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malaise

(300,150 posts)
Mon Jul 13, 2026, 08:22 AM 9 hrs ago

Why he hates Brennan

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/18/donald-trump-kakistocracy-john-brennan-us-twitter

Donald Trump’s ‘kakistocracy’ is not the first, but it’s revived an old word

When John Brennan used a 17th-century word to describe the US presidency, Twitter went wild – but what does it mean?

But it has been the election of Donald Trump to the US presidency that has driven a wider revival of use of the word. On the eve of Trump’s inauguration, the economist Paul Krugman warned: “What we’re looking at, all too obviously, is an American kakistocracy.” Six months into the presidency, the political scientist Norm Ornstein documented how constant waves of scandals around the White House led him to conclude that “kakistocracy is back, and we are experiencing it firsthand in America”.

Brennan is the only the most recent in a long line of people to dust off the term to describe what he sees as a incompetent and unethical regime. During its 450-year history, kakistocracy has mainly been used by conservatives to convey their anxieties about what happens when tradition and order are upended. Today, it is being claimed by people from across the political spectrum to describe the wicked disorder that can result when expertise and ethical judgment are aggressively and systematically pushed aside.





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Why he hates Brennan (Original Post) malaise 9 hrs ago OP
Expertise and ethical judgment go hand in hand with accountability. House of Roberts 9 hrs ago #1
Brennan always gives the most astute interviews bucolic_frolic 8 hrs ago #2
Brennan and Trump... some_of_us_are_sane 8 hrs ago #3
Trump hates truth! czarjak 8 hrs ago #4

House of Roberts

(6,765 posts)
1. Expertise and ethical judgment go hand in hand with accountability.
Mon Jul 13, 2026, 08:47 AM
9 hrs ago

The wealthy are the enemies of accountability.

bucolic_frolic

(56,522 posts)
2. Brennan always gives the most astute interviews
Mon Jul 13, 2026, 08:54 AM
8 hrs ago

Great powers of reasoning, carefully worded without obfuscation, aware of just everything going on in the world. I can't think of another public official I trust more.

So of course Trump is against him.

some_of_us_are_sane

(3,970 posts)
3. Brennan and Trump...
Mon Jul 13, 2026, 09:08 AM
8 hrs ago
are polar opposites.

One is sophisticated

direct, intelligent

and speaks with ease.

The other...........................................

a turd lump

with pig eyes.

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