It does little to say that he can't help himself, but he can't. His brain is hard-wired to derive satisfaction from doing harm to others. I know because I had an older brother like that. Until I stood up to him he delighted in torturing me by threatening to harm small animals so I would beg him not to. Later in life he was an abusive husband married to an equally abusive wife. He ruined my wedding by showing up with his new wife, an event in which a girl he impregnated and then abandoned was serving as maid of honor to my fiancé, who was her best friend. I can see Donald doing any and all of these cruel things. Only shortly before his death did my brother acknowledge his cruelty and ask forgiveness. Somehow, I can't picture Donald doing that, nor could he since he's hurt so many.
Thanks. I survived it. When he had a disabling stroke I even arranged to have him assigned to a very nice nursing home and visited him regularly for the time he was in there until his death. On one of my visits he said that if there was one thing he would go to hell for, it would be ruining my marriage. The damage was not terminal, however, as we are still married after almost 58 years. I assured him of this, that I did not hold it against him, and he broke down. As for the hell part, that's not for me to say. Maybe I helped release him from his own private hell.
Mary, it must be heart-breaking to have close family members like your grandfather and uncle who have/had dark triad personality traits. Even though you are a psychologist, you can not just walk away because you see the damage DJT is doing to our country...because you do care. Thanks to you and others, most of the public is now (finally) understanding the malevolent characteristics of these dark personalities which can not be treated/fixed. As a community we can only flag the problems and work together to block their damage to our society -- with courage, as well as shed light on their "flying monkey" enablers.
Sobering and tragic, Mary. Sadly, our task as a people is to render him harmless and remove all of his enablers from power, strip them of their wealth and titles, and use the proceeds to rebuild our country. He most likely will not survive his term, but as he degrades, he becomes more deranged, vicious and dangerous. We have to stop him.
Mary, I think this is probably the most poignant and spot on things of yours that I have read. I read your first book, and it all makes so much sense. I have huge respect for you for being able to rise above what was done to your father by these people, and continue to work to put them in their well earned places. Thank you.
Earlier today I was thinking of the Grinch, whose heart is two sizes too small. Then my thoughts went to Donald, who’d be fortunate to have a heart that big.
Then I began replacing the name Grinch with Trump in the song.
Right on Mary! As you know, 50 psychiatrists contributed to the book "The Much More Dangerous Case of Donald Trump," a follow-up to their first book about his mental illness. They say that not only is he a malignant narcissist (Google the symptoms. It's frightening), but he's also a psychopath (even more frightening)! Yes, Biden was old and senile, but he was not a psychopath! Or a malignant narcissist! By supporting this animal, The stupid, chicken shit partisan politicians are putting this county in extreme danger. Those syncophants are evil.
Kathy, and Bident wasn't that Senile either. Trump's dementia is far more advanced than any senility Biden has. I find the Biden-bashing that has been occurring since the bad debate to be so harmful and unfair. Biden got so much positive started in this nation while Demented-Don got nothing positive accomplished in 5 years in office.
I totally agree. The media started bashing Biden after the bad debate and the weak democrats gave up on him. Although physically frail, Biden could give logical answers to questions. Just because he couldn’t remember some things didn’t mean he could not think with his brain.
He always remained compassionate, dignified and and devoted to our country.
Trump’s case is completely different. He never had compassion, dignity, devotion to the country . He was already a mentally ill man. With age he had gotten far worse.
I wish we had republicans who cared for the country and removed from the office. I know that his replacement is nothing to look forward to, but surprises can happen, like when Arthur replaced Garfield after the latter’s death.
Biden was neither physically nor mentally frail. I doubt I could keep up with his current exercise regime, at 20 years younger. Mentally, yes, he's old and his memory slips, but Trump's verbal gaffes outnumber Biden's by a factor of at least 10. Biden worked more in a day than Trump does in a week. It's no wonder he was exhausted. I'm glad he stepped down to preserve his health, especially given his cancer diagnosis. I think he's still, to this date, magnitudes more coherent than Trump.
