SOTT Focus:

Behind the Headlines: Hating Trump: Why Is Trump So Polarizing?

Sott.net
Sun, 22 Jan 2017 17:00 UTC

Why do so many people dislike Donald Trump? Do most people dislike Donald Trump?

As of last Friday, Trump is now President of the USA, officially. It hasn't been an easy ride to get there, and things don't look like they'll calm down anytime soon. While every president is hated by some, Trump seems to be hated by many, and with a vehemence that is unprecedented in American politics. Some even go so far as to say it doesn't matter what he does, they will never support him and never change their opinion of him. It's "Never Trump", literally.

What lies behind this strange social phenomenon? And how many people actually dislike Trump? Are we dealing with a majority in this respect, or a well-publicized and vocal minority?

Tune is as we plumb the depths of the New Trumphobia!

Running Time: 01:56:52

Download: MP3

Reader Comments

katesisco · 2017-01-24T14:42:33Z

Mr O was President. Mr Trump is now. I respect that.

The women's march was a hold-over from the expected Ms Clinton win and went ahead by having its agenda of success for women's achievements switched to inflammatory actions against Mr Trump. BEWARE. We exist in a world where our emotions are continually hyped so as to be PSYCHLOGICALLY MANIPULATED from one excessive state to another: Our current times exemplify the book BRAVE NEW WORLD.

Sparky · 2017-01-24T15:59:56Z

katesisco Agree, the media is being used as a tool in a psychological operation aimed at promoting a "divided America" by constantly hyping every instance of disagreement, on practically any issue, and blaming the President. The title of this article is a good example. It labels Trump as being "polarizing" without even bothering to defend that assertion as if printing a statement in a headline makes it true.

Niall · 2017-01-24T21:14:49Z

Sparky This isn't an article; it's an audio of a discussion some of the editors had last Sunday. Have a listen, maybe.

Scott ·

katesisco

· 2017-01-25T01:06:46Z

nedlud · 2017-01-24T16:50:23Z

Trump is the quintessential male chauvinist pig. So there is the quintessential feminist reaction. This pig action/reaction is being utilized and managed in various ways by the so-called PTB and also things are happening in a manner somewhat beyond the control of the PTB, but not really anything not in the way of what they prefer.

The PTB do like chaos and division/confusion/disruption that allows them to both retain and to extend their control over the world's 'activities', ie., what people do and what they believe.

ned, out

Revolucionar · 2017-01-24T17:53:43Z

Trump is an overtly narcissistic simpleton. Why Sott is peddling this nonsense about Trump being a good guy is beyond me...

Niall · 2017-01-24T21:11:34Z

Revolucionar Listen to the show. It's a sincere effort to understand why liberals/progressives believe Trump is Hitler (which, we concluded, is beyond us).

Revolucionar · 2017-01-24T23:41:30Z

Niall My comment was referring to your previous coverage of Trump and how it seems that you like him just because he appears to be against the neoliberal snowflake crowd exposing their arrogance and duplicity.But he is still an idiot and someone is pulling his strings. The establisment put him there for a reason and I fear you are falling for the bait.

Scott · 2017-01-25T01:05:06Z

Revolucionar No one is saying he's the savior. In fact, if he actually does manage to do very much for the benefit of the people, well... look at JFK.

One of the big problems is that no one is allowed to even say, "Well, at least we avoided Killary..." because in many people's minds, that instantly means the other person fully supports Trump and thinks he's the Second Coming of Christ. That's NOT what anyone I know is saying. Not even close... The dude needs to prove himself big time.

Personally, I expect nothing but more chaos. And on that cheerful thought...

anartist · 2017-01-25T03:46:25Z

Niall hey, good show. I tried to call in but skype isn't working for me. What I would have said is I think the reason there is so much hysteria around Trump is because he is the shadow. That said, it is the media image of Trump that is the shadow, not necessarily Trump himself. For all those frightened by Trumps image, he represents what they are frightened of in themselves, those parts that cannot be acknowledged, and so these 'demons', this Weitko, controls them. Since the MSM are feeding this frenzy, I think only the internet can be a source of more rational discourse, which only works for those willing to listen. and think.

