Thread by @PnictogenHorses

this is a moment that, if I remember rightly, Mr. @dick_nixon disputed in his post-presidential career. it was publicized in "The Final Days" by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, and thus it's in Oliver Stone's film: Kissinger kneeling next to a praying, sobbing Nixon.

(cont'd)

let us take the scene at face value for now. even if Richard M. Nixon never did this, it's certain that countless human beings have done almost exactly this: facing ruin, they beg God for forgiveness...in such words that reveal they don't think they did anything wrong.

(cont'd)

Nixon is feeling humiliated, forced to his knees, and yet he's still clutching to his pride—he still feels like he's the wronged one here. his own abuses of power aren't real to Nixon; that was "just politics" and he doesn't seem to understand why he's even in trouble.

(cont'd)

Richard M. Nixon is sad and sobbing and begging favors from God, and he's basically *unrepentant*.

one thinks of @ThisIsKyleR, murderer, blubbering in a courtroom and likely thinking that being compelled to cry was the worst thing that could ever happen to anyone.

(cont'd)

right-wing Christians think highly of their own prayers—@MattWalshBlog and @PastorMark and @DouthatNYT and other Christian fascists probably feel very *special* simply for uttering prayers, even though prayer is a near-universal human activity, in countless religions.

(cont'd)

but prayers can be *empty*, mere talk and formulaic gabble, devoid of spirituality and humility, even if every other word is "God" or "Jesus" or "Lord". Nixon's prayer here in @TheOliverStone's film is empty and hollow; even on his knees, Nixon clings to *boasting*.

(cont'd)

I have no idea how @MattWalshBlog or @DouthatNYT or @pastorlocke or any other Christian fascist does their prayers. but I would wager that most of their prayers are spiritually meaningless and mere emotional outbursts—telling God about all the things they hate.

(cont'd)

#CSLewis, amusingly, warned Christians about turning prayers into mere excuses to complain to God about one's peeves—one suspects, however, that such activity makes up the majority of right-wing Christian prayer.

it's what Nixon does. he sobs to God about being hated.

(cont'd)

"God, why do they hate me so? It's unbelievable, it's insane," Nixon cries in @TheOliverStone's "Nixon".

Dick Nixon was hated for *good reasons*, and it wasn't "insane" to hate him. he wanted life-and-death power over the entire world; he should have *expected* hatred.

(cont'd)

it's one of the strangest human phenomena—people who grab for supreme power over others, who *exult* in cruelty, still expect and even demand to be *loved*, and get very irritated when they're not. nobody has a thinner skin than @elonmusk or @tedcruz or a murdering cop.

(cont'd)

@TheOliverStone has his version of Henry Kissinger wonder aloud how much greater a man Richard Nixon would have been, if he'd been loved. I vaguely recall that Charles Foster Kane had similar ideas...but Kane was an empty and superficial man, and maybe Nixon is too.

(cont'd)

craving and grabbing power becomes one's whole personality, and leaves little room for anything else. even if @elonmusk had been legitimately clever and inventive once, fame and celebrity and ambition have hollowed him out; it's not clear that there's much left.

(cont'd)

it's not a good sign when @elonmusk's tweets are indistinguishable from those of his followers. if he's just a copy of an #ElonMusk fan now, then...what's the *point* of Elon Musk?

(@mtaibbi? maybe you could point me towards someone who'd know.)

~Mona Drafter of Pnictogen