I agree. I’m not going to argue his mental state. He was a kind, caring leader who tried to do the best for this country. However, one of the reasons we have Metamucilini in office is because he insisted on running again when he was not up to the task.
Not according to every voting election experts that have shown that the votes make no sense. Votes that came from counties that don't exist? 10s of thousands votes there, then "disappeared"? Much more. He+ Musk both bragged about it, too. The only question is why hasn't anything been done?
They (dems) hit the ground running because they were prepping behind the scenes in anticipation of winning - to get things going and get things back and normalized. Oif. I can only hope they are doing the same.
Don’t buffer Biden. He was an ignorant racist Zionist. He also failed to see the humanity in the Palestinian people whom are no different than anyone else. They love their children and want to live in a country and world wherein they aren’t subjected to an apartheid system that continues to dehumanize them.
All true. But keep in mind the Project 2025 people turning the knobs behind the curtain. They are well aware of trump's sicknesses (mental & physical) & they are using them to their advantage. And our peril.
Biden isn't senile. He had a bad debate because he just got back from meetings in Europe AND was recovering from COVID. He just gave a wonderful speech a few days ago.
Hey Steve, the emperor thinks he is clothed in gold with medals hanging around his neck celebrating his amazing gifts that are far superior to anyone else's. He doesn't notice that one says "Liar-in-Chief," another says "Champion Ignoramus," then there's "Everybody's Clown," also "Greatest businessman who bankrupted 6 times," and "Grand Puppet." They are all gold, of course with gold ribbons to b hung around his neck.
Putin knew what he wasnted and what he got when appointing Trump as his weapon to destroy the West Vlad hates. Soeday we'll know how the puppetry has been achieved.
Frosty, well, unless you get everything you want, like a toddler, get to insult and malign people who are better than you, don't have to work a day in your life, get to lie incessantly and actually have gullible people believe the lies, and are unaware of your own weaknesses. So, you can just plough through pushing everyone out of your way whom you see as inferior, and use people like they are paper towels to wipe up your messes and can be tossed away when you are done with them. Most people would find that unexamined life untenable, but there are some for whom this is a dream. It seems Donald Trump has surrounded himself with a whole toddler pool filled with them.
This is all so fitting, right on, and to the point. He will never get that that medal was an insult and fun being made at his expense. Sad and sorry human who never knew and will never know real love. He has wasted an entire life making everyone around him pay for the damage and the dislike he father did to him!
I dearly hope that when Trump leaves this life that he finds himself in the Heavenly realm he can't possibly imagine now but unconsciously craves. Wouldn't that be great? Of course he won't have deserved it, but then...
Not only the tremendous damage he has caused through all of his cruel and evil ways, but the damage he, himself has done. Nothing can ever undo or fix that, even if by a huge stretch of the imagination, he wanted to. It’s too big and runs too deep.
All You Need Is Love, sang a wise young man who chose New York City as his home, loved by all the world he had conquered, all except for a solitary monster, standing in the dark with his gun. A monster created, almost certainly, by a need for love.
Perhaps the ability to love others begins with the ability to love oneself.
Having more money or possessions doesn’t necessarily or automatically make anyone a better person. It general, money often amplifies who we already are.
I'm not sure about that. Wealth can't make you a better person, but it can make you a worse one. It doesn't always, but people like George Soros, who start out truly good *and* are not corrupted at all by their wealth (and the power that goes with it), seem to be the exception rather than the rule.
There are plenty of really rotten people who are poor, you probably know some of them. I do not think it is a matter of money at all. There are bad poor people and bad rich people and visa versa. Your wealth does not relate to the fact that you are a decent human being or not. I personally know rotten rich people and rotten poor people and good rich people and good poor people. I know all these people and it is their CHARACTER THAT COUNTS NOT THEIR WEALTH OR LACK OF IT!
