They are not intellectually curious they don’t seek out education and they resent to people who do. Things are complicated and they hate that because they can’t understand nuance how many times have you heard them say they are “ridiculed” or “looked down on” “or “lectured to“. I don’t remember my ever lecturing or ridiculing anybody. But lack of education is a failure in personal responsibility.

my belief is that it's not so much education, or lack thereof, as it is basic brain power. I think fully one third of our fellow Americans just aren't that bright. That's not their fault. The Oval Office Occupier and his handlers are expertly exploiting that fact.

That is why he is so defensive and vindictive. He can't ignore even the mildest of slights. If he really were "all that," he would be able to ignore or laugh off all the insults.

" he’s so jealous of Obama, because Obama is everything that he is not: trim, handsome, happily married, and can sing Al Green’s song “Let’s Stay Together” better than Al Green,” Behar said on ‘the View’ this week. “And Trump cannot stand that."

Almost word for word from a post I wrote (somewhere). I wrote the first part almost exactly as she did except I said 'smart', trim and handsome'. Then I wrote " His wife loves him, his kids respect him, he's a great athlete and he sings like a bird." The last line I wrote exactly as hers was.

C. S. Lewis understood this long ago. In his “Screwtape Proposes a Toast” (1959), Lewis (through Screwtape) describes the type of individual who manifests this type of jealousy:

“And therefore [this person] resents. Yes, and therefore resents every kind of superiority in others; denigrates it; wishes its annihilation. Presently he suspects every mere difference of being a claim to superiority. No one must be different from himself in voice, clothes, manners, recreations, choice of food: “Here is someone who speaks English rather more clearly and euphoniously than I — it must be a vile, upstage, lah-di-dah affectation. Here's a fellow who says he doesn't like hot dogs — thinks himself too good for them, no doubt. Here's a man who hasn't turned on the jukebox — he's one of those goddamn highbrows and is doing it to show off. If they were honest-to-God all-right Joes they'd be like me. They've no business to be different. It's undemocratic.”

Lewis wasn't talking about MAGA, but it applies.

A man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern any truth either in himself or anywhere around him, and thus falls into disrespect towards himself and others. Not respecting anyone, he ceases to love, and having no love, he gives himself up to passions and coarse pleasures, in order to occupy and amuse himself...and it all comes from lying continually to others and to himself. A man who lies to himself is often the first to take offense. It sometimes feels very good to take offense, doesn’t it? And surely he knows that no one has offended him, and that he himself has invented the offense and told lies just for the beauty of it, that he has exaggerated for the sake of effect, that he has picked on a word and made a mountain out of a pea—he knows all of that, and still he is the first to take offense, he likes feeling offended, it gives him great pleasure, and thus he reaches the point of real hostility …

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. The Brothers Karamazov Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Too bad, we could all use those pills when we've been at our worst.

I can't think of anything that will treat a malignant narcissist. The ones who aren't born rich generally end up in prison, they're society's wrecking balls.

So it is with this asshole. He can be manipulated somewhat by extreme flattery but he's never been so stupid that he hasn't seen through that eventually. Attempts to control him will fail, increasingly so now that early dementia has set in.

So yeah, short version is that he sucks. There is nothing we can do about that except try to change the makeup of Congress and hope spineless wimps who go along to get along aren't part of that this time.

My advice is to limit your news habit and don't buy into false hope. Buy popcorn, instead, because the ride will be a tooth jarring wild one and there is nothing we can do until it ends.

who are plainly unfit intellectually or emotionally and usually both, to justify their position. We see the same holding true in other areas of rank in private industry. A servile temperament for underlings is more important than expertise for those in power. We see this happening in many walks of life. Hence, when I read someone like David Brooks bloviate about the US being a "meritocracy" I want to pull my hair out. It's not a level playing field. How many brilliant young people are denied an education and the opportunities it affords because their parents simply can't afford it? I'm not jealous of those in power but rather indignant over the inequity of our country. Adding to my annoyance is the confirmation bias evident in the attitudes of the mediocre, i.e., "It's self evident I'm smart because I was selected for the position."

It reminds me of the personality type that is so insecure that they want loud exhaust noises on their cars because they are desperate for attention.

Lazy and uninterested in learning. They never did their assignments and they hated the smarty-pants kids who did.

Now they are adults and think their "Common sense" beats out any educated people who worked hard for their expertise.

Oh they may be actually good at their jobs if they fell into a field that interested them, but they have no respect for any knowledge outside of their narrow interests.