Showing posts with label Psychology. Show all posts

November 10, 2025

The futility of desperately seeking hope. The signs at the entrances to the Nazi death camps read "Work Shall Set You Free."

It drives me crazy. It leads me to actually shout out loud at home.

People are desperate for hope. They want to hear answers to the question “what can we actually do to stop Trump?”

They want to feel that going out to hold signs along a busy road once week like they do around the country will make a difference.

This is human nature. Feeling helpless when your life as you know it, your lifestyle, is not just jeopardized, but may be forcibly taken from you is a normal reaction. When this is the fact, pretending it isn’t inevitable when it is for certain happening or about to happen is clinical denial or delusional.

Although some people have been herded onto deportation airplanes, we haven’t been herded by armed soldiers into cattle cars to a place that has a sign over the gate that says “work shall make you free.”

Perhaps some of the Jews headed to the gas chambers saw that sign and had a glimmer of hope, a fleeting moment that defied logic. Even if though they didn’t know that some wouldn’t last more than a week before they were killed, while others were going to be worked to death, they had to know that the SS and Gestapo who brought the there weren’t going to provide work that would make them free.

I am under no illusion that my using AI to make images of Nap-oleon Trump like these > 1 does anything more than provide me amusement. I’d hoped it would amuse my readers. It doesn’t solve anything. It is just an escape, a momentary respite.

All the SNL skits, the riffs mocking Trump by late night comics, the editorial cartoons (like those by Ann Telnais), and even the No Kings protests, play into Trump’s hands. He may personally bristle when someone or something scores a hit that bruises his ego, but he also is firm in his belief that those people opposing him are, as the line used in several movies says, bringing knives to a gunfight.

I know that keeping one’s sanity and not succumbing to clinical depression or being debiliated by anxiety is crucial. It is vital for all of us to find ways to take care of our mental health. If it means just avoiding even thinking about the news, this is what you have to do.

I would rather see people seek balance. Escape for a period of time and then refocus your attention so you see what is going on.

You might say to me that is seems like I am saying I should give up hope. I am loath to state that I this is what I am saying. Don’t kid yourself. Trump holds not only the reins of power, but is whipping us with them. He may not be drawing blood yet, at least for those who haven’t been targeted by his ICE thugs, but I see it as only a matter of time before we are all feeling the sting on our metaphorical flesh.

My suggestion as someone who was a therapist for 40 years and still thinks like a shrink is that we should do what help us to feel good but not kid ourselves. If you want to head out to the road with a group of like minded people and hold signs because this makes you feel like at least youre doing something, and it feels good to be with friends and have people who drive by hink and wave, go ahead and do it enthusiastically.

Everyone must practice self-care. I broke my practice of having the news on TV in the morning and going to Music Choice and listening to oldies.

I just want people to understand that things have gone so far beyond being bad that bad can’t even be seen in the rear view mirror.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have posted my Trump as Nap-oleon of yesterday’s Substack which I took down.

August 25, 2025

ER surgery docs see spate of swallowed sinkers, hooks, and lines. Delicate operation often not successful. People still believe Trump is fit to be president.

There are people who read posts like the one Trump wrote about Chris Christie (shown above) and don’t see the irony of what he says about no one being above the law. They live in a delusional wonderland where up is down and down is up, farts smell like flowers and flowers smell like farts.

These people may not be testably stupid, but they are dumb in the way that they lack the critical thinking skills which would prevent them from being gullible.

Trump wants them to be this way. Otherwise he wouldnt have embraced his new hat. Sure, he’s a grandiose narcissist, but he’s also crafty and he’s a performer who knows his audience.

At some level he knows it’s a joke, but there’s a part of him that believes it.

What would a reasonable person think of someone who wore a hat that said “I AM ALWAYS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING?”

How can anyone with a functioning brain think that a man who wears a hat that says he’s always right about everything, underline that…

… could ever be a leader of anything, let alone the president of the United States?

There is a sickness in America. You can call it the swallowing sickness. Millions of people have succumbed to it. You can even see them wearing the hat:

People don’t swallow fishing tackle. The most injuries sustained by this are incured by dogs who accidentally swallow fishing hooks (reference). Dogs are pretty smart, in some instances they appear to be smarter than some people. But accidents do happen.

Fish aren’t particularly smart. This is why they are attracted to the shiny lures or wiggly worms and end up hooked and reeled in for a fishemans’s trophy or for your dinner.

The people who swallow the biggest Trump lie, the lie bigger than the lie about winning the 2024 election, bigger than any of the other lies he’s told, is encompassed in the words on that hat since nobody can ever be right about everything. If they believe that, they belong in an institution, and I don’t mean this one:

People like him belong in another kind of institution. In fact there’s one not far from the White House. John Hinckley, Jr., after he attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981, was sent there. A sliver of Mussolini’s brain was also studied there.

The biggest Trump lie people believe is that he’s fit to be president.

Scroll down to read me of my reaction to what Trump said in his Oval Office remarks today. This stood out:

Excerpt:

Reacting to criticism from lawmakers across the country who don’t want a federal invasion of their major cities, the president claimed that there are those who feel the U.S. would be better off with a dictator.
“I think the Democrats better get smart and, you know, politically, I hope they don't,” the president told the silent reporters. “But actually, in terms of love for the country, I hope they do, because it would be good to work together. So I'm thinking about, you know, when I have some slob like [Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B.] Pritzker criticizing us before we even go there. I made the statement that next should be Chicago because, as you all know, Chicago is a killing field right now, and they don't acknowledge it.”
“And they say we don't need them – ‘freedom, freedom, he's a dictator, he's a dictator,” he claimed. “A lot of people are saying, maybe we'd like a dictator. I don't like a dictator, I'm not a dictator. I'm a man with great common sense and a smart person, and when I see what's happening to our cities, and then you send in troops instead of being praised, they're saying you're trying to take over the republic. These people are sick. But I'm really saying, and I say this to all of you in a certain way, we shouldn’t wait to be asked because they have cities that are so under control, you know, out of control, so we go in and fix it.”

