by David Mattson In common with the rest of humanity, American’s often engage in bombastic displays of national chauvinism. At its most negative, some scholars have likened this impulse to collective narcissism [1]: “…an inflated, unrealistic view of the national ingroup’s greatness contingent on external recognition.” Perhaps out of political necessity, those intent on mobilizing the American public fall prey to different flavors of chauvinism. Politicians such as President Obama did, and do so, in a more cerebral and tempered way. Politicians such as Trump and his rabid followers exhibit narcissism as crass vitriolic spew. Of parenthetical relevance, adherence to collective narcissism was
by David Mattson Those people who were paying attention to the 2016 election will probably remember the furor surrounding a politically ill-advised quip by Hillary Clinton characterizing many of those who supported Trump as “a basket of deplorables who espouse racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic [and] Islamophobic sentiments.” She was pilloried for this single statement despite the fact that Trump made, and continues to make, a record-breaking number of grotesque misstatements, untruths, and lies. But this begs the question of whether Hillary’s description was, in fact, an accurate one, in contrast to much of what comes out of Trump’s mouth. Basket of Deplorables, Indeed Of direct relevan
by David Mattson The last few days of June 2018 saw most people in the United States sweltering in an epic heat wave. High temperatures were uniformly between 90 and 110 degrees in a mind-boggling 17 states [1]. Heat indices in parts of the East and Midwest approached 120 degrees. Heat Advisories or Excessive Heat Warning were issued by the National Weather Service for all or parts of 21 states. Hazardously poor air quality arising from the reaction of volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides with sunlight and heat compounded the agony in 9 states. On top of this, catastrophic drought gripped the southwestern US [2], largely the product of a devastatingly dry winter. Snowpack during th
