On Fairness

Article saying the secret sauce to Trump's rise is American's unique sense of fairness:

The U.S. has never been a fair or equal place. Many have labored to maintain inequality and to keep unfairness working in their favor. But the fundamental ideal that things should be fair has animated activists on both sides of the political aisle (if disproportionately on the left). Trump is not the first politician to exploit that admirable aim. But he is the first in the modern era to so avidly try to deform the desire for fairness into the destruction of American democracy—and to have an entire party apparatus behind him.

"But Xmastime", you say in the voice of Craig “Ironhead” Heyward from those soap commercials (RIP), “didn't you call out this bullshit for exactly what it was a year ago?"

Sigh. Yes I did, faithful readers, YES I did:

Pointing out things that “aren’t fair!” is a well-worn & time-tested part of political campaigns, but Trump whines about things being “not fair!” so often it makes you think if there’s an actual reason for it, and it’s dawned on me that this particular language fits in perfectly with the view of Trump as an overgrown toddler. One of the very first things kids learn to say is “that’s not fair!”; after all, little kids have an incredibly honed sense of justice (albeit usually when it comes to the portions of whatever cake/snacks/whatever is going around at any given moment.)

So it makes perfect sense this is something Trump spews on a constant basis, as one fucking toddler screaming at people he sees as his fellow toddlers to be outraged at something being “not fair!” without really bothering to consider what a solution could be before moving on to the next thing to be just blindly be outraged about as being “not fair!”. It’s the verbal version of throwing your food on the floor and whining over & over no matter what the meal is, or what it should even be.