• Optional@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    But they shouldn’t be mere comic fodder, nor accepted as normal: They are a worrisome sign about a leading presidential candidate. If Trump can’t manage to stay awake during a trial when his very freedom is on the line, what are the chances that he will be able to focus on the intricacies of a spiraling regional war, a trade policy, or any new crisis that might face him if he returns to the White House?

    This kind of bizarre hypothetical is so 2016. We are WAY past that. What are the chances he’ll be able to focus? Seriously? NONE! Just like last time!

    Again, we all know the answer, so what is the friggin point of asking that question? Atlantic are you casting about for the mythical undecided voter or some other ridiculous thing?

    Yeah, he’s not all there, no kidding. He’s a demented rapist fraud with thick slimy orange makeup who smells like shit. And he’s demanding to be instated as king! Why are you still - after ALL the shit he’s already pulled, after all you already know with 100% certainty - why are you still writing about him as any sort of normal person?

    I can only come up with one reason, and it’s not a good one.

  • LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    You’re saying the person who correctly identified “man, woman, person, camera, TV” is not a stable genius? Wow. 🤯

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I still think one of the weirdest things about donnie is that not only did he take a early dementia test, but that he BRAGGED about it. Repeatedly. And that this did not end his political career, even among the lowest of low-info supporters.

      That last part is one of the most baffling and disconcerting. It’s one thing for someone like donnie to have so much Dunning-Kruger and/or mental decline that they brag about taking a test to detect dementia; it’s another for people to continue to support him after…

      • mmcintyre@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        To me the weirdest thing isn’t how they still support him, it’s how little it seems the rest of US could care.

        It’s like the thing with Nigerian scammers and how they weed out the folks who aren’t gullible and get fat off the rest. The flamboyant absurdity that turns off normies is what attracts his victims (this is the first time I’ve actually thought of his voters as victims). I’m also reminded of whale sharks and how they filter out water and get fat off the plankton.

        But where are the Democrats in this? There’s no adversarial someone out there between a scammer or filter feeder and their prey. And sure, the people that are going to vote for him aren’t going to listen to a Dem. But what about the entire apathetic electorate? That’s the seawater Trump is using to filter feed on his victims. Without that apathy he can’t win. If only there were some way Democratic electeds could reduce apathy amongst the American people. Some way that wouldn’t upset donors, that is.

        sigh

        I’m afraid it’ll be voter apathy vs whale shark scammer this November.

  • Rapidcreek@lemmy.worldOP
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    6 months ago

    I’m no clinician, but I know an ill person when I see one. And in this case, it is five exits past obvious.

  • njm1314@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    The author writes this as if Donald Trump has a baseline of competence they are worried he won’t meet. Where the hell was he during the first administration?

    • Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      I think the tactics here are aiming to be read by the Red hats. If the piece were more generally how Trump is A steaming pile of shit they would categorically reject it as anti-Trumpist propaganda. This seems to be trying to errode confidence from his base by accepting their premise that he is effective.

      Basically like trying to give a dog a pill. You stick it in the mid of a tasty sausage or something so they don’t automatically spit it out.

  • elbucho@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Being unable to stay awake for his criminal trial is one of the least surprising things about a man whose aides had to dumb his daily presidential reports down to one page, with bright colors, pictures, and bullet points in order to get him to pay any attention to them whatsoever. You know who is surprised about him falling asleep in court? People who have paid 0 attention for the past 8 years.

  • ZagamTheVile@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Is it because they’re rejuvenating him and prolonging his life? Because that’s what would worry me. Or is it a symptom of a rapid decline in health and sanity? Because we should discuss your definition of “worrying”.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Reminds me, in relation to the naps and the self-obsession and obsession with media about the self…

      Hitler was incredibly lazy. According to his aide Fritz Wiedemann, even when he was in Berlin he wouldn’t get out of bed until after 11 a.m., and wouldn’t do much before lunch other than read what the newspapers had to say about him, the press cuttings being dutifully delivered to him by Dietrich.