YOU HAVE NO CREDIBILITY to make the claim that "the number of sociopathic Billionairs is excessive." Are you even a licensed as a psychologist or psychiatrist? If not you cannot make the assumption of who is sociopathic and who is not. Having a lot of money does not automatically make a sociopath and being poor also does not make you a sociopath. The danger of calling someone a sociopath is that you can call anyone this, even poor people. This is a slippery slope and is very dangerous. As far as I am concerned. I know some poor people who I would call sociopathic or maybe even psychopaths. I admit I do not know a lot of rich people but the ones I did meet seemed nice. Anyway it is the governments job to make sure people do not take advantage of the system by passing appropriate laws and enforcing said laws when they are broken.
This is a substack comments section. Not a research paper. People with credentials have made that exact point in research papers. Just google impact of wealth on empathy. Also, you’re nobody to issue credentials either. So stay humble.
I certainly didn't intend to imply that poor people (or non-rich people more broadly) are all good guys: merely that the acquisition of wealth seems to lead an awful lot of people who had previously been basically decent to become jerks, if not outright immoral, an awful lot. Maybe it's caused by the pursuit of profit (and the cutthroat, "anything goes" attitude that one must often adapt). Another the ideological belief held by many rich people that that American capitalism is fair (a secular version of the prosperity gospel): financial success is merited — and therefore, if you are one of the richest people in the world, you are also one of the "best").
Some rich people who companies that employ a lot of people and treat them fair DESERVE TO BE RICH IN MY OPINION. There is not such thing as a totally "fair" system. Russia is no longer communist and neither is China for that matter. There are no true communist countries in the world, it does not work. However the northern countries, though they not communist, do have social welfare programs that appear to work. THEY ARE NOT COMMUNISTS, PERIOD! I THINK it would be helpful for the people in our government to do more research and more visits with these countries, so we can know what they are doing correct and what we are doing incorrect. Elena
Poor people are awful also, I unfortunately know that from personal experience. You cannot use your jeolousy of rich people to excuse yourself from being poor. I lost all my money and it was my fault and I had to work hard to get back which I did. I did not blame anyone (INCLU for my personal goof ups. I am responsible for my own actions. I do believe that the government should help people who have physical or mental difficulties. My son has autism and he does get help from the government and I am totally OKAY with that. Not everyone is on the same plan. People who start corporations that employee hundreds of people deserve to make money, otherwise why would they do it??? It is not Rich people that are starting companies that hire people that is the problem. It is Rich people that are not contributing to the society that is the problem. You should not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Again I have no problem with an executive in a company who hires a lot of people and treats them well. If the executive in that kind of company is rich, HE OR SHE DESERVES IT AND I AM ALL FOR THAT SITUATION.
I am well aware of that. But I was not talking about poor people. I was talking about how the acquisition of extreme wealth can affect people's worldview and morality. My observation was that acquiring wealth doesn't make people better (it empowers good people to do more good, but it doesn't make them better people), but it does sometimes change them for the worse.
Let’s look for examples of a good billionaire and see what proportion that is. Even the leftist extremist the right loves to hate, Soros himself, has caused massive harm to Thailand to make his money. There are no good ones. If there existed one, they would be working to distribute wealth more evenly to reduce inequality around the world. Them being billionaires would be in a much better position to fight for that than an average citizen of the world.
Yes you are jealous of Billionaires, I get it. I will never be one of these people but I think people like Putin are bigger threats than any so called Billionaire, of course he may be a Billionaire for all I know.
Thanks so much for your comment. That’s why I said money “AMPLIFIES” who we already are. But I should have expressed my opinion in more general terms rather than absolute ones.
If you are referring to the way that wealth can empower a good person to do more good — or an evil person to do more evil — then I agree. But I am talking about how excessive wealth can effect moral and psychological change in a person. My opinion is that getting rich does not seem to influence people in beneficial ways, but that it can and often (not always) does cause changes for the worse. In my previous post I mentioned a couple of possible mechanisms whereby extreme wealth might adversely affect people’s moral compass.
