Trump and MAGA cohorts don't lack empathy. As sadists, they have perverse empathy, by Hal M. Brown, MSW

 

I wasn't sure which word to use in the title of this Substack to describe the unique kind of empathy Trump and his MAGA cohorts have. The other terms I considered were obscene, meaing offensive to moral principles, and repugnant. I settled on "perverse" because it was less judgmental.  It decribes a person or their actions showing a deliberate and obstinate desire to behave in a way that is unreasonable or unacceptable.

People who understand, and care about, emotions know that empathy is a deeper human experience than sympathy. It means that one can temporarily put themselves inside of another person's experiential world and get a profound sense of what they are feeling. It is as if they are feeling another's feelings themselves. When someone is empathizing, their feelings can be said to be resonating with the other person's feelings. These individuals are called empathetic (sometimes empathic, meaning the same thing).

Trump has been called a malignant narcissist. He fits the definition on Wikipedia and on many other websites. 

All of the definitions address the lack of empathy. This is from Wikipedia:

Because traits of antisocial personality disorder are present in malignant narcissism, the "malignant narcissist" has a more pervasive lack of empathy than someone with NPD (narcissstic personality disorder) alone and will lack feelings of guilt or remorse for the damage they cause.

Definitions also include a sadist element:

Psychologist Keith Campbell has defined malignant narcissism specifically as the rare but dangerous combination of narcissism and sadism.

In thinking about Trump and some of the people he is relying on to advance his agenda like Stephen Miller, I've concluded that they have a unique kind of empathy. I am calling it perverse empathy. Because they are sadists they enjoy being able to make their enemies suffer. They want them to be scared. They take pleasure in knowing that they can make millions of migrants, even children, frightened about being deported. They want trans people to be miserable. They want DEI hires to worry themselves sick about where their next paycheck is coming from. They want political enemies to be anxious about their personal safety. They want people like us to be worried sick about the country becoming a dictatorship. As Trump and his minions find more groups to demonize and terrorize the list will grow.

I've been posting the illustration above on my Substacks about Trump lately, but on the bottom of the page. Today it is the main illustration. This is because unless Trump sees the cruelty he unleashes he doesn't enjoy it. He not only wants to know how much he is hurting people, he wants as many other people to know this as possible. For example, he wants immigrant roundups, like the one happening today in Chicago, to get as much publicity as possible.

Here's why I suggest that Trump and his ilk have a particular kind of empathy. 

To really enjoy hurting someone a person has to be able to have a good sense of how they, the victims, are feeling. Here's where sympathy and empathy diverge. They actually get into that person's skin and are able to get a glimpse of how they feel, of their fear or terror. 

Bishop Budde said directly to Trump that she hoped he would show mercy, as if he was capable of this.

People like Trump take pleasure in inflicting pain. They certainly don't sympathize with their victims. Asking Trump to show mercy is like asking the same of Hannibal Lector. 

An empathetic therapist empathizes with their client during a session and often when thinking about them. They learn to pull back emotionally lest they become overwhelmed with what is referred to as caregiver fatigue or burnout. People in all healthcare professions have to learn what is referred to as controlled emotional involvement. 

The perversely empathetic person empathizes with their victims because it enhances their own pleasure. Obviously, it never bothers them so they certainly don't need to learn controlled emotional involvement. They really want to know how much the people they injure are suffering. 

Trump is on a crusade of cruelty. In this respect he is like Hitler. I expect we will see editorial cartoons about Trump similar to these about Hitler:

Cartoon by British artist David Low.

How much Hitler personally enjoyed the pain he inflicted is, as far as I can tell, unknown. He was a psychopath and may or may not have been a sadist. We don't know if he enjoyed thinking about what was happening in the death camps. Of course, he didn't care about how many people he had killed. Killing was a means to achieve an ends.

Trump has many traits of being a psychopathic personality. While not killing people, he is on a path to hurting millions of people, and he is enjoying this.

Using Trump and "having empathy" in the same sentence may seem like an oxymoron. My premise it that he does have empathy, but it is a unique loathsome kind of empathy.

Addendum:

Practical Examples of Empathy (Reference)

To further illustrate the practical use of these terms, consider the following examples:

• Everyday Language: “His empathetic nature made him a great friend, always knowing how to console others in times of need.”
• Clinical Setting: “The therapist used an empathic approach to build trust and understanding with her patients.”
• Literary Context: “The novel’s protagonist had an empathic connection with animals, sensing their emotions as if they were her own.”
• Social Interaction: “Being empathetic towards others can significantly improve your relationships and social connections.”

I post my Substacks (formerly blogs) on several platforms. They are on Substack where, if you want to submit your email, you can be notified of all new blog posts. They are on HalBrown.org. They are also on Stressline.org I also post them on Medium because this enables them to be easily found on internet searches.