      He was obsessed with the media and celebrity, and often seems to have viewed himself through that lens. He once described himself as “the greatest actor in Europe,” and wrote to a friend, “I believe my life is the greatest novel in world history.” In many of his personal habits he came across as strange or even childish—he would have regular naps during the day, he would bite his fingernails at the dinner table, and he had a remarkably sweet tooth that led him to eat “prodigious amounts of cake” and “put so many lumps of sugar in his cup that there was hardly any room for the tea.”

      He was deeply insecure about his own lack of knowledge, preferring to either ignore information that contradicted his preconceptions, or to lash out at the expertise of others. He hated being laughed at, but enjoyed it when other people were the butt of the joke (he would perform mocking impressions of people he disliked). But he also craved the approval of those he disdained, and his mood would quickly improve if a newspaper wrote something complimentary about him.

  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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    6 months ago

    “Contrary to the FAKE NEWS MEDIA, I don’t fall asleep during the Crooked D.A.’s Witch Hunt, especially not today. I simply close my beautiful blue eyes, sometimes, listen intensely, and take it ALL in!!!”

    • Inmate #P01135809
  • Asidonhopo@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    My working theory is he’s been struggling with some kind of Long COVID since he caught it around the time of the 2020 presidential debates.

      • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I knew this guy at my old warehouse job, fat fuck, always eating fast food drinking nothing but soda. He was always drowsy, passing out at lunch, dragging his feet, and we’d always tell him it was cause he ate like shit and never got any exercise, but he didn’t believe us.

        That’s what Trump is, an old, fat fuck, who eats McDonald’s and drinks coke all the time, and thinks exercise is bad for you. Not surprised that he falls asleep every time he sits.

    • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Not impossible. If true, I would say it’s more likely a contributing factor to mental decline due to dementia. The (Alzheimers Society)[https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/about-dementia/symptoms-and-diagnosis/sleep-problems-treatments-dementia] notes that:

      Dementia can disrupt the body’s normal cycle of day and night and their body clock. This means that many people with dementia feel tired and sleepy during the day. They may take many naps that then make it harder for them to sleep properly at night.

      Falling asleep in court combined with his well known predilection for posting to the internet at all hours suggests to me that this is a very real possibility.

      Additionally here is a post about Trump’s mental condition from Harry Segal, senior lecturer from the Psychology Department and Psychiatry Department at Cornell University at Weill Cornell Medicine. While no one can say for sure since no one who can be trusted to tell the truth has had the opportunity to examine Trump, Harry Segal is an expert in the field and his opinion should carry some weight.

      “In the 2024 election, both party candidates have been accused by the other of having psychological deficits. This weaponizing of clinical concepts is no doubt confusing to voters and journalists. A careful consideration of these claims can demystify their use as ‘opposition research.’

      “Objectively, Donald Trump has a documented history of lying that is so marked as to be considered ‘pathological.’ Politicians often say untrue things, but the frequency of Trump’s lying is so extreme as to meet criteria for sociopathic behavior, since he tells falsehoods across all life domains, from his personal relationships to business dealings and finally to politics. Recently, several clinicians have noted the ways he has begun to mistake words, lose his train of thought, confuse Biden with Obama, particularly during long rallies held in the evening. There are examples of phonemic paraphasia – swapping parts of words for others that sound similar; these are signs of early dementia, even though they are intermittent.

      “The complaints about Joe Biden have been more vague – citing his advanced age, physical fragility and occasional mixing up of names. But there is no evidence of dementia onset, no ‘sun-downing,’ no reports from staff or cabinet members that he is failing to stay on top of legislative or international issues. This in contrast to Trump whose cabinet at the end of his term considered invoking the 25th amendment.

      “This is not a partisan take. If the figures here were reversed, I would make the same judgment.”