godsend for him! Without his assessment of America's division, this war would NOT be happening!
2 - Reconstructing the USSR? It's a talking point. Putin's real goals extend further. He's been unchecked for so long, they've morphed into obsessions. Putin's three major obsessions: America, democracy, and NATO. His goal? TO DIMINISH THEM. If he can, the rest falls into place.
3 - Putin saw the great arrogant America elect a moron. He's seen the GOP's unbridled lust to regain power. He's seen millions of Americans buy into false narratives and strongman propaganda. OF COURSE he saw potential for American democracy itself to be altered or compromised!
4 - What Putin saw in America is TrumpISM - a mirror of Trump's malignancies. Authoritarians are admired as manly and strong, winning is everything, an apparatus of enablers in Congress and amplifiers on RW media unified in a mission to attain power with Minority Rule at ANY cost
5 - Go back to the day of the invasion. Trump, the useful idiot himself, immediately spewed Putin-friendly fuel on the fire. So did Carlson! So did Pompeo! Russian media began playing Trump/Pompeo on endless video loops! This was what Putin expected, and he got exactly that.
6 - But Putin made other faulty assessments. He underestimated Zelensky's leadership, Ukrainians' bravery, their will to fight to survive. Mostly, he underestimated NATO's unity, due in no small part to Biden/Blinken and their ability to telegraph Putin's planned lies in advance.
7. Thank God for Biden. Because of the solidarity of NATO, and Zelensky, Putin stumbled. Political calculus by the power-crazed American GOP changed. Not for humanitarian reasons! They read the room, and knew their best alternative was to now flip to Ukraine and away from Putin.
8 - REMEMBER THIS: The GOP cares for NOTHING above power! Their oaths? Hah! They'd sell their own mothers out in a flash. And even though they act against Putin now, all Putin needs to do is wait this out with them, and they'll assuredly welcome his help with US midterm elections
9 - Whatever happens in Ukraine, America HAS to vanquish its TRUE foe. It's not Putin. And it's not Trump. It's PROPAGANDA. Authoritarianism can ONLY grow in an environment of DISINFORMATION. Disinformation and propaganda are everywhere now. It's constant. Relentless. Amplified.
10 - In 2022, American Democracy itself WILL be on the line. Democracy HAS to prevail! How? The truth. The truth is the only archenemy of the lie, and the truth is STRONGER than the lie. So, for Democracy to prevail, enough TRUTH has to prevail!
11 - In 2020, we spoke TRUTH about the aberrant psychopathology of Trump in our film #UNFIT. It also spoke to his autocratic aspirations which we still see daily. Our film was widely distributed; widely seen. It made a difference. It crossed over to moderates. There's still many!
12 - In 2022, before the midterms, we will release #UNTRUTH - the Psychology of TrumpISM and the War for Democracy. It will also make a difference. It will speak truth to ANYONE who watches it. (Almost everybody watches films, and when they watch, they're away from the noise.)
13 - #UNTRUTH must be a fiercely truthful and independent film (like #UNFIT). It's the only way films like these can be made. If enough truth prevails, democracy will prevail! The more we know about what Trumpism really is, the better chance we have.
14 - Here's a link. PLEASE - click it, watch the short trailer at the top, then scroll down and read the truth about Trumpism. It's behavioral psychology. And it's there. We hope you'll also consider supporting the effort, now or in the coming few days.
15 - We're all in this together. Democracy really IS on the line. It's the thing most worth fighting for. And we need to be all in.
Thanks for reading this thread.
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1/4 Drs. Gartner and Segal talk to Dr. Eric Jackson, Director of the Stuttering and Variability Lab at NYU who argues that a lot of what looked like cognitive decline was actually stuttering: a message America needs to hear.
Watch here youtube.com/live/xrgwUDUfb…
2/4 Dr. Jackson analyzes Biden's debate gaffes: "I think that he stutters, and I think stuttering is playing a bigger role in his verbal stumbles than most people think. I don't see evidence of cognitive decline."
3/4 Biden has bounced back with spirited rallies and a solid NATO press conference but the press is in wolf-pack mode, hyper-focused on Biden's gaffes while ignoring the malignant narcissism that will leads to Trump's "Project 2025" America
How shame formed Trump's narcissism:
Psychologists John Gartner and Harry Segal talk to Dr. John Skrovan, as they address Trump's malignant narcissism, his inability to process shame, and how that shapes his rapid cognitive decline. youtube.com/live/VaCq9WrmO…
Welcome to another addition of Shrinking Trump, where we meet each week to present the mounting evidence of Trump’s mental decline and early onset dementia. “Our goal is really to educate the public, to help them to think clinically in a more sophisticated way,” Dr. Segal said.
In this episode, our hosts will be sharing the latest audio and video examples of Trump’s disorientation, confusion, and some peculiar but very specific physical telltale signs of brain damage and deterioration.
1/9 Top Psychologists John Gartner and Harry Segal are joined by Dr. John Talmadge, one of the first to have written about Trump's dementia, as they address Trump's fixation on vengeance and peel back the layers of his rapid cognitive decline. youtube.com/live/uvjZF65qG…
3/ Welcome to another addition of Shrinking Trump, where we meet each week to present the mounting evidence of Trump’s mental decline and early onset dementia. This week was particularly telling for Trump, as he attempts to deal with the reality of his conviction on 34 felony counts.
1/ Special Edition: Conviction Day
Shrinking Trump had an “emergency session” anticipating our patient might go into crisis after his conviction. Our analysis of his likely response from a psychological perspective. youtube.com/live/e1D7HvPOP…
3/ While it has felt like there was no line he could't cross, Trump’s conviction has moved the polls. Across polls, 2-8% have said a conviction would decide their vote. More recently, 45% of independents, and 10% of Republicans think he should drop out.
1/ 15 Join Dr. John Gartner and Harry Segal for their top-ranked podcast “Shrinking Trump,” as they review Trump’s disturbed behaviors of the week and report how on how the media covered them.
Psycho-biographer Dr. Justin Frank explains the origins of Trump’s psychopathology. youtube.com/live/13VqOrpxk…
3/ John and Harry kick off the show with another great segment of “This week in Trump,” where they share video of Trump’s most bizarre statements and behaviors from the week to highlight the mounting evidence of his cognitive decline.
1/17 This week:
Dementia specialists Drs. Mitchell and Emily Clionsky assess patient Trump.
We demand a retraction from WaPo for writing Biden “routinely” evidences “word salad.”
Jennifer Rubin asks Shrinking Trump hosts to advise Biden on the debates. youtube.com/live/dyBJGWOej…
3/ Dementia experts Drs. Mitchell and Emily Clionsky, assess the case of patient Trump, and find marked deterioration in his speech and “executive functioning.” press.jhu.edu/books/title/12…