Rachel Maddow, there's nothing remotely amusing about Trump. By Hal M. Brown

 

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I intended to write about my negative reaction to some of the hosts and guests on MSNBC laughing or expressing any kind of amusement when they talk about Trump or his minions. I don't want to pick on Rachel Maddow in particular, but she seems to be the worst offender. Others like Lawrence O'Donnell, Michelle Wallace, and Ali Velshi report on Trump and what he is doing with gravity. But Rachel seem to have a kind of nervous reaction sometimes, not all of the time, when she laughs or chuckles when reporting on Trump and his cadre.

Then I saw this on BlueSky.

I skimmed the article in The Independent (here), and made this reply on BlueSky:

There is nothing remotely amusing about Trump and about what he is doing. He is hell-bent on turning the country into a ruthless dictatorship as soon as possible.  Nobody on MSNBC should crack a smile when they talk about him even if they are reporting on some of his faux pas. 

Trump just admitted he watches Rachel Maddow and that what she says it getting to him.

I am open to considering that Rachel's approach is acceptable just because however she comes across get under Trump's thin skin. I measure this possiblity against how it effects her audience. I think of the impact Walter Chronkite had when he came out against the VietNam War.  

It is time for Rachel to say she isn't going to crack so much as a hint of a smile until the menace of MAGA is gone.

I think the peril of Trump will begin to sink in. It may take more reporting on children cowering in fear and crying when ICE agents manhandle their parents who are in chains when they are loaded onto airplanes.

Trump hates not to be taken seriously. I am not suggesting he shouldn't be mocked, at least not yet.  However, this should be left to late night comics, but I anticpate a time when even they will realize there is nothing left about him to make fun of. 

Cartoonists often mock their subjects but before long I will see them drawing images like this published featuring Hitler.

People need relief from their worries about what is happening to our country. They need to find things to distract them from their anxiety. This  is healthy. But they also should learn to accept that their way of life, their very freedom not to live in fear of the government, is in dire jeopardy. It is counter-productive if they see people on MSNBC ,and perhaps CNN, trying to make light of what Trump and his minions are doing.

Previous Substacks

or read on HalBrown.org

Get ready for Tsar Trump the Terrible, by Hal M. Brown

Sabrina Haake's Substack "Haake Take" today A king pardons his army: J6 was a rehearsal. By pardoning the most violent among them, Trump has begun recruitment for the real event prompted me to make a comment.Then I realized this would be a good topic for my own Substack. I added a bit to it and added an illustration.

Okay, I'll "go there" (none of us are are inhibited by Godwin's Law thanks to Trump) and suggest the following.

If Hitler, during the mid-thirties, announced to the world that he planned to invade and subjugate Europe, Endland, and Russian as part of his 1000 Year Reich and initiate the Holocaust to wipe out Jewery, I'd like believe the world would have taken him more seriously than it did. Maybe FDR wouldn't have kept the United States out of the war because of isolationist sentiment until Pearl Harbor and millions of lives would have been spared.

While Trump denied that he knew anything about Project 2025, his actions show that he aspires to be a ruthless dictator. King is too kind a word, unless you want to liken him to Henry VIII or the less known kings, Leopold II of Belgium and Æthelred the Unready.

If Trump lacked empathy it would be bad enough. He gets off on inflicting pain on others. This is sadism.

We know what he has in his mind. In 2017 he told police not to be careful not to injure suspects when they put them into the back of their car.

While addressing a crowd of law enforcement officers in July 2017, Trump did advise police not to be "too nice" with people in custody and encouraged officers to stop protecting peoples' heads when they're handcuffed and ducking to get into squad cars. Snopes

He's asked about shooting migrants trying to cross the Rio Grande below the waist. Of course with assualt rifles these wounds would often be lethal and wondered about putting alligators in the river.

This is kind of brutality that is in Trump's mind.

Listen up, Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, when you shoot at the police wearing body armor, this is where to aim. (As an aside, police will be shooting back and if they try this Trump can't pardon them if they break state laws - at least not yet.)

Rather than saying Trump aspires to be king, among the other actual titles for rulers to use besides this, are emperor and tsar (or czar). I like the latter because of the Russian connection. I'm thinking of Ivan the Terrible, the first man to rule all of Russia as tsar. If we start to say Trump wants to be a tsar we can begin to call him Tsar Trump the Terrible.

Here's a little about Tsar Ivan:

He created a vicious private army and spent the rest of his life merrily murdering people, ransacking churches, and terrifying Russians everywhere. He attacked one of his own cities, Novgorod, slaughtering its citizens and ransacking everything, killing an estimated 12,000 innocent people. He also launched several ill-advised military campaigns that crippled Russia's treasury and reputation. When Ivan died of a stroke in 1584, Russia was mostly relieved. Reference.

Unfortunately Zsar Trump the Terrible is not a three word alliteration because of the soft T sound in tsar, but it does have a menacing ring to it.

I post my Substacks (formerly blogs) on several platforms. They are on Substack where, if you want to submit your email, you can be notified of all new blog posts. They are on HalBrown.org. They are also on Stressline.org I also post them on Medium because this enables them to be easily found on internet searches.