12 Monkeys
Society / Culture

Donald Trump, Time Traveler

11 Comments

Psychiatric facilities across the United States are at breaking point after the number of people claiming to be sent from the future to stop Donald Trump reached epidemic proportions, a semi-serious News Thump article trending on Facebook reports. But I have an alternative theory.

“They all say the same thing, they come from a future of riots, war, famine, the collapse of civilised society, and then being sent back to ‘make it all right'” says an alleged source. “The future is getting increasingly desperate to stop the rise of Donald Trump and the end of the world he will inevitably bring about.”

In “12 Monkeys,” Bruce Willis is sent back in time to save the world from a catastrophe, but things go wrong and he ends up in a mental hospital. Is that what’s happening? Why does the future want to kill Donald Trump?

“He can’t be that bad, can he?”

Perhaps a better question is, how to explain Trump’s appeal? Two recent articles provide good answers.

In a Wall Street Journal article titled “Trump’s America,” Charles Murray notes that there’s nothing irrational about Donald Trump’s appeal to the white working class. They have every reason to be angry.

“By the beginning of the 1980s, Democratic elites overwhelmingly subscribed to an ideology in open conflict with liberty and individualism as traditionally understood. This consolidated the Democratic Party’s longtime popularity with ethnic minorities, single women and low-income women, but it alienated another key Democratic constituency: the white working class… [T]he central truth of Trumpism as a phenomenon is that the entire American working class has legitimate reasons to be angry at the ruling class.”

I recommend reading Murray’s entire article. One of my favorite passages notes that the passion of Trumpism against the threat to America’s national identity from an influx of immigrants doesn’t make much sense, because most immigrants “come across as classically American – cheerful, hardworking, optimistic, ambitious.” The immigrants are the true Americans – it’s the natives who have abandoned “the bedrock that has made us unique in the history of the world.”

In another thoughtful article titled “How the P.C. Police Propelled Donald Trump,” published in The Daily Beast, Tom Nichols notes that the thought-policing and mobbing practices of politically correct (PC) “liberals” created Donald Trump.

“To understand Trump’s seemingly effortless seizure of the public spotlight, forget about programs, and instead zero in on the one complaint that seems to unite all of the disparate angry factions gravitating to him: political correctness… There is a huge vacuum left by this leftist attack on speech, and Trump is filling it.”

Nichols observes that Trump’s supporters are not fighting for any particular political outcome. They just want to send a loud FUCK YOU to “Social Justice Warriors” (SJWs) and liberal mobs. While the “intellectuals elites” are brainwashed by the PC mobs, the white / male / straight / religious unwashed masses feel under deadly SJW attack and turn to Trump because they have nowhere else to go.

“What they want, more than any one policy, is someone to turn to the chanting mobs and say, without hesitation: ‘No, I will not shut up.'”

Those are powerful gut feelings much stronger than rational analysis. Robin Hanson notes that lecturing unhappy voters that Trump is bad boy is as effective as lecturing your rebel daughter not to date bad boys.

Therefore, I think Trump will get lots of votes. But I think he will lose to Clinton, so why do future black ops masters send undercover agents to kill Trump if, from their vantage point, he has already lost the elections? I don’t find the Time Travelers Against Trump conspiracy theory believable.

But I like time travel because it’s unPC. Time travel isn’t incompatible with modern theoretical models of fundamental physics. On the contrary, Einstein’s general relativity seems to permit time travel, and Everett’s MWI quantum model nicely solves apparent time travel paradoxes. But the SJWs in mainstream scientific circles – I call them “Scientific Justice Warriors” – are waging a mobbing crusade against scientific imagination, and time travel research is one of their favorite witch hunts. Social and Scientific JWs focus on different topics, but they peddle one and the same toxic (un)cultural package, as shown by the observable fact that Social JWs tend to be also Scientific JWs and vice versa.

So I’m entertaining a different time travel conspiracy theory:

DONALD TRUMP IS A TIME TRAVELER SENT FROM THE FUTURE TO SAVE AMERICA FROM THE POLITICALLY CORRECT THOUGHT POLICE

See my article “Rabid unthinking atheists, SJW mobs, and fake-liberal thought cops.” Trigger warning: the article is intentionally provocative. Before calling me names, please note that I support all sorts of liberal positions: equal opportunity for everyone, women rights, minority rights, LGBT rights, gay marriage, anti-racism, liberal immigration laws, welfare, wealth redistribution, public health care, basic income, separation of church and state… I am essentially in favor of all that. But I think the SJW version of liberalism is a sad and pathetic caricature of real liberalism. And dangerous. If the trend continues, sooner or later the thought cops will come for you.

