Wednesday, June 17, 2020

"Some of them don’t even know that’s what they want, but that’s what they want."

Even though in democratic countries they are elected only by some fraction of the population, presidents and prime ministers claim to speak for all the people of the countries they govern. They are thus inclined to say that they are doing "what the people want." Yesterday, in his remarks at the signing of his executive order on "safe policing for safe communities", President Trump said that "Americans want law and order." But then he went beyond that: "Some of them don’t even know that’s what they want, but that’s what they want." This is the language of abusers, who tell their victims that they know them better than they know themselves. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 17 June)

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