Related to hats with self-aggrandizing sayings on them, note that at $35.95 these are already sold out:

I was just watching Trump doing what he calls the weave, but to me as a retired psychotherapist I see as bordering on having clincially significant loose associations, i.e., referring to a thought disorder where ideas are poorly connected or unrelated. In the extreme this leads to disorganized speech that can be confusing to others. This phenomenon is often seen in mental health conditions like schizophrenia. He holds up his signed bill and brags about his signature saying “who can write like that” and then goes off on a diatribe about Biden and the auto-pen. Then he continues attacking Biden saying “he was never very sharp.” Then on flag burning saying all over the country they are burning flags. This is a lie. There have been no reports about this. People who are critical thinkers should be appalled when they watch this. No we have a totally unnecessary executive order about a problem, rampant flag burning, which does not exist.

He talked about paid agitators, another outright lie. He brags about being called “the presdient of Europe.” Who, pray tell, is calling him this?

How fucken gullible can people be not to see through the performance Trump put on today? Icing on the cake perhaps was the head of the US Marshall Service not only giving Trump a badge, but a handcuff key representing his unlocking law enforcement.

Going back to this subject of this Substack, this person is thought to be fit to be president?

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August 19, 2025

Taking a break from Trump today, this is about the "must have and must have it now addiction" I think I share with lots of people. Amazon must make big bucks off of people being impatient to get their stuff.

I can’t count the number of times I spend the extra $2.99 on Amazon to have a same day delivery rather than a next day delivery.

This morning I decided to buy the pillow shown on the top of the page. I ordered this at 5:00 AM after a fitful night trying to find a comfortable sleeping position on my side.

Note above that I could have had the item delivered today at no addtional charge if it had cost one cent more. Otherwise it would come tomorrow. If I wanted it today, so I could try it out tonight, I’d need to pay an addtional $2.99. There’s that pesky penny again, as if there’s a difference between $2.99 and $3.00 worth my worrying about.

However, $2.99 to Amazon has to add up to real money if you consider that there are must be millions of people like me who want an item so badly that they are willing to take the split second to click a box on their computer screen.

Amazon knows about this addiction.

I envision an overnight worker speeding through my local vast Amazon warehouse (see “Amazon opens $500 million Oregon warehouse that stocks 40 million products: Look inside”) on a same day delivery vehicle with flashing red and blue lights and a screaming siren. I don’t know if they really have these, but this is what I imagine.

There’s no way I am alone in what I am callling “the must have and must have it now addiction” since Amazon' wouldn’t offer this option if only a small percentage of people were willing to shell out the addtional $2.99.

I admit I’ve paid this not just for items only available on Amazon, but also to buy things I forgot to pick up when I was shopping or that I could drive down to Ace Hardware to buy.

I did this a few days ago when I was working on a project that I needed diamond cut-off wheels for my Dremel rotary tool to complete. I was just too lazy to get in the car and drive for a few minutes to pick it up in a nearby store and save $2.99.

Why, you might, or might not, ask why did I want the diamond discs so quickly? I needed them to cut 6 and 10 inches off the steel bars shown below holding a multi-color dimming lamp over a large flower pot next to my patio:

I maintain the flowers not just for myself and my partner to enjoy, but for everyone else who walks by since they are on a path residents where we live often walk down and I see them admiring the flowers.

We are a nation of impatient people. I don’t know how many of us suffer from a must have it and must have it now syndrome. I don’t even know it it can be called a syndrome or an addiction. I don’t think it’s a true addition since one can stop without withdrawl symptoms. I just see it in myself and with people all around me.

I know it is better for my mental health, and for lots of people’s mental health, to learn how to chill out under various circumatances. Unhealthy impatience could be associated with getting an item they want, but it could learning to relax when you are waiting something good to happen, or it could be when someone is stuck in a traffic jam or waiting for just about anything.

I am not advocating that everyone learn to meditate. This requires discipline and commitment. It is worth a try for anybody and I won’t rule out doing it, but then I am not feeling sanguine about doing it. I think I am reasonably adept at not getting restless or anxious when I know that there’s nothing I can to to speed something up. However, on the $2.99 issue, there IS something I can easily do to speed something up.

I am just saying more people should take a breath, relax, ask themselves if they, for example, really have to have some item, whether it is something they actually need or something they just want, today or whether being impatient is worth $2.99.

Maybe there are times when it is a helpful exercise to resist clicking that Amazon same day delivery box and make yourself wait until tomorrow.

Not every Amazon item comes with a same day option. When I look at an Amazon search page I scroll the pages looking for the item I want that can be delivered in the shortest time even if it costs significantly more money.

This is really nuts. But then again. I don’t see changing this behavior.

I really do want to try that damn pillow tonight! I wonder how much more I’d spend to get it today. I really think Amazon has come up with the perfect amount, at least for me. I would pay an even $3.00, but I don’t think I’d pay $4.00. Even $3.50 might be too much.

11:00 AM Update:

Comments on the news. This is just plain insane. I wonder what Zelenskyy and Macron were thinking. Did they understand the the 4 more years referred to a third term?

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Hal Brown's Substack (fomerly Hal Brown's Blog)