Revolucionar · 2017-01-25T13:00:00Z

Scott Well, it just seems like more hegeleian dialectic to me.

graeme15b · 2017-01-25T18:10:08Z

Revolucionar I'm not so sure the world is that organized. Not saying that TPTB won't put, and pull levers on Trump. Just saying that i reckon they wanted Killary as their stooge.

Revolucionar · 2017-01-25T18:33:27Z

graeme15b That's what we would all like: to have witnessed a defeat of the establishment. I just don't see that that's what happened

graeme15b · 2017-01-25T19:13:58Z

Revolucionar I'm not saying that either. The establishment is not in control of everything, and things don't always go to plan. There are many factions within the establishment. Its not monolithic.

Penelope · 2017-01-25T22:09:00Z

graeme15b If TPTB had wanted Hillary to be President, she would now BE the President. The fact that she isn't, and Trump IS now President, means that "the plot thickens."

graeme15b · 2017-01-25T22:52:29Z

Penelope You may be right. But i reckon certain factions within the power structure wanted Killary for president. On the other hand, certain factions were behind Trump.

lilvoce · 2017-01-24T20:53:36Z

Revolucionar...

You just defined most every politician everywhere.

What is your point?

Revolucionar · 2017-01-24T23:36:36Z

lilvoce My point is that it seems that people think that a politician is suddenly going to change things. And I really wouldn't agree that every politican is like this. Take Putin for example... he is neither. Most are, though.

Joan · 2017-01-25T01:43:33Z

This is all I have to say, and actually they are not my words

Let us conjecture that the formation of moral values in society doesn’t come from the evolution of the consensus. No, it is the most intolerant person who imposes virtue on others precisely because of that intolerance. The same can apply to civil rights.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

lookin2eskys · 2017-01-25T08:22:25Z

And when was the last time you looked in the mirror. And asked yourself, who you really are, before being so judgmental.

You only Know about Trump through the portal's of the fake new's PROGRAMMER'S

Wake up and smell the coffee.

[Link]

Highland Fleet Lute · 2017-01-25T09:07:36Z

Revolucionar said:

"My comment was referring to your previous coverage of Trump and how it seems that you like him just because he appears to be against the neoliberal snowflake crowd exposing their arrogance and duplicity.But he is still an idiot and someone is pulling his strings. The establisment put him there for a reason and I fear you are falling for the bait."

Scott said:

"One of the big problems is that no one is allowed to even say, "Well, at least we avoided Killary..." because in many people's minds, that instantly means the other person fully supports Trump and thinks he's the Second Coming of Christ"

G.I. Gurdjieff said:

“Formatory apparatus resembles a hired typist who works for a firm and has a large number of stereotyped replies for external impressions. She sends printed replies to other centers who are the ‘directors’ of the firm and who are strangers to each other. Wrong replies are often sent, as the typist is asleep or lazy.”

P.D. Ouspensky said:

“In the intellectual centre, the mechanical part includes in itself all the work of registration of impressions, memories and associations. This is all that it should do normally, that is, when other parts do their work. It should never reply to questions addressed to the whole centre, it should never try to solve its problems, and it should never decide anything. Unfortunately, in actual fact, it is always ready to decide and it always replies to questions of all sorts in a very narrow and limited way, in ready- made phrases, in slang expressions, in party slogans. All these, and many other elements of our usual reactions, are the work of the mechanical part of the intellectual centre.“This part has its own name. It is called a ‘formatory apparatus’ or sometimes ‘formatory centre.’ Many people, particularly people No. 1, that is, the great majority of mankind, live all their lives with the formatory apparatus only, never touching other parts of their intellectual centre. For all the immediate needs of life, for receiving A influences and responding to them, and for distorting or rejecting influences C, the formatory apparatus is quite sufficient.“It is always possible to recognise ‘formatory thinking.’ For instance, formatory centre can count only up to two. It always divides everything in two: ‘bolshevism and fascism,’ ‘workers and bourgeois,’ proletarians and capitalists’ and so on. We owe most modern catchwords to formatory thinking, and not only catchwords but in modern popular theories. Perhaps it is possible to say that at all times all popular theories are formatory.

