Fairness - The Commentary

One of the stark revelations from the years of the Trump presidency is that he’s a member of an uber-rich class of psychopaths and sociopaths. Whether they’re his lawyers, his billionaire buddies, CEOs who benefit from his cruelty, or those whom he has appointed to his administration, they believe in a ruthless definition of success that is out of touch with the morality of everyday Americans. These are the people who’ve been admired by Capitalism for playing a rough and tumble game of high-stakes poker that takes no prisoners, leaves other players devastated, and cares nothing about any collateral damage (human or otherwise) that’s left in its wake. Progressives don’t play the game well because they’re not into amoral war games. They want authenticity, community, honesty, and shared wealth instead, and don’t even want to believe anyone would play so cold-bloodedly. But it is ruthless -- a “man’s” game. Those who won’t play it must be prepared to have their masculinity questio...

“Poisonous pedagogy” is what the late, world-renowned Swiss psychotherapist Alice Miller called dominant Western methods of child-rearing. That label has always been hard to swallow. We’d rather deny it. We’re assuming it’s getting better. But Miller was deadly serious. But are the extremes of this pedagogy what lie beneath the cult of a cruel president? Miller’s writings were extensive and important, including For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence (1990), Thou Shalt Not Be Aware: Society’s Betrayal of the Child (1998), and The Truth Will Set You Free: Overcoming Emotional Blindness and Finding Your True Adult Self (2001). In each she challenged what was considered “normal” parenting in past generations. Miller called for a total revision of the methods we use and how we view children. She described how parents, who haven’t dealt with the effects of the poisonous pedagogy of their own parents, project their ideas, feelings, and dreams ...