So the story goes like this: future history books show that America started to go seriously down the drain in the 2010s – followed by Europe and the rest of the so-called “Western World” that never copies the good things from America but always copies the bad things. Some very bad things happened as a result. When time travel tech was achieved (not by Westerners of course) an agent was sent to the past to correct things. He landed in the 70s, made a lot of money, became a controversial media icon, and came so close to winning the 2016 elections to give a much needed wake-up call to sleeping America.

I wanted to wrap up this post and write more about “some very bad things happened,” and perhaps more about super-magic future time travel technology, but that will have to wait because I just found a gem: a totally idiotic scientific paper (yes, they call it a scientific paper – A SCIENTIFIC PAPER) on “a feminist glaciology framework,” the post-colonial gender dynamics of glaciers (yes, icebergs with genitals), and the need for “more just and equitable science and human-ice interactions.”

Of course I assumed the “scientific paper” was a Sokal hoax, but it appears that the authors and the University of Oregon consider it as a real scientific paper. A REAL SCIENTIFIC PAPER. When I first saw this unbelievable story on Facebook I wrote this very heartfelt comment: “I am assuming it’s a joke like that Sokal thing. If it isn’t a joke, I’ll add a Trump badge to my profile picture.”

Powerline’s Steven Hayward notes that

“This is why you get Trump.”

“He’s not wrong,” notes Reason. “Disaffected college students are rebelling against the hegemonies of leftist dogma and political correctness that rule their campuses – and “Trump!” is, sadly, their rallying cry.”

“In a country where working class people are being forced to fund research on the postcolonial gender theory of melting ice caps, is it any wonder some of them are rooting for a charismatic demagogue who promises to bully their tormentors?”

Before you ask, no I wouldn’t vote for Trump. But I think we need a very loud wake-up call, and the success of Trump’s campaign will provide one. Or so I hope. I hope Trump will lose, but come close enough to winning to highlight the fact that also Trump voters have legitimate concerns. They can’t be all that bad, can they?

Perhaps the time-masters from the future agree with me.

12 Monkeys

Image: Screenshot from 12 Monkeys.

  • spud100

    Ah Dr. Prisco, you have hit the bull’s eye once again. I also agree with your conclusion that Moma Clinton will likely win this November. Moma will win, I am guessing, because people like the idea of free things, and Mom will promise more goodies from the state. She is looked at more, centrist than, her boss, the president, on foreign policy (She was the US sec of state!) and economics, which we Americans, ever isolationist, favor.
    To misquote, one founder of the US Republic, Ben Franklin, I will change Ben’s response: “It’s an Oligarchy, Madame, if you can keep?” It’s an oligarchy here, where politicians are owned by the super rich. The super rich want different things for themselves, then the rest of America does, and this is the best explanation of Trump’s candidacy. Plus, nationalism remains a useful tool for state and international security. Yes, its dangerous as hell, when the impetus for international cooperation has been reduced. One must have a home team, and one must be able to defend one’s home-for it’s that simple.
    On immigration and the offshoring of US jobs, the rich are united with both parties, as a unitary view. This policy benefits the profit margin of the super rich and their investors, who fund all pols in both parties, except for Trump, who is self funding. Would Trump be a permanent enemy of his Class, if he won? No. He wrote the book called, The Art if the Deal, and he knows how to make deals. So I’d expect him to cut a deal with, the Mexican migrants, and the Dems. His strategy is to come in and bust your opponent’s balls, first, as an opening move. As I said, Trump wrote the book on negotiations, and to quote US general Patton, “Rommel, you magnificent son of a bitch, I read your book!”
    In Europe, as you well, know, the pattern of the ruling class there is to insurgence is a non-problem, and punish those who proclaim it is. This is a big sell out, yet, outside of a few rightist voices, Europe remains passive. Just a thought, I would tell your buddy, Orban, that if you need foreign workers at all, forget the near east, bring them in from Latin America. Why?
    1. Is the majority are Roman Catholics so your churches would fill, and most Magyars are Roman Catholic or Protestant.
    2. Your peoples are wild for spicy foods and the people from Central America, practically invented spicy foods 4000 years ago. They are the bosses of spice from which Hungarian Paprika came from.
    3. The Latin Americans know the Spanish, and Portuguese rule of “look, but no touch” regarding European females.
    4. Most South Americans, to a 99 percentile, are not Jihadists, and the guys from West Asia, sort of like the thrill of an execution of a Qufar.
    Make no mistake, Orban would never like me, because I like to strike back, revenge wise, however, Orban, build that goddam fence, it will save your people’s lives!
    Last, and yes I am an obsessive a–hole, in that I believe, intellectually, that your Cosmism is one big reason for the Uma (Islamic community) to Come in from the Cold.
    Remember John Le Carre’s, The Spy who Came in from the Cold? A scientifically plausible afterlife, such as resurrection, to a pleasant existence, would cool some of the Jihadists tempers. because after speaking with Muslims over the years, in real life and online, is that the fear that by not obeying Muhammad’s orders, they will be sentenced to eternal death of the grave, or the perpetual fires of hell. I am not saying that you, yourself can deliver this philosophical miracle, but that if it was convincing, scientifically, it would permit cooler thinking to prevail. Maybe?

