The Cognitive Dissonance of Donald Trump

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: Bobaganoosh

Well your argument here is basically, "I'm a Conspiracy Theorist. I may not like Trump, but I have to vote for him because he stands for conspiracies." Nevermind all his faults and that he is as trustworthy as a drug addict in an unsupervised pharmacy.

Not like you're going to stop visiting or anything..

I don't believe in most of the CT's on this website, as I find them to be silly, full of holes, contradictory, and mostly reliant on wishful thinking. I mostly come here for the discussion.

I don't want to see the world burn just because. I happen to LIKE the direction the world is going in.

Ya that is what we all thought and KNEW.

The standard of living lowering across the board is always the best direction to be headed in.

You want it to burn for a reason, and all of those reasons must be announced to you by leaders who really care about making sure how they lie looks.

a reply to: LesMisanthrope
Oh ok good. My choice. I can do that. Thank you.

www.vanityfair.com...



It ain't looking good babe. Not good at all.

Maybe you should have put some effort into your claim instead of leaving it up to me.

originally posted by: LesMisanthrope

originally posted by: RomeByFire

originally posted by: DJW001

originally posted by: Gin

originally posted by: Benevolent Heretic
Top US Psychiatrists Confirm - Trump is a "Textbook Case" of Narcissistic Personality Disorder

A person with narcissistic personality disorder:

Reacts to criticism with anger, shame or humiliation
Takes advantage of others to reach his or her own goals
Exaggerates own importance
Exaggerates achievements and talents
Entertains unrealistic fantasies about success, power, beauty, intelligence or romance
Has unreasonable expectation of favorable treatment
Requires constant attention and positive reinforcement from others
Disregards the feelings of others, lacks empathy
Has obsessive self-interest
Pursues mainly selfish goals

Hillary fits on the bill with all of those points. Thanks for sharing and pointing this out.

Once again, rather than try defend Trump, the only option seems to be to switch the topic to Hillary.

One does not simply defend Trump without comparing him to Hillary. It's the Trump-cult method.

Reminds me of a fortune cookie I had once.

"Comparing yourself to one who is evil does not show that you are pure."

Who would have thought that comparing two opposing candidates in a presidential election was wrong? I'm surprised you're not comparing them.

The Trump bashers repeatedly state that Donald is worse cause he calls things the way he sees them, they like the candidates who lie and have been caught repeatedly doing terrible things.

They would rather have Hillary than someone who might shake things up, wow are they running scared!!

originally posted by: LesMisanthrope

originally posted by: RomeByFire

originally posted by: DJW001

originally posted by: Gin

originally posted by: Benevolent Heretic
Top US Psychiatrists Confirm - Trump is a "Textbook Case" of Narcissistic Personality Disorder

A person with narcissistic personality disorder:

Reacts to criticism with anger, shame or humiliation
Takes advantage of others to reach his or her own goals
Exaggerates own importance
Exaggerates achievements and talents
Entertains unrealistic fantasies about success, power, beauty, intelligence or romance
Has unreasonable expectation of favorable treatment
Requires constant attention and positive reinforcement from others
Disregards the feelings of others, lacks empathy
Has obsessive self-interest
Pursues mainly selfish goals

Hillary fits on the bill with all of those points. Thanks for sharing and pointing this out.

Once again, rather than try defend Trump, the only option seems to be to switch the topic to Hillary.

One does not simply defend Trump without comparing him to Hillary. It's the Trump-cult method.

Reminds me of a fortune cookie I had once.

"Comparing yourself to one who is evil does not show that you are pure."

Who would have thought that comparing two opposing candidates in a presidential election was wrong? I'm surprised you're not comparing them.

The Trump bashers repeatedly state that Donald is worse cause he calls things the way he sees them, they like the candidates who lie and have been caught repeatedly doing terrible things.

They would rather have Hillary than someone who might shake things up, wow are they running scared!!

It's just a transaction for the Donald. He doesn't care a bit about working people or middle class. You'd have to have conscious for that. Running for president is just like peddling a Trump steak or coveted "Trump University" degree. It's just business for a psychopath.

originally posted by: kazanoom
It's just a transaction for the Donald. He doesn't care a bit about working people or middle class. You'd have to have conscious for that. Running for president is just like peddling a Trump steak or coveted "Trump University" degree. It's just business for a psychopath.

Nailed it.

Im thinking we've would have a multi-rich, bodyguard covered, snotty ass priviledged kids, foreign wife, megalomaniac, bi-polar, vulgar insulting, crass, tactless buffoon who never pumps his own gas, shops at any $ store, drink water imported from glacier land, doesnt carry his own garbage out, clean his own house..nothing from or in the real world.

That world he will insult, shock, create serious issues with allies and opponents, call us all peons...next he'll be using the "C" word for women, the "N" word for blacks, insult the poor whom he knows nothing of or how they live...etc, etc, etc, etc, etc...