"Ideas of this system or similar ideas cannot be understood by formatory apparatus at all. Formatory apparatus has very definite limitations. One of its peculiarities is that it compares only two things, as though in any particular line only two things existed. Then formatory thinking likes thinking in extremes; for instance, either it knows everything or it knows nothing. Another of its peculiarities is that it immediately looks for the opposite. You can find many examples of formatory thinking. For instance, if I say you must do this or you must do that, people say, 'But you said we cannot do!'. If I say this needs will-power, they say, 'How, if we have no will?' If I speak of being more conscious or less conscious, people say, 'But we have no consciousness!' These are all examples of formatory thinking.If the intellectual centre works normally — that is, if other parts do their work — formatory centre does its work quite all right. It is a registering apparatus. We are concerned only with wrong work. This refers not only to the formatory apparatus but to all the mechanical parts of centres. Only when they begin to work wrongly do they become dangerous. So there is no need to worry about their right work; what you must try to do is eliminate their wrong work. The mechanical part of the emotional centre wants to do the work of the higher part, and it is the same with the formatory centre — it wants to do the work of the intellectual centre, and as a result the moving part of the centre includes all the intellectual life of an ordinary person."

When you see, or find in your memory, how mechanically you can do the most abominable things which later you cannot understand how you could have done, then you will know what mechanicalness is. If we look back through our life, year by year, month by month, we see things we would never have done consciously, or things we did not do which we would have done had we been conscious. This is the way to think about mechanicalness. In this connection it is important to understand the right meaning of the word 'formatory'. There are two methods of arriving at mental conclusions: 'formation' and 'formulation'. 'Formation is a conclusion reached by way of least resistance, avoiding difficulties. It is easier because it makes itself using ready-made phrases, ready-made opinions, like a stamp. Except in the simplest cases, it is generally defective. 'Formulation' is a conclusion arrived at on the basis of all the available material; it needs effort and is sometimes difficult, but it means the best we can do."

Revolucionar · 2017-01-25T13:02:32Z

Highland Fleet Lute Thanks for this comment, but I'd like you to elaborate further since people's formatory apparati are bound to get in the way of understanding

Highland Fleet Lute · 2017-01-25T17:06:02Z

Revolucionar ...[Link]
...[Link] ...[Link]

Revolucionar · 2017-01-25T17:23:24Z

Highland Fleet Lute I have read Gurdjieff's teachings many times over and have been in the Work for years. No need for a lesson.

I would like to know what exactly are you trying to say in relation to this whole Trump affair.... I could interpret these comments of yours in different ways, but I refuse to indulge in conjecture and rather settle for not knowing.

Highland Fleet Lute · 2017-01-26T09:13:46Z

Revolucionar It's all in there already. Just read it again, I guess.

Behind the Headlines: Hating Trump: Why Is Trump So Polarizing?

This thing about the formatory apparatus and its 'binary/polarising trip-switch' is something you can see on a mass scale at the moment. Is that not plain to you?

Revolucionar · 2017-01-26T13:16:34Z

Highland Fleet Lute Plain as day. I was always irritated by this human trait. Whenever I said I'm against something people would automatically state that the opposite is no better or even worse, and I would always ask: why do you assume I'm for This if against That? People usually stopped talking and looked at their feet at that point. This was before I ever heard of G.

That said, I hope you understand that you said nothing explicitly of sott's coverage of this whole affair. That is what concerns me, as this site is supposed to be run by people in the Work, people who should understand these concepts. Do you think their reporting on Trump shows they understand?

Highland Fleet Lute · 2017-01-26T23:32:08Z

Revolucionar Oh, I couldn't say. LOL.

Revolucionar ·

Highland Fleet Lute

· 2017-01-27T02:29:58Z

nedlud · 2017-01-25T09:31:30Z

RULED BY WRONG

@HFL:

If you eliminate the wrong, you leave only the good.

But people are ruled by wrong. They love wrong. They worship wrong. They keep bringing it back to 'life'.

It is a habit.