    • Giulio Prisco

      Hi Spud. Well, I personally would welcome South Americans to come to Europe, But I would welcome everyone who doesn’t want to kill me to come to Europe. The problem is that among the immigrants there are terrorists who want to kill me and my family. About one terrorist per thousand immigrants, according to credible statistics. What to do then? If a wolf wants to eat me, I totally understand that he is hungry and must eat, but I shoot him first if there is nothing else that I can do. Survival and all that.

      I am not scared of “cultural contamination.” On the contrary, I suspect that Murray’s observation – “most immigrants come across as classically American – cheerful, hardworking, optimistic, ambitious” – would also apply here. We need immigrants because we are having less and less children (a clear sign of a culture’s suicide). I would welcome all immigrants if not for the risk of terrorism. But if a wolf wants to eat me…

      Hungarians can teach one of two things about spicy food to South Americans… I like spicy.

      Of course I want to see scientifically plausible afterlife theories, and I spend a lot of time looking for just that, reading, talking to scientists. But I suspect scientific plausibility is not one of the main things that push people to a religion. Yes, scientifically educated geeks like you and I, yes maybe, but the others?

      The others have flocked to scientifically implausible religions for centuries, and they continue to do so today. I think we must find ways to make our ideas emotionally compelling and powerful, which is also a philosophical miracle. If we can do that, then we will have centuries to work out the science.

      • David Román

        Only one thing missing from this discussion of the Trump phenomenon, guys: that many of the ideas driving Bernie Sanders’ campaign are similar, even if his rhetoric and his specific policy proposals are different. Clearly this all goes well beyond Trump, whatever happens in November.

        • spud100

          @David
          Whomever wins, we must understand that money works, seemingly, to get voters to your side, and to the voting booth in the US. It’s corrupting, but it seems to work. What has changed in the US, is that the self interests of the ruling class now beats the middle class in the US. Even, if Trump or Bernie were to win, I have no confidence that either would change things. They could extract a few wins, from the elites, and I am guessing this would be eough to make things somewhat better for the middle class. This, now, is the best anyone should hope for or expect.

          @Dr. Prisco,
          I am certain your analysis is correct in stating that the emotional aspects of the human brain, must be reached, even, more so, than, the scientifically plausible attempts to write a new human future for those long deceased. Yes, you and I, and maybe Dr. Goertzel (?) love this sort of thing, and most, do not seem not to partake of our enthusiasm.

          One of the ways to make Cosmism more marketable, is by using well known statements, such as Jesus’s “Suffer all the Children to Come unto me.” Now this is the King James rendering of the language of the New Testament. However, the message could be understood to mean, if you want to be restored from your deaths, have the children (later generations) develop the sciences to restore your lives.

          This is just an idea, that I have been toying with for a while. Another fairly, well known verse is from the Jewish Amidah, which spells this out:

          You, O LORD, are mighty forever,
          You revive the dead,
          You have the power to save.
          You sustain the living with loving kindnesses,
          You revive the dead with great mercy;
          You support the falling,
          heal the sick,
          set free the bound
          and keep faith with those who sleep in the dust.

