Anthropomorphizing the Donald

June 5, 2017

It’s only natural to cast things non-human as human. We do it with animals all the time – reading a dog’s expression as a smile, when her face is just shaped that way, or a cat’s demeanor as arrogant (though that assumption may hold some truth). From Alice’s rabbit to Disney’s Mouse, from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Knight Rider’s Trans-Am – our culture is riddled with images and stories of things not human acting human. It’s natural.

But not necessarily helpful or practical.

We don’t expect to converse with rabbits, see mice piloting tugboats or be rescued by colorful flying reptiles. While we talk to our cars, we don’t expect witty repartee. Anthropomorphizing is for storytelling and doesn’t cross over into real like.

Except with the Donald.

For some reason, we keep expecting Trump to engage with the world like a human being – when he clearly isn’t one of us. Decent human beings don’t mock disabled people, assault women, lie all the time or kick other humans when they’re down, but the Donald does. He plays by different rules because he’s not a member.

For instance, if a friend experiences a disaster, a human being would express and offer support to that friend – then step aside allowing them time to recover unhindered. Of course, that’s not what Trump did when London was hit, again, with a terrorist strike. Right after the incident, the Donald offered critique, then pivoted to a strange anti-gun-control message.

Yeah, while London was in the middle of reacting to an attack the Donald picked a fight with the city’s mayor and tried to swing the conversation around to the Donald. This is not how a human reacts to another human’s plight. Trump’s DNA may map as homo sapiens, but his behavior consistently indicates otherwise.

Hence, we may benefit from stopping any further projecting human traits onto the Donald. If we’ve learned anything over the last two-hundred-nine days since the election, it’s that he doesn’t consider himself part of the greater group. So, why should we?

The republic suspects the Donald is actually an invasive species that hides among our humane expectations.

In Peace and Justice,
osv