Character Traits of a Decent Human
An Open Explanation to Donald Trump
The New York Times posted statistics about “The Twitter Presidency” on its Instagram feed Saturday, November 2nd.
The corresponding article goes into (terrifying) detail about the content of the 11,000 Tweets that have flitter-fluttered from his account since he took office. But since he considers the Times to be #FakeNews, clearly their research and reporting is incorrect.
These numbers reiterate that the president needs a refresher — an initial introduction, rather — on what it takes to be a decent human being.
What seems to be common sense to (a seemingly decreasing portion of) the American population has been lost on Mr. Trump.
ICYMI…Character Traits and Decency Defined
A character trait is a value or quality distinguishing one’s personal character. Together, your character traits define who you are.
Character traits can be positive or negative. Consistent with social norms, examples of positive character traits include loyalty, integrity, and kindness. Conversely, some negative character traits are dishonesty, greed, hostility, narcissism, and spray tanning. Who knew?
Now that we have a clear understanding — with examples! — of character traits, we can dive into what makes a decent human. Since the president considers mainstream media outlets to be corrupt and fake, I referenced a source he surely deems reputable — The Urban Dictionary.
Accordingly, a decent human being is “somebody who gives a f*ck about something other than themself.”
A definition as clear as quid pro quo.
Dear Mr. Trump, in plain and simple language, here are 3 character traits found in decent human beings. (Not indecent.)
Respect:
“R — E — S — P — E — C — T, find out what it means to me.” Thank you, Aretha Franklin for spelling it out for us. (I know spelling can be challenging for you.) It’s fitting that her nickname is the Queen of SOUL — hers was beautiful. Respect is quite simple. It’s easy, even.
Respect means acknowledging the feelings, wishes, rights, or traditions of others. Nothing more, nothing less.
Decent human beings are respectful.
Respect is a blanket character trait applied to all interactions. Let’s not muddy understanding with too many examples of your blatantly disrespectful behavior, so I’ll stick to one topic. Women.
In my opinion, Mr. Trump, you need to work on your respect for women more than anything else.
The Week magazine compiled a list of 61 things you’ve said about women. Saying things like, “I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man — he made a good decision,” and, “She’s probably deeply troubled, and therefore great in bed. How come the deeply troubled women — deeply, deeply troubled — they’re always the best in bed?” is disrespectful.
Calling women names like, “bimbo”, “horseface”, or a “crazed, crying lowlife” is disrespectful.
Concerning one woman, you said, that she is “somewhat of a loser. She’s lonely. She’s unhappy. She’s very miserable”. Guess what? That’s disrespectful.
Your most despicably disrespectful behavior towards women is your pattern of repeatedly perpetrating, allowing, or even encouraging sexual misconduct towards women. “She got schlonged,” and “You never get to the face because the body’s so good,” are utterly disgusting, disparaging, and disrespectful things to say about or to women.
What’s worse, you encourage men to deny their unwanted — and illegal — sexual advances when you say things like:
“You’ve got to deny, deny, deny and push back on these women. If you admit to anything and any culpability, then you’re dead. …You’ve got to be strong. You’ve got to be aggressive. You’ve got to push back hard. You’ve got to deny anything that’s said about you. Never admit.”
However, Mr. Trump, nothing is more abhorrent than your extremely lewd conversation “coaching” Billy Bush:
“I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything … Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
As Billy Madison would say, “That’s assault, brother.”
At the final presidential debate in 2016, you said, “Nobody has more respect for women than I do. Nobody. Nobody has more respect.” Mr. President, that is a LOAD. OF. SHIT.
To be crystal clear, your behavior towards women is disrespectful. It’s also misogynistic, degrading, hateful, and at times illegal.
Moving forward, an easy mnemonic device to gauge whether your behavior is respectful is to THINK first. This is also posted in swaths of grade school classrooms across the country if you ever need a refresher.
T: Is it TRUE?
H: Is it HELPFUL?
I: Is it INSPIRING?
N: Is it NECESSARY?
K: Is it KIND?
Queen Aretha sums it up best:
“We all require and want respect, man or woman, black or white. It’s our basic human right.”
Honesty:
Decent human beings are honest. Honesty means telling the truth and behaving truthfully.
This is very difficult for you. Actually, it seems nearly impossible.
Mr. President, you took an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. That requires telling the truth.
As of October 9th, you told 13,435 lies or misleading statements, according to the Washington Post’s fact-checker. (Despite your pontificating to the contrary, the Post and the New York Times tell the truth. Their reporting is based entirely on research and proven facts. They reference their sources — you can double-check. Fox News, on the other hand, is #FakeNews.)
Additionally, tweeting statements like, “The Democrat(ic) position on abortion is now so extreme that they don’t mind executing babies AFTER birth,” is both a flagrant mistruth and scary propaganda.
BTW, propaganda is biased or misleading information used to manipulate emotions and/or promote a particular political point of view. That means it’s not true. It is dishonest.
You also lie about issues that are completely unrelated to politics. For instance, you said, “We got $6 billion for opioid[s] and getting rid of that scourge that’s taking over our country. And the numbers are way down.” Prescriptions for opioids have decreased, but the abuse, overdoses, and deaths are still increasing exponentially. (That means a lot really fast.) Omitting some of the facts with the intent to mislead is lying. It is dishonest.
Here is another mnemonic to help you remember what HONESTY means. It too is found in classrooms nationwide.
H: Helps others trust you!
O: Owning up to your actions.
N: No stealing or lying! (Or mistruths or propaganda.)
E: Equal treatment.
S: Showing respect. (Hey, there’s that RESPECT word again.)
T: Telling the truth.
Y: You can do it!
This summer, you told the media that, “The crap you think of is unbelievable.”
No, Mr. Trump. Your crap is unbelievable.
Compassion:
Mr. President, your recurring spiteful, vindictive, and downright dirty behavior as a citizen, business owner, and Commander In Chief leads me to believe that you don’t have one compassionate bone in your body, let alone an understanding of what compassion is in the first place.
I’ll break it down for you:
- Compassion is showing concern for the misfortune or suffering of others — and a desire to help.
- To have compassion, you must be empathetic. Empathy means you can understand another’s feelings and condition. Simply, empathy is the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes.
YOU. LACK. BOTH.
There are too many examples of your apathy and heartlessness to count. What is happening at the border is, in my opinion, a crime against humanity. Inhumane “living” conditions and detaining people against their will without cause are two glaring examples.
However, separating kids from their parents goes beyond the bounds of even the lowest standard of human decency.
What’s more, tweeting that, “We cannot allow our Country to be overrun by illegal immigrants as the Democrats tell their phony stories of sadness and grief,” is disrespectful, dishonest, and devoid of compassion.
FYI, no country is a “shithole country”. And immigrants are not rapists or murderers at a higher rate than citizens.
Compassion is at the heart of human decency. In the Declaration of Independence, our Founding Fathers began by stating that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” To endorse and support these rights — which is your sworn duty — requires compassion.
Mr. President, there is no mnemonic for COMPASSION. It takes work. It takes practice. It takes RESPECT and HONESTY, among other character traits of human decency we haven’t explored.
We know you love Twitter. We know you rely on that platform to communicate your domestic and foreign policies. You also use it to spit your vitriolic hate, racism, xenophobia, misogyny, propaganda, scare tactics, and more.
After learning that respect, honesty, and compassion are three fundamental character traits found in decent humans, I double-dog dare you to show evidence of your learning in your tweets.
We know you love bets. We know you love winning.
This is an easy bet to win.