A really bad habit.

ned

HashAttack2 · 2017-01-25T11:31:08Z

"Well, at least we avoided Killary"

And that's the nub ... anti-Trumpites cannot understand how people can be so stupid as to not want Kills

It's the same with Brexit ... all the intellectual (MSM) argument is pro Europe / pro Kills and therefore if you do not support the narrative you must be mentally deficient or some sort of rabid xenophobic racist bigot .... there simply cannot be any middle ground

It is not Trump that is polarising ... anyone but Kills would be in the same position

Highland Fleet Lute · 2017-01-25T16:41:52Z

Some people put their heads in the sand, some people run around like headless Chicken Lickens, some do neither.

In the days of back and beyond, I had a mate called Aubrey from Bury, Greater Manchester, who, we said, had this 'special equipment' for attracting the police. We used to go to all-nighters: The Midlands, Lancashire, Scotland. Whenever any of us went anywhere with Aubrey, we were always pulled over on the motorway by the police, dragged into some s_itty northern police station, 'cause, or so it used to seem to us, he used to send out his special police radar signals that said "Come and arrest us!!!".

In Fourth Way terms, Aubrey's 'special equipment' roughly translates as 'poor reconciling force'. All the bad luck in the world will happen to you if you are unable to reconcile forces within and without you. People like Putin & co understand triads, or so it seems to me.

Rowan Cocoan · 2017-01-25T17:33:22Z

Highland Fleet Lute : Driving Violations of DWB, DWS. A true tale.

Growing up here, (Brevard County, Fla.*) the quickest and easiest way to be pulled over was - and unsurprisingly to this day remains - DWB. ("Driving While Black.")

The SECOND most likely way to be pulled over was DWS: Driving With Surfboards -or merely an empty surfboard rack - on the car top.

A friend and I, when I was 18-19 years old, and he was 19-20 (c 1978-79) were driving to the beach, and got pulled over for no reason, (i.e., illegally and without probable cause) and after close scrutiny were released. That brought us to the subject of how many times we had been pulled over together. We started going through the different events and realized that that we had - when in the same car - been pulled over more than twenty times** with maybe TWO of the pull-overs being quasi-legitimate - speeding at 8 mph over limit or such, with only one or no tickets, total (I forget), and no arrests, either. All the rest (and most likely all) were for DWS. That was in a period of three to four years.

Sounded so similar I had to tell the tale.

R.C.

P.s., Must go, but had I thought of it, I would have used SOTT's EXCELLENT new setup for comments.

* One great part of growing up here, was that although many of us went away, most came back. Of my best friends from my teens, (eliminating those no longer with us), I would estimate that I could call 85% of them right now, local.

** This of course does NOT consider all the other times we had been pulled over alone or with others, which would have well more than doubled - probably trebled - that number. (And there are more cops, per capita, now: probably at least four times as many as back then.)

RC

Highland Fleet Lute · 2017-01-26T09:15:38Z

Rowan Cocoan Ah, you just wanted an excuse to tell your surfin' tales.

I don't mind, I like your surfin' tales!

LindaMay · 2017-01-25T17:32:16Z

HFL

The Real 'Clash of Civilizations'? Spiritual Roots of Russo-American Conflict -- Science of the Spirit -- Sott.net

The Real 'Clash of Civilizations'? Spiritual Roots of Russo-American Conflict

Whatever Russia is called outwardly, there is an inner eternal Russia whose embryonic character places her on an antithetical course to that of the USA. The rivalry between the USA and Russia is...

[Link]

Highland Fleet Lute · 2017-01-26T09:28:57Z

I would say the real 'Clash of Civilisations' is between those who can only think in 'twos', and those who can think in 'threes', and the ones who can think in threes always win.

Dukejet · 2017-01-26T20:24:29Z

[Link] Big Joe gives me hope that there's 'people that think' still alive today...

Go TRUMPY!! I got your back mate!

Can't wait till Trump and Putin meet....

Wouldn't it be cool to see Trump hand Soros over to Putin bound and gaged :D

TBoris · 2017-01-27T02:30:07Z

Good shot at getting the last word Dukejet so far!! A lot of reading getting here..Maybe "if I didn't do it someone else will" Soros is right when he says Trump will "fail" because those who are in his circle of influence have contradictory goals plans mission directives etc. etc. All those mechanical billion dollar men's contradictory formations may I dare say they drive excalaber through the heart of the beast. Maybe that is the "hope" these days.

mktbwisdom · 2017-01-27T04:42:56Z

I wrote a longer explanation and my power went out and lost my whole post so I am vastly condensing what I was trying to convey.

I used to be a pretty big supporter of this site for years. I've donated and have bought quite a few of Laura's books.

Revolucionar I agree.

I guess I don't care enough to understand why but it is quite obvious that this site is not objective. It's ok to not be objective because any news you get from anywhere is going to have a bias BUT it really rubs me wrong that SOTT claims to be objective when it's quite clear that it isn't. I'm not trying to attack anyone but I find it frustrating that the truth movement has been so factionalized in the past 5 years. There are fewer and fewer sites dedicated to further our freedom in the pursuit of truth with integrity .

Like my falling out with Alex Jones nearly 8 years ago because of a clearly detectable bias I have now moved away from this site.

I put no faith in any of these "leaders". Trump has a cult of personality like Putin, like any leader espousing to change things. I was going to add Hillary to that last sentence but she has about as much personality as a decrepit mummy. If I'm wrong great, but I can't join in demonizing or canonizing these people. Or revel in the anguish of the snowflakes. Sure, we should take note but it's childish and not what I expect of adults studying and trying to understand our world.

In the discussion linked above Joe mentioned an unhinged portion of the anti-trump "camp" as if there isn't unhinged Trump supporters. It's like whenever I meet a woman who says all men are stupid because obviously she has had a bad experience, I always say "yeah a lot of men are stupid and so are a lot of women". So it's not a revelation. Some people are stupid. Also the question was asked why are people protesting the inauguration in Australia. I'd venture to say that America has smeared it's influence and culture all over the world and that the resulting chaos is that America, the empire, still exists and is a huge threat to most of the world and after a mind-numbingly long election process, the media worldwide have hyped this up to a level that you have to actively avoid if you are not going to be dragged into it. It seems obvious to me but I digress.

My point is that, most regretfully, the slant present all over this site makes it ever-more difficult for me to use it as a source of information. There is a lot of extra commentary that at first I liked because I thought it was helpful to point out interesting parts of articles, but I realize now that all of the extra commentary, the renaming of the headlines, the same Trump and Putin stuff front and center in the SOTT Focus actually makes it more difficult for a reader to come to their own conclusions. I would still be wary even if I didn't detect this bias because I think it's distracting to have focused so much on the elections. This site has correctly pointed out numerous times in the past about the strategy of distracting the masses and gaining leverage in the smokescreen, I don't think that the crisis/opportunity/distraction effect has changed much. I find this whole Trump/Putin good guy assumption is counter productive and I can't in good conscience recommend this site to people anymore. I have to hope that a trend of non-fear hyping, solution based and transparent independent media starts to take hold.

I really don't participate much in online forums and I am not trying to "troll" the site. I guess maybe (because I look at what Sott does as a service that I have given money and paid into) that I felt tantamount to expressing a concern about a favorite restaurant's food quality declining or getting bad service as a once loyal client.

You know it's really ironic that I first learned the term Caveat Lector from reading SOTT and I applied it so thoroughly that I now have felt compelled to express this sentiment.

Good luck to all of those working hard on this site and to it's readers

LindaMay · 2017-02-09T15:55:55Z

Trump is Senti-Mental

[Link]

LindaMay · 2017-02-09T16:30:54Z

OMG

There is more

[Link]

... Buy Ivanka's Buy Ivanka's

Marketing Politics??

What a joke!!

The worm begins to turn?

Highlander

In Australia if I am sick I go to the hospital and Medicare picks up the bill. No cost to me. If I have to go to the doctors I pay a small fee,...

Oldfart

I thank SOTT for providing this platform, and wish you all a blessed Christmas. The one thing I will say though, is a picture of Trump in a santa...

Gabriel

This is not right....its always been the 3 second rule here in the UK...maybe its 5 seconds in the US as people are slightly "tubbier" and it...

Potatoes and Tomatoes

project bluebeam trial balloon.

WYVERN

SOTT Focus:

Behind the Headlines: Hating Trump: Why Is Trump So Polarizing?

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The Real 'Clash of Civilizations'? Spiritual Roots of Russo-American Conflict

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