          I believe the above quote, I read was something that Jesus stated in the NT as a prayer, but I coulldn’t locate this quote. Now, this is basically trying to appeal to your observation that we need the emotional more so, then the intellectual. All the above, except God belief, I would expect somebody like Dawkins to approve of, so for Dawkins, if it isn’t God, why not the upcomming generations? Copy and Paste. I am open to other ideas, selling points, etc. The prayer should be on the short list of anyone who likes Transhumanism, and the Singularity. As far as the intellectual goes, I will try to follow the Mormon Transhumanist Association’s speech by Eric Steinhart, next month. He has been elaborate with his ideas.

          Regards,

          Mitch

          • Giulio Prisco

            Spud – So “Let the children come to me” should be re-interpreted as “Let future generations become like me”? Of course I love the idea, but I don’t think traditional Christians would accept it easily. Mormons are much more open to the idea that Man should/will become like God.

            However, I totally agree that re-interpreting popular aspects of traditional religions is the way to go.

            I read that the “I Am” in “I Am That I Am” should really be translated as “We Shall Be,” which would offer evident parallels with our thinking (multiple Gods that will emerge in our future, but can act on their past / our present). I would love to see confirmation by knowledgeable linguists.

          • magnus

            “”To live again, you must die” has some biblical sound to me. One can read it more technically: someone is constructed through some very advanced machine in the distant future. But without the, in this case, bad/dark near death experience. One way to think about it, is, that a long dead person was brought back,with some memoryloss. To besure to beback again,truly, this person could then choose to go through a few categories of nde. “”You must die, to live again ”

            cheers

          • spud100

            Hi Guilio, I am using this forum as the quickest way to contact you directly. This does have a tangential relationship with this discussion, but I have a video from last week released, March 15, which is a SETI conference, with the featured speaker, Stephen Wolfram. You may have already view this, but I feel it is well worth commentary here.

            Please skip forward to 1 hour 8 minutes, or 1 hour 12 minutes into Wolfram’s presentation. This must have some kinship with Cosmism, and seems to match the writings of Goertzel and Steinhart. I am guessing that since neither of the three know about each other’s writings, but come to the same conclusion, this is important.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re9eB_j6m-0

            Regards,

            Mitch

          • Giulio Prisco

            Cool, thanks. By the way this was discussed in the TC Facebook group. I have never seen you on FB, aren’t you there?

            Excerpt from Contact (Carl Sagan):

            “I
            want to know about your myths, your religions. What fills you with awe?
            Or are those who make the numinous unable to feel it?”

            “You
            make the numinous also. No, I know what you’re asking Certainly we feel
            it. You recognize that some of this is hard for me to communicate to
            you. But I’ll give you an example of what you’re asking for. I don’t say
            this is it exactly, but it’ll give you a … flavor of our numinous. It
            concerns pi, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its
            diameter. you know it well, of course, and you also know you can never
            come to the end of pi. There’s no creature in the universe , no matter
            how smart, who could calculate pi to the last digit — because there is
            no last digit, only an infinite number of digits. Your mathematicians
            have made an effort to calculate it out to… none of you seem to know
            … Let’s say the ten-billionth place. You won’t be surprised to hear
            that other mathematicians have gone further. Well, eventually–let’s say
            it’s in the ten-to-the-twelve-power place–something happens. The
            randomly varying digits disappear, and for an unbelievably long time
            there’s nothing but ones and zeros.”
            . . .

            “And
            the zeros and ones finally stop? You get back to a random sequence of
            digits?” Seeing a faint sing of encouragement from him, she raced on.
            “And the number of zeros and ones? Is it a product of prime numbers?”

            “Yes, eleven of them.”

            “You’re
            telling me there’s a message in eleven dimensions hidden deep inside
            the number pi? Someone in the universe communicates by… mathematics?”

        • Giulio Prisco

          David – Many but not all. Murray’s article can explain Sanders’ appeal as well, but Nichols’ article only explains Trump’s appeal. Both articles cover the disaffection of the “white working class,” but Murray’s article emphasize “working class” and Nichols’ article emphasize “white [and male, straight…].”

  • Signet Amenti

    What are you babbling here ? Trump is NO Time Traveler. He can t even travel from his seat to his food table without another one of his servants or slaves, in support to him. He is incompetent and not even nearly Intