Seriously and not literally

Submitted by Lorenz Gude (Australia), Jul 26, 2020 at 10:45

I really like your work Daniel, and am a retired academic myself. I can see and feel Trump's many offputting characteristics every time I encounter footage of him. But I often laugh as his mockery of all that is good and right and Anderson Cooper because I grew up on a farm and am entirely comfortable driving around in a pick up wearing a John Deere hat. And I am also comfortable in academe because I came from a NY family which has been educated at Columbia for generations. If I encountered a cow and the ghost of Lionel Trilling in Hamilton Hall I'd stick my tongue out at Trilling's ghost and help the cow out of the building and onto the little bit of grass that's left where my dad played football. .As Carl Jung once described this kind of situation, put a peasant in a room full of academics and the peasant will see the unconscious shadow side of the professors, and put an academic in a room full of Trump supporters and you will get another NY Times article pointing out how doltish, stupid, and filled with false consciousness they are. Good for you for having the true academic ability to change your mind when the evidence doesn't accord to your expectations and previously help beliefs.

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