Extreme power does more harm than wealth. Again look at Putin, though he is probably very wealthy also. I think people like Putin are much more of a threat to humanity than Billionaires, oh and Putin has a vast military and nuclear weapons, and likes to cause people to fly out of 10 story windows.
That is a good observation. But I think that Putin (who, prior to entering politics, was a career KGB agent and Soviet liason to Stasi, the infamous East German secret police) was already a plenty bad guy before he came to power. Being the President of Russia gave him the ability to do greater harm, but I don't think it was what made him an awful person. I do agree that having power can sometimes lead people to do bad things (perhaps out of a desire to keep that power) that they would not otherwise have considered doing.
I'm thinking about how a person who isn't particularly bad already, who comes from a middle-class background, can be changed by acquiring wealth. I can't think of anyone who has become a better person through getting rich, but I think people can be affected for the worse by wealth.
Mary, you are brilliant. I read your book and I begged others to read it . I read it when it first came out because I was insightful enough to see the monster that stood before me on the big screen TV. My brother, too, saw the monster very quickly. I was in a 13 year relationship with a person that is a narcissist, a sociopath and a pathological liar. I see her in him every time I see him on TV and it triggers me to my core. I find myself screaming and yelling at him every time he lies, which we know is almost every word out of his mouth. I am so glad that you have the knowledge and the ability to explain it to everyone that is willing to listen and learn.Thank you so much Mary Trump.
I, too, quickly saw the monster under that ugly orange hue, but alas! my own sister became his cultist. Couldn't be more painful to me. I no longer know her and may never know her again.
I’m so sorry. It has torn and divided some of my family. We are working to patch and salvage what we can. My mother, brother, and I have agreed to not talk politics with dad and my sister. I slip occasionally. It does no good. Once a cult member there is no saving them from “ drinking the Kool-Aid.
At 79 and feeling lousy most of the time with all the demands on him he will never feel loved. Maybe he gets satisfaction from destroying things and people.
Why are there people like that? Because of the reasons listed by Mary. No empathy, no kindness, no caring, no love was ever shown to him as a child.
At 79 he is a broken piece of china. He has shown his children the same that he received. He never had to do anything for himself. He doesn't even dress himself.
I pray that all have done better for their children and will continue to do so.
And in his dementia, Donald Trump is even more stuck than before because he can't even hold back verbalizing the anger, hate, resentment that he is faced with all the time. His illness is also cementing the fear. The thing that is saving him and putting us on the edge is that his white house toddler pool knows of his dementia, if not fully who Trump is due to his father's treatment of him, they are using him to get what they want and they want a lot, and the American people as well as the peoples of the world will pay for the Toddler Pool's greed, lack of empathy, and powergrubbing: Miller, Vought, Vance, Musk, Theil, Hegseth, and the rest of the cabinet and other various members of the Trump Toddler Pool.
I would feel bad for him if he wasn’t destroying so many lives. He should have stuck to bankrupting himself and not the country.
It does little to say that he can't help himself, but he can't. His brain is hard-wired to derive satisfaction from doing harm to others. I know because I had an older brother like that. Until I stood up to him he delighted in torturing me by threatening to harm small animals so I would beg him not to. Later in life he was an abusive husband married to an equally abusive wife. He ruined my wedding by showing up with his new wife, an event in which a girl he impregnated and then abandoned was serving as maid of honor to my fiancé, who was her best friend. I can see Donald doing any and all of these cruel things. Only shortly before his death did my brother acknowledge his cruelty and ask forgiveness. Somehow, I can't picture Donald doing that, nor could he since he's hurt so many.
Typical tRump behavior! 😡 so sorry that this happened to you!
Thanks. I survived it. When he had a disabling stroke I even arranged to have him assigned to a very nice nursing home and visited him regularly for the time he was in there until his death. On one of my visits he said that if there was one thing he would go to hell for, it would be ruining my marriage. The damage was not terminal, however, as we are still married after almost 58 years. I assured him of this, that I did not hold it against him, and he broke down. As for the hell part, that's not for me to say. Maybe I helped release him from his own private hell.
I came on to say the same thing!
Mary, it must be heart-breaking to have close family members like your grandfather and uncle who have/had dark triad personality traits. Even though you are a psychologist, you can not just walk away because you see the damage DJT is doing to our country...because you do care. Thanks to you and others, most of the public is now (finally) understanding the malevolent characteristics of these dark personalities which can not be treated/fixed. As a community we can only flag the problems and work together to block their damage to our society -- with courage, as well as shed light on their "flying monkey" enablers.
Well said!💯💯💯💯
Flying Monkey Enablers. Good term!
Sobering and tragic, Mary. Sadly, our task as a people is to render him harmless and remove all of his enablers from power, strip them of their wealth and titles, and use the proceeds to rebuild our country. He most likely will not survive his term, but as he degrades, he becomes more deranged, vicious and dangerous. We have to stop him.
Wow. This is so profound. Thank you.
Mary, I think this is probably the most poignant and spot on things of yours that I have read. I read your first book, and it all makes so much sense. I have huge respect for you for being able to rise above what was done to your father by these people, and continue to work to put them in their well earned places. Thank you.
Thank you, Mary for your insights! I just re stacked this post!
Brilliantly said….thank you!
Mary is amazing! What a brave fighter!
Earlier today I was thinking of the Grinch, whose heart is two sizes too small. Then my thoughts went to Donald, who’d be fortunate to have a heart that big.
Then I began replacing the name Grinch with Trump in the song.
You’re a mean one, Mr. Trump…
He'd be fortunate if he had a heart. His heartlessness is his defining characteristic.
We'd be fortunate if he had a heart. Sadly, he does not. So, the world suffers.
A long while back, I realized the Grinch lyrics fit him very well, especially about his soul being an appalling dump heap.
Todd, hmmm! It works, doesn't it, and without having to change too many words!
Right on Mary! As you know, 50 psychiatrists contributed to the book "The Much More Dangerous Case of Donald Trump," a follow-up to their first book about his mental illness. They say that not only is he a malignant narcissist (Google the symptoms. It's frightening), but he's also a psychopath (even more frightening)! Yes, Biden was old and senile, but he was not a psychopath! Or a malignant narcissist! By supporting this animal, The stupid, chicken shit partisan politicians are putting this county in extreme danger. Those syncophants are evil.
Agree with all you say apart from labelling Biden as senile. Physically frail and mentally tired after long days, yes, but not senile.
Agree Carol Duval. Biden is not senile
I agree with Carol. Biden was old and he tired easily, but I don’t believe he was senile.
Sadly, wasn't Biden suffering from oncoming covid during that wretched debate...ach.
Kathy, and Bident wasn't that Senile either. Trump's dementia is far more advanced than any senility Biden has. I find the Biden-bashing that has been occurring since the bad debate to be so harmful and unfair. Biden got so much positive started in this nation while Demented-Don got nothing positive accomplished in 5 years in office.
I totally agree. The media started bashing Biden after the bad debate and the weak democrats gave up on him. Although physically frail, Biden could give logical answers to questions. Just because he couldn’t remember some things didn’t mean he could not think with his brain.
He always remained compassionate, dignified and and devoted to our country.
Trump’s case is completely different. He never had compassion, dignity, devotion to the country . He was already a mentally ill man. With age he had gotten far worse.
I wish we had republicans who cared for the country and removed from the office. I know that his replacement is nothing to look forward to, but surprises can happen, like when Arthur replaced Garfield after the latter’s death.
Biden was neither physically nor mentally frail. I doubt I could keep up with his current exercise regime, at 20 years younger. Mentally, yes, he's old and his memory slips, but Trump's verbal gaffes outnumber Biden's by a factor of at least 10. Biden worked more in a day than Trump does in a week. It's no wonder he was exhausted. I'm glad he stepped down to preserve his health, especially given his cancer diagnosis. I think he's still, to this date, magnitudes more coherent than Trump.
Absolutely.
But zero compassion for the Palestinian people. Otherwise, he could have been great.
No one is perfect. Look into yourself.
I am very far from perfect, but glad I don't have a genocide on my conscience, one I tried to stop.
I agree. I’m not going to argue his mental state. He was a kind, caring leader who tried to do the best for this country. However, one of the reasons we have Metamucilini in office is because he insisted on running again when he was not up to the task.
Not according to every voting election experts that have shown that the votes make no sense. Votes that came from counties that don't exist? 10s of thousands votes there, then "disappeared"? Much more. He+ Musk both bragged about it, too. The only question is why hasn't anything been done?
Metamucillini!!!! Grand!
They (dems) hit the ground running because they were prepping behind the scenes in anticipation of winning - to get things going and get things back and normalized. Oif. I can only hope they are doing the same.
Don’t buffer Biden. He was an ignorant racist Zionist. He also failed to see the humanity in the Palestinian people whom are no different than anyone else. They love their children and want to live in a country and world wherein they aren’t subjected to an apartheid system that continues to dehumanize them.
You are so wrong about Biden, as he continues to demonstrate with every public appearance.
All true. But keep in mind the Project 2025 people turning the knobs behind the curtain. They are well aware of trump's sicknesses (mental & physical) & they are using them to their advantage. And our peril.
Biden isn't senile. He had a bad debate because he just got back from meetings in Europe AND was recovering from COVID. He just gave a wonderful speech a few days ago.
Everyone (with a brain) can see that the emperor has no clothes. Doubly damaging that the emperor himself can’t see it.
Hey Steve, the emperor thinks he is clothed in gold with medals hanging around his neck celebrating his amazing gifts that are far superior to anyone else's. He doesn't notice that one says "Liar-in-Chief," another says "Champion Ignoramus," then there's "Everybody's Clown," also "Greatest businessman who bankrupted 6 times," and "Grand Puppet." They are all gold, of course with gold ribbons to b hung around his neck.
Putin knew what he wasnted and what he got when appointing Trump as his weapon to destroy the West Vlad hates. Soeday we'll know how the puppetry has been achieved.
"The unexamined life is not worth living." -- Socrates
Frosty, well, unless you get everything you want, like a toddler, get to insult and malign people who are better than you, don't have to work a day in your life, get to lie incessantly and actually have gullible people believe the lies, and are unaware of your own weaknesses. So, you can just plough through pushing everyone out of your way whom you see as inferior, and use people like they are paper towels to wipe up your messes and can be tossed away when you are done with them. Most people would find that unexamined life untenable, but there are some for whom this is a dream. It seems Donald Trump has surrounded himself with a whole toddler pool filled with them.
Spot On!
This is all so fitting, right on, and to the point. He will never get that that medal was an insult and fun being made at his expense. Sad and sorry human who never knew and will never know real love. He has wasted an entire life making everyone around him pay for the damage and the dislike he father did to him!
And because he surrounds himself with sycophants, nobody's going to explain it to him.
I dearly hope that when Trump leaves this life that he finds himself in the Heavenly realm he can't possibly imagine now but unconsciously craves. Wouldn't that be great? Of course he won't have deserved it, but then...
Let him rot in hell for the damage he has caused. A lot of people have bad fathers. It doesn't turn all of them into Hilters.
Not only the tremendous damage he has caused through all of his cruel and evil ways, but the damage he, himself has done. Nothing can ever undo or fix that, even if by a huge stretch of the imagination, he wanted to. It’s too big and runs too deep.
He will certainly end up in the place he deserves to be
This almost makes me feel sorry for him, but lots of people are treated badly and are still able to rise above it all
All You Need Is Love, sang a wise young man who chose New York City as his home, loved by all the world he had conquered, all except for a solitary monster, standing in the dark with his gun. A monster created, almost certainly, by a need for love.
I miss him.
Yes.
Perhaps the ability to love others begins with the ability to love oneself.
Having more money or possessions doesn’t necessarily or automatically make anyone a better person. It general, money often amplifies who we already are.
I'm not sure about that. Wealth can't make you a better person, but it can make you a worse one. It doesn't always, but people like George Soros, who start out truly good *and* are not corrupted at all by their wealth (and the power that goes with it), seem to be the exception rather than the rule.
There are plenty of really rotten people who are poor, you probably know some of them. I do not think it is a matter of money at all. There are bad poor people and bad rich people and visa versa. Your wealth does not relate to the fact that you are a decent human being or not. I personally know rotten rich people and rotten poor people and good rich people and good poor people. I know all these people and it is their CHARACTER THAT COUNTS NOT THEIR WEALTH OR LACK OF IT!
True, but the number of sociopathic billionaires is excessive. Those who believe "empathy is harmful to successs" are truly inhuman.
YOU HAVE NO CREDIBILITY to make the claim that "the number of sociopathic Billionairs is excessive." Are you even a licensed as a psychologist or psychiatrist? If not you cannot make the assumption of who is sociopathic and who is not. Having a lot of money does not automatically make a sociopath and being poor also does not make you a sociopath. The danger of calling someone a sociopath is that you can call anyone this, even poor people. This is a slippery slope and is very dangerous. As far as I am concerned. I know some poor people who I would call sociopathic or maybe even psychopaths. I admit I do not know a lot of rich people but the ones I did meet seemed nice. Anyway it is the governments job to make sure people do not take advantage of the system by passing appropriate laws and enforcing said laws when they are broken.
This is a substack comments section. Not a research paper. People with credentials have made that exact point in research papers. Just google impact of wealth on empathy. Also, you’re nobody to issue credentials either. So stay humble.
I certainly didn't intend to imply that poor people (or non-rich people more broadly) are all good guys: merely that the acquisition of wealth seems to lead an awful lot of people who had previously been basically decent to become jerks, if not outright immoral, an awful lot. Maybe it's caused by the pursuit of profit (and the cutthroat, "anything goes" attitude that one must often adapt). Another the ideological belief held by many rich people that that American capitalism is fair (a secular version of the prosperity gospel): financial success is merited — and therefore, if you are one of the richest people in the world, you are also one of the "best").
Some rich people who companies that employ a lot of people and treat them fair DESERVE TO BE RICH IN MY OPINION. There is not such thing as a totally "fair" system. Russia is no longer communist and neither is China for that matter. There are no true communist countries in the world, it does not work. However the northern countries, though they not communist, do have social welfare programs that appear to work. THEY ARE NOT COMMUNISTS, PERIOD! I THINK it would be helpful for the people in our government to do more research and more visits with these countries, so we can know what they are doing correct and what we are doing incorrect. Elena
Poor people are awful also, I unfortunately know that from personal experience. You cannot use your jeolousy of rich people to excuse yourself from being poor. I lost all my money and it was my fault and I had to work hard to get back which I did. I did not blame anyone (INCLU for my personal goof ups. I am responsible for my own actions. I do believe that the government should help people who have physical or mental difficulties. My son has autism and he does get help from the government and I am totally OKAY with that. Not everyone is on the same plan. People who start corporations that employee hundreds of people deserve to make money, otherwise why would they do it??? It is not Rich people that are starting companies that hire people that is the problem. It is Rich people that are not contributing to the society that is the problem. You should not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Again I have no problem with an executive in a company who hires a lot of people and treats them well. If the executive in that kind of company is rich, HE OR SHE DESERVES IT AND I AM ALL FOR THAT SITUATION.
I am well aware of that. But I was not talking about poor people. I was talking about how the acquisition of extreme wealth can affect people's worldview and morality. My observation was that acquiring wealth doesn't make people better (it empowers good people to do more good, but it doesn't make them better people), but it does sometimes change them for the worse.
Let’s look for examples of a good billionaire and see what proportion that is. Even the leftist extremist the right loves to hate, Soros himself, has caused massive harm to Thailand to make his money. There are no good ones. If there existed one, they would be working to distribute wealth more evenly to reduce inequality around the world. Them being billionaires would be in a much better position to fight for that than an average citizen of the world.
