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The Druid Way

White House in Freudian Slip

January 9th, 2021

Stephanie once gave me a birthday card which showed Sigmund Freud in a dress, and it read: ‘Feeling hip in my Freudian slip’. This refers to Freud’s theory that jokes and slips of the pen or tongue reveal thoughts or feelings that are lurking just below the threshold of consciousness.

After the appalling attack on the Capitol in Washington last week, the White House issued a statement that tried to dial back on their deranged leader’s incitements and lies. See if you can spot the Freudian slip: “MS. MCENANY: I am here to deliver this message on behalf of the entire White House. Let me be clear: The violence we saw yesterday at our nation’s Capitol was appalling, reprehensible, and antithetical to the American way. We condemn it — the President and this administration — in the strongest possible terms. It is unacceptable, and those that broke the law should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

The third sentence was presumably meant to be taken as: “We  — the President and this administration — condemn it in the strongest possible terms.” But by writing it in the way they did they have either deliberately or inadvertently conveyed the idea that they condemn the President and his administration, and even that they “should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law”. Whatever the grammatical reality, replace the dashes with commas in the original statement, and read it out loud: “We condemn it, the President and this administration, in the strongest possible terms.” Good for you, White House press department!

Thank heavens Twitter has finally taken the step of removing the megaphone from the unwell man. (Just to be clear: I am using ‘unwell’ as an adjective to prevent myself from ranting, and in the light of the overwhelming evidence that the man is indeed very unwell mentally. For detail on this, note: “American mental health professionals have long warned us Trump exhibits signs of clinical insanity and we haven’t listened. In September 2017, a mere eight months after Trump took the office of president of the United States, 60,000 mental health professionals decided to rebel against convention to sign a petition crafted by Dr. John Gartner, Ph.D., stating that:

“We, the undersigned mental health professionals, believe in our professional judgment that Donald Trump manifests a serious mental illness that renders him psychologically incapable of competently discharging the duties of President of the United States. And we respectfully request he be removed from office, according to article 4 of the 25th amendment to the Constitution, which states that the president will be replaced if he is ‘unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.’”   From Harvard Psychologist: Trump Has ‘Serious’ Mental Health Problem.

13 Responses to “White House in Freudian Slip”

  1. I completely agree. Let’s just hope that the next few months see justice served and sanity and morality restored.

  2. I think a lot of what we have seen in the US, is absolutely appalling. That is both sides too! Druidry is hugely based on knowledge and truth, yet lately all I see are people taking things at face value and not looking at the overall picture. How can society ever evolve for the better when this happens? After all, lies will always be more believable than the truth, as they are made in the mind of humans.

    • Thank you, Bear, for “seeing” (the operative word) that KNOWLEDGE and TRUTH are the foundation of any thesis and as am American living through this Orwellian nightmare, great men fall based on their creation lies and deception!!! The time to condemn is when all the facts have been put forth!!! I am very disappointed in Philip’s flippant assessment of a situation he is not living!!! Again, thank you for demonstrating a willingness to not rush judgement!!! Blessings from the other side of the pond!!!

  3. Thank you – well said. Why, oh why, didn’t they take heed then? Why, oh why, does this unhinged madman still occupy the office and hold the nuclear codes? Shame on the USA! (and I’m the descendent of Europeans who came to this country before it was a country. My grandfathers fought on the dide of the colonies in the Revolutionary War.) I am so ashamed of my country right now.

  4. Thank you Mr. Carr-Gomm. 2020 was an exhausting year in America. It may take a while for the dust to settle and for us to learn how much damage has really been done in all aspects of American life including foreign and domestic policy.

  5. As an American living in this country watching it happen, it’s horrifying. I’m an author and early on I wrote a villain with traits from Trump. It seems I really downplayed it. It’s terrifying to me that so many in this country still follow him blindly, to the point of storming the Capital. And that so many ignored what was very obvious before he was elected. That he’s unstable and incapable of leading this country effectively. I agree with your grammatical assessment but I do wonder if it was intentional or rather a slip. I don’t think many who work for him and with him actually believe his insanity. I think the Republican Party have known they are gasping their last breath as they have, for many decades now, tied their platform to the ultra right Christian fringe. That’s not aging well in this world and in our country. I think Trump was their last desperate attempt to find relevance. They have become the party that wants to hurt and control anyone who isn’t white and male and probably rich. And they are desperate to keep their power and will do anything for that.

  6. We live in depressing and confusing times…I’m more than grateful for the islands of sanity and respite. While I can’t disagree with the assessment–and I’ve never liked or trusted the man even when he was only a businessman–I literally cannot read all the news or the responses to it and still function as a decent, reasonable, sane human being with a shred of hope for mankind. I’ve seen more ugliness–on both sides–in the past decade (yes, decade) than ever before in my life, and it would be all too easy to despair. But I choose to believe the world is still full of decent, reasonable, sane human beings and we WILL come out the other side of this madness.

  7. Philip, thanks for speaking to these events. The attack on our Capitol was traumatic for those who were there and even for we who witnessed it through the media. I’m reading so many accounts of intense emotional and physical reactions; rage, weeping, nausea are mentioned in almost all; I experienced intermittent vertigo for about 24 hours after the white supremacist terrorists stormed the building, though I only saw a bit on TV from the other side of the continent.
    In your talk on Monday perhaps you could say something about processing collective trauma; there’s so much going around from the pandemic, and all the other layers including this assault on democracy.
    I’m revisiting your Sophrology book and trying to use those strategies more.
    Bright blessings to you.

  8. I agree, those signs of mental instability have always been there. It’s been to the advantage of those around him to flatter him and encourage his insanity to get what they want. Now he’s created an angry unintelligent mob who believed in him.

  9. I will also agree that Trump is mentally unstable and has been the entire time. He is a narcissist and also bipolar as close as I can figure. Please keep in mind he threatened to leave the US if he lost this election so watch out for for it.
    I cannot get over what has been done to this country by Trump, his family, and his followers. Even worse I cannot count the number of people who are still sure that the election was stolen. Unbelievable and yet true. It’s not over yet as much as we would like it to be. I also think it will take years to repair the damage he has done. He has indirectly killed 5 people and stirred up a bunch of his followers thus encouraging them not only to riot but to harm people in our congress and senate. It will be interesting to see if he pardons himself as well as friends and family. Just watch……..

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