I don’t think that they’re oblivious but I’m pretty disappointed by a lot of coverage of Donald Trump blaming the family separation policies on the democrats. A lot of the commentary has focused on how this is a lie because right now, the democrats don’t control any branch of government, can’t easily pass laws, and have a bill in play that could stop policies like what’s going on right now.
But that’s the thing. Trump’s not ‘lying’– he’s just behaving like an abusive husband. To him, the democrats ‘pushed’ him and his party to employ such cruel policies for not allowing progress on the border wall among other things. He isn’t trying to spread misinformation that the democrats made the policies. Trump is trying to say that if the democrats truly wanted the cruelty to stop, they’d give him everything he wanted and never cease to please him again.
It’s useless to treat this like he’s senile or a panicked man trying to spread direct misinformation– it’s not like that. He is actively threatening that unwillingness to submit to his demands will ‘make’ his administration escalate violence. But any abuse survivor knows that just caving doesn’t actually stop an abusive person from just continuing their abuse, or make them reverse the damage that has been done.
it doesn’t surprise me though that widespread culture isn’t immediately zeroing in on this angle, because the Trump administration brings abuse dynamics to people who would never otherwise have experience with them. People who would never be in a position to be gaslighted are baffled when Sarah Sanders comes on the news. People who’ve never been told that their refusal “pushed” a family member or partner to violence go away scratching their head when Trump says the Democrats are to blame for his administration’s atrocities.
To someone who doesn’t recognize these tactics because there is no one in their life that wields that power over them, these seem like inane lies, easily rebuked “no, that’s literally not true.” But can you imagine telling that to an abusive husband that says his wife serving dinner late ‘pushed his temper?’ What would that even accomplish?
Liberal media’s too cowardly to use the word lie to describe his lies, let alone use the word abuse to describe his abusive behavior.
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Thoughtfulfangirling 