Yes you are jealous of Billionaires, I get it. I will never be one of these people but I think people like Putin are bigger threats than any so called Billionaire, of course he may be a Billionaire for all I know.
Yes you don’t understand the difference between jealousy and contempt, I get it. You seem to focus on external threats while ignoring those near you.
Where does character come from? And who can stick to their civic duty under pressure?
Thanks so much for your comment. That’s why I said money “AMPLIFIES” who we already are. But I should have expressed my opinion in more general terms rather than absolute ones.
If you are referring to the way that wealth can empower a good person to do more good — or an evil person to do more evil — then I agree. But I am talking about how excessive wealth can effect moral and psychological change in a person. My opinion is that getting rich does not seem to influence people in beneficial ways, but that it can and often (not always) does cause changes for the worse. In my previous post I mentioned a couple of possible mechanisms whereby extreme wealth might adversely affect people’s moral compass.
Extreme power does more harm than wealth. Again look at Putin, though he is probably very wealthy also. I think people like Putin are much more of a threat to humanity than Billionaires, oh and Putin has a vast military and nuclear weapons, and likes to cause people to fly out of 10 story windows.
That is a good observation. But I think that Putin (who, prior to entering politics, was a career KGB agent and Soviet liason to Stasi, the infamous East German secret police) was already a plenty bad guy before he came to power. Being the President of Russia gave him the ability to do greater harm, but I don't think it was what made him an awful person. I do agree that having power can sometimes lead people to do bad things (perhaps out of a desire to keep that power) that they would not otherwise have considered doing.
I'm thinking about how a person who isn't particularly bad already, who comes from a middle-class background, can be changed by acquiring wealth. I can't think of anyone who has become a better person through getting rich, but I think people can be affected for the worse by wealth.
Mary, you are brilliant. I read your book and I begged others to read it . I read it when it first came out because I was insightful enough to see the monster that stood before me on the big screen TV. My brother, too, saw the monster very quickly. I was in a 13 year relationship with a person that is a narcissist, a sociopath and a pathological liar. I see her in him every time I see him on TV and it triggers me to my core. I find myself screaming and yelling at him every time he lies, which we know is almost every word out of his mouth. I am so glad that you have the knowledge and the ability to explain it to everyone that is willing to listen and learn.Thank you so much Mary Trump.
I, too, quickly saw the monster under that ugly orange hue, but alas! my own sister became his cultist. Couldn't be more painful to me. I no longer know her and may never know her again.
I’m so sorry. It has torn and divided some of my family. We are working to patch and salvage what we can. My mother, brother, and I have agreed to not talk politics with dad and my sister. I slip occasionally. It does no good. Once a cult member there is no saving them from “ drinking the Kool-Aid.
I can’t discuss politics with several family members. I keep thinking that they will eventually see the light, but I am wrong about that.
Sadly, if they are true cult members, they will not change. They will drink the kool aide.
At 79 and feeling lousy most of the time with all the demands on him he will never feel loved. Maybe he gets satisfaction from destroying things and people.
Why are there people like that? Because of the reasons listed by Mary. No empathy, no kindness, no caring, no love was ever shown to him as a child.
At 79 he is a broken piece of china. He has shown his children the same that he received. He never had to do anything for himself. He doesn't even dress himself.
I pray that all have done better for their children and will continue to do so.
Someone has to dress him? There can’t be much worse in this world than that.
LOL
And in his dementia, Donald Trump is even more stuck than before because he can't even hold back verbalizing the anger, hate, resentment that he is faced with all the time. His illness is also cementing the fear. The thing that is saving him and putting us on the edge is that his white house toddler pool knows of his dementia, if not fully who Trump is due to his father's treatment of him, they are using him to get what they want and they want a lot, and the American people as well as the peoples of the world will pay for the Toddler Pool's greed, lack of empathy, and powergrubbing: Miller, Vought, Vance, Musk, Theil, Hegseth, and the rest of the cabinet and other various members of the Trump Toddler Pool.