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The more I think about it the more I think the artificial normality around Trump almost operates almost like a social compact - a tacit conspiracy of mutual silence. https://twitter.com/whstancil/status/1305122926920785921
Except while social compacts are usually treated as positive, this is a negative social compact: in exchange for preserving normality, people have agreed to mutually absolve each other of the moral and mental burden of resistance.
"If no one freaks out about it, we can all pretend no one need freak out about it. We can pretend none of it's happening and go to work in the morning. Things can be normal again, mostly, for most of us, as long as everyone stays quiet."
The reality is that you can't pivot between "Trump endorsed extrajudicial murder" and "Next up, his economic advisor talks to us about trade." If you want to do the latter, you have to stay quiet about the former.
And that silence? That's the compact https://twitter.com/whstancil/status/1305118361995550721
And that silence? That's the compact https://twitter.com/whstancil/status/1305118361995550721
Trump has announced his intention to stay in power for several more terms over and over. But the press is forced to pretend he’s joking, because if they don’t, the facade of normality is shattered and they can’t cover him like an ordinary president anymore https://twitter.com/parkermolloy/status/1305098180544131072?s=21
There’s no way to say “Trump appears willing to defy the Constitution and stay in power unlawfully” without transforming the cozy, regular relationship between press and White House. So they lean on the increasingly stained assertion that his words are a joke or “distraction”
Come to think of it, this explains the press’s self-fulfilling insistence that “voters don’t care” that Trump commandeered federal property for the RNC. You can’t explore Trump’s open defiance of anti-corruption law without breaking the facade of normality.. so a dodge was found.