And some want this guy as the "Leader of the Free World"? The most powerful man in it? We really want him to trash our constitution, insult our intelligence, spit on our vets graves, talk derogatorily to everyone and anyone even in delicate world war situations? Hell, he gets in...you can look to him to start WW3.

He'll go into his private bunker with caviar and his bratty over-priviledged kids and wait for the smoke to clear...while we kill each other in the street for food and water, until the only ones left are the filthy rich like him. Filthy AND rich. And he and his cult will drive over the lifeless and irradiated bodies of us all in the streets laughing in his limo....

We knew the Anti-Christ False Prophet was coming... well, he's here now...

a reply to: LesMisanthrope

His reaction to the gold star parents to keep things current. Apparently Mr Khan didn't have the right to say that about Mr Trump. Mr. Trumps response should have been to ignore it. Not catch the guy up in his trumpy headlights and pillory him.
But trumps right outweighs Mr Khan .
Because he can never exercise his right to shut the f up.

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

Accurate observations, it's not looking good for November and beyond is it?

Cognitive Dissonance for President 2016.

a reply to: LesMisanthrope

For instance?

Trump throws the First Amendment out the window every time he tells someone to "shut up," or mocks them for reacting negatively to what he says.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t

originally posted by: TheBulk
There is video of Bernie supporters chanting "F%ck free speech". Free speech has been under increasing assault by the left for the last 8 years. Where have you been?

Since when does a random, anecdotal video represent legal discourse? You are REALLY stretching here.

Trump opposes PC and PC is part of the overall assault on free speech by the left. We're seeing it everywhere and ESPECIALLY universities. And it's not anecdotal. There are dozens of videos and stories of left wingers stopping people like Milo Yinnopolis and Ben Shapiro from speaking at their universities.

The assault on free speech is being done by the left. Not Trump. Are you paid to post this crap?

originally posted by: Benevolent Heretic

originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
Freedom of speech is a human right. You either believe it and respect the human rights of others, or you don't.

And Trump doesn't.

I've seen ZERO evidence of this from Trump. I have seen Bernie supporter mobs beating up pro-Trump people, I have seen rabid left wingers shutting down speakers they don't like at universities, I have seen political correctness chip away at our freedom of speech.

And this whole time you (a supposed defender of free speech) haven't had a single issue with ANY of the above.

originally posted by: LesMisanthrope
a reply to: DJW001

It was in reply to your comment.

No link? If you don't link to it, you never refuted what I posted. Here, let me clarify what you have failed to address:

Still waiting for you to refute what I said about him. Many of his business ventures attest to his poor judgement, as does burning political bridges with rivals he might need supporting him later on. He has openly mused about letting the US default on its debt. He does not seem to realize that the United States is not the only country that would be affected. As for being a liar?

www.dailywire.com...

As for his education?


In the August 6th Republican candidates debate, Trump answered the moderators’ questions with linguistic austerity. Run through the Flesch-Kincaid grade-level test, his text of responses score at the 4th-grade reading level. For Trump, that’s actually pretty advanced.


www.politico.com...

His lack of curiosity?


But Donald Trump is not much of a reader, despite having written The Art of the Deal, “the number 1 selling business book of all time.” Asked by Megyn Kelly what his favorite book is besides The Art of the Deal, Trump chose All Quiet on the Western Front. (Not sure what happened to the Bible!) Kelly, perhaps sensing that Trump may not have read a book since sixth grade, asked him to name the last book he read. “I read passages, I read areas, chapters, I don’t have the time,” Trump said. “When was the last time I watched a baseball game? I’m watching you all the time.”


newrepublic.com...

His ties to Yanukovych?


Trump’s top adviser, Paul Manafort, has spent much of his recent career working for pro-Russian forces in Ukraine, and doing complex deals for an oligarch with close ties to Putin. And while a Democratic senator has already charged Trump is not responsible enough to receive secret information, Manafort’s deep relationships with top pro-Russian figures raise special concerns.

Manafort may be best known for managing the 2010 campaign of Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian politician whose ouster as president prompted a Russian invasion of the country. He has, according to court documents, managed tens of millions of dollars for Oleg Deripaska, an oligarch denied entry to the U.S. reportedly for ties to organized crime, but so close to Vladimir Putin that top Russian officials fought (unsuccessfully) to get him a visa.

Gary Schmitt, a former Reagan Administration official now at the American Enterprise Institute, said he believed Manafort’s ties merit extra scrutiny.
“If Trump is to be given access to sensitive intelligence, which can’t help but implicitly involve even more sensitive information about ‘sources and methods,’ then it’s imperative that any campaign staff who have had commercial ties with foreign governments and politicians not be given access as well until they have gone through a full, thorough background check — not the typical perfunctory review,” he said.

“Given his dubious foreign connections, it’s fair to assume that many in the intelligence and national security community would be extremely wary of him handling or receiving material at even the lowest level of classification,” said Adam Blickstein, a former aide to former Obama defense secretary Robert Gates.

