Charles Manson: murderous monster, right? But Manson claimed he never murdered anyone. Technically true, though he died in prison for murder. He was a scrawny, white trash loser who spent most of his life in jail for one crime after another. He took no blame, he blamed his upbringing and society for his crimes. It wasn’t him, it was his groupies who slaughtered seven people, including an eight-month pregnant woman.
Trump is a poor little rich boy glitzy conman, who can’t read, can’t string together a coherent paragraph has been sued 3,500 times for frauds, cons and non-payment of workers. He takes no blame, he just denies everything. Manson ended up in prison and Trump ended up in the White House. What could they have in common?
They both use the Power of Positive Thinking and Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” Positive thinking and Dale Carnegie are not bad things. A hammer is not a bad thing, either, but it can be used by Jimmy Carter to build houses for poor people or used by Peter Sutcliffe to cave in the skulls of random woman in the U.K. The hammer is effective for both tasks.
Manson took a Dale Carnegie course during one of his prison terms. He applied those skills to the group of lost hippies who gathered around him. Carnegie’s book is effective. The main ideas are that people are most interested in themselves, so let them talk, listen with interest, and treat them like they’re special. When I read it, I thought it was a good way to acknowledge the value of other humans. If that made friends, all the better. Friends are good. Carnegie emphasized that you don’t FAKE interest to deceive people. But it works whatever your motive, just like the hammer.
Trump applies the 1980’s ‘name it and claim it,’ ‘fake it til you make it’ technique. Figure out what people want, SAY it loud and confidently and it will magically happen. SAY you will make America great, SAY you are a brilliant businessman, SAY you will save America from invading foreigners. If anyone points out that those are lies, SAY that accusation is a hoax, SAY that’s Fake News. NEVER take responsibility for failures, just SAY it was a success. Count on people being stupid enough to not notice. After all, they WANT to believe what you say.
Some of Trump’s Positive Thinking Lies:
Mark my words, I will build a great wall and Mexico will pay for it.
No one is stronger on the Second Amendment than me.
No one respects women more than me. No one reads the Bible more than me.
There’s nobody who has done so much for equality as I have.
Nobody knows more about taxes than me, maybe in the history of the world.
You get the idea.
Manson and Trump also both told their followers that the world is ending and the only ones who will survive are those who follow them. Everyone else is doomed; an old cult trick, but powerful.
Manson died in prison, Sutcliffe is creaking around a mental institution. But, you say, Trump is president of the USA! That means he’s right.
Trump will end up in disgrace. It ain’t over until it’s over. This era for Trump is like the era Manson spent on the Spahn Ranch before he was caught, or Sutcliffe spent stalking freely around Suffolk. They were “successful” for a time. After all, in 1933 Hitler was successfully elected in Germany, in 1936 he threw an awesome Olympics and in 1938 he was Time’s Man of the Year.
It ain’t over til it’s over.
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