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Historical comparisons to Trump? (hexbear.net)

submitted 20 hours ago by Dr_Pepper@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net

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What historical figures (recent or ancient) can compare to Trump?

Liberals will of course say Putin (which of course they know nothing about), but in my limited knowledge, Putin gained support by reighning in oligarchs and stabilizing the country. Trump is doing the opposite of this.

In my limited knowledge, he seems most like Boris Yeltsin. A complete dolt and perfect avatar for the terminal stage of a failed empire.

I think certain traits are unprecedented. He may be the most anti-social leader in history. His administration is doing things that don't make sense on a societal level, like defunding research for extreme weather and disease prevention.

Maybe this is just the most extreme form of narcissism on history: the entire world can end as long as I get what I want.

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[–] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 15 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Yeltsin wasn't born rich, nor was he a particularly convincing social force.

I see a specific combination of factors that propelled Trump into power: immense inherited wealth, being spoiled and myopic as a result of said wealth, the profound influence of mass media and spectacle, and a populace that is facing downward mobility or some sort of societal decline.

A lot of possible comparisons are career military figures, but Trump never got his boots muddy in anything like the military.

One comparison that I often like to make (which pisses off the libs) is George Washington. Fabulous wealth that he did not "build up" himself, profound racism and classism, reactionary politics, marshaling a contingency of landowners and petit bourgeois to become the dominant political force. The biggest difference was that Washington was more literate and tacit and proper, while Trump is a showman who dives into every intrigue and controversy.

[–] Dr_Pepper@hexbear.net 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

My knowledge of Yelstin is very surface level. I need to do more research on him.

I don't bother learning much about US presidents because I know they are all bad, but considering the historical significance, I should learn more about Washington. Do you have any good resources?

[–] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 2 points 1 hour ago

There are a lot of biographers that have covered him. I went to a talk a few years ago by one of them, and the objectionable things were blatant. For instance, for much of the American Revolution and the few years afterward, a lot of his efforts were to find ways to defer or entirely avoid paying the soldiers of the Continental Army.

Libs will celebrate influential historic figures and defend them by saying "the times were different". But if you have a well-formed socialist conviction, it's easy to parse through the "quirky historical facts" as actions that happen as part of a class struggle and confirm the alignment of individuals in the class struggle.