[Edit for brevity--DJW001]

“Ties to Russia and the Kremlin would without question be a matter of concern. He’d have to explain in far more detail what the contact has been. That will have to be fleshed out in far more detail,” said Moss. “It would be difficult — but not impossible — to imagine security clearing him.”

A former Republican national security official put it more bluntly: “He’s an intelligence classification vetting nightmare scenario.”

Manafort’s close ties to Russia’s authoritarian ruler match Trump’s own praise for Putin. Putin — whose project of undermining his western antagonists by any means has often included support for right-wing populists — last year called Trump a “bright and talented” figure, and Russia’s propaganda outlets have amplified the American’s campaign. Trump responded to Putin’s praise in kind, saying that “he’s running his country and at least he’s a leader, unlike what we have in this country,” and avoided condemning the murders of journalists in Putin’s Russia.

[Edit for brevity. --DJW001]

Trump has disturbed critics of Russia by suggesting the United States should not let the invasion of Ukraine get in the way of vaguely-described dealmaking.


www.buzzfeed.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Now stop trying to avoid the facts, please.

I think the Trump-dumpers are missing the boat, calling him crazy or spoiled.

He is our century's P.T. Barnum. Or H.L. Mencken.

In other words, he knows exactly what he's doing, and plans and executes his "media moments" with the cold, dispassionate calculating sobriety of a surgeon. He acts emotional which causes most of his audience to match emotions, (or at least intensity). When he purses his lips and starts talking over people, his opponents do, too.

I predict that this whole thing with Khan, that seem so huge this week, will be a big zero next week, and a small positive for Trump in 3 or for weeks. Seriously.

His "political actions" are like the street theater of the Yippee! movement of the 60s, trolling you emotionally in the moment, then causing you to soften your own position over time.

Trump is the Abbie Hoffman of the Republican party.


It's what Trump "isn't" saying about the Khans, and what their defenders aren't saying, that will be the next topic of discussion a week from now.

By "cognitive dissonance" are you referring to the fact that Trump seems to be inconsistent with his views? Applying the term cognitive dissonance, generally means that a person with inconsistent and opposing views/feelings toward a topic or person or belief feels an unease because of the warring beliefs and thereby resolves that dissonance by relinquishing or altering one of the beliefs. Saying a person is inconsistent is one thing, saying a person is suffering from cognitive dissonance implies that person is even aware of--which I doubt in Trump's case--or uneasy with those disparities in beliefs/feelings/ideas. Ascribing cognitive dissonance to Trump doesn't seem accurate because it implies either that he is attempting to sway opinions held by others by posing two warring ideas to them in a play for them to accept the one which is the least disruptive to them...OR...that Trump has an internal battle which is being played out by these opposing statements/beliefs. There could be other alternative reasons other than these two...thus my reply and question below. Trump's brashness, his inability or unwillingness to conform to accepted political correctness when speaking, his complete disregard for offending others, as well as his plethora of inconsistencies on nearly every topic imagineable leads me to believe that he feels no cognitive dissonance, but is really just all-over-the-board with his beliefs and says whatever pops into his mind.
Why do you suggest it is cognitive dissonance rather than mere inconsistencies on Trump's part?
a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

This thread give Mr. Trump 1000 + more votes.

Thanks OP!

a reply to: Benevolent Heretic

You have completely ignored their prior relationship...that was coordial for 15 years before announcing campaign one ago.

I stopped reading at #1.

a reply to: redempsh

Are you saying he is a con man? Why should we elect a con man President?

a reply to: TheBulk

I've seen ZERO evidence of this from Trump. I have seen Bernie supporter mobs beating up pro-Trump people, I have seen rabid left wingers shutting down speakers they don't like at universities, I have seen political correctness chip away at our freedom of speech.

And this whole time you (a supposed defender of free speech) haven't had a single issue with ANY of the above.

Wow. You just actually said ^^ this?
Phenomenal. Simply classic. When they comb through the data to explain the pending end of the world (as we know it)....they will see this.

'haven't had a single issue with ANY of the' what?

Not to spoil the fun or let the cat out of the bag here or anything, but the cognitive dissonance referred to here is not entirely Trump's, though his is a fascinating journey too.

In psychology, there is a construct called Cognitive Dissonance. Basically the idea goes that once people make up their minds about something, they become emotionally wedded to a person, idea or plan of action. Despite being confronted with evidence that contradicts a given thought or commitment, people tend to ignore the data at hand rather than modify or change their position.
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Impulse is easy and may lead to immediate gratification. Critical thinking is hard and may require putting aside a temporary high or the illusion of security in order to do what is right for one's self and others.

Hopefully, while we are about 100 days away from the presidential election, citizens of this nation who have become intoxicated by the Trump experience have time to recalibrate their thinking and make the kind of decisions that reflect real thought, a weighing of the facts at hand, and do not wake up the morning after the election with a terminal case of buyer's remorse.

Dr. N.G. Berrill is the executive director at the New York Center for Neuropsychology & Forensic Behavioral Science