Q: What is probably used far too often in our political & cultural discourse today?
A: Exaggeration.
Steve Patton had an interesting view in his column for last weekend's DDD. Trying to interpret his meaning correctly, it's not like he was suggesting a quid pro quo for the political parties. What he did seem to say was that Trump needed a favorable press, and the press needed Trump to make news. Makes sense. What both of them should temporize, however, is extreme exaggeration.
Extreme exaggeration in political discourse today has almost reached the schoolyard mentality of "My daddy can whup your daddy." Even worse, your daddy is an evil, greedy minded person, whose only interest is self aggrandizement. Even worse, is that listening to your daddy might lead to an Armageddon, or the end of the world as we know it.
Both parties are guilty of this more than harsh invective. "Hillary is a born liar." "Obama is not a true American." “Trump is a madman, not possessing any human values.” It's difficult to imagine any political cooperation, or compromise, coming out of all that. It's almost like two opposing armies facing each other across no-man's-land, each planning a frontal attack.
There is equal guilt by both parties in these blistering comments. But there is one that seems to be reserved for Facebook contributors, and e-mail correspondents, rather than the nationally known pundits who have a reputation to protect. This one says that Donald Trump and Adolph Hitler (Arch-Villain of the 20th century) are potentially one and the same. It's as if the accusers have taken some atavistic journey back into time, uncovered Hitler's bones, and found that
Trump and Hitler share the same DNA.
What this appears to be is sensationalism without substance, based on various personality quirks that might be similar to one person living across the street from another: Narcissism, certain idiosyncrasies, ill-thought out bombastic remarks ruffling feathers, or over sensitivity to criticism. All of these are meaningless without some historical base of similar careers and ambitions. Let's take a look and see if we can find a nexus that truly connects Trump and Hitler:
Donald Trump attended Fordham University in the Bronx for two years. He then graduated with an economics degree from the Wharton School of the U. of PA. He then began a career in business that included all the vicissitudes which could be conceived as good, or bad. He became involved in silly enterprises such as being the host of beauty contests. He had his own supercilious TV show where he hired and fired. He has heavy investments in the always questionable casino gambling.
Maybe the worst thing to be said about Trump is that he is a Plutocrat "a person whose power derives from their wealth." But until recent times he was exclusively a business man who accumulated a vast fortune.
Hitler was the son of a low level civil servant. Having ambitions in art, he was turned down as a student by the Vienna School of Art. He served and was injured in the German Army during WW1.
He emerged from the war embittered by the Treaty of Versailles and what he considered a stab in the back by capitalist Jews, and communists. He than entered a career exclusively dedicated to politics which often turned violent: so violent that he and some his Nazi thugs were arrested and imprisoned. It was in prison that he dictated the first part of "Mien Kamp" (My Struggle) to his cohort , Rudolph Hess. His rise then through always volatile politics to become chancellor of Germany, and eventually dictator, has been documented thousands of times.
Most of us are political boobs, but someone would have to be buried in a dark hole and deprived of oxygen to miss the continuous 24/7 blast, and not form some opinions of his own. The opinion here is that exaggeration is used far too much, and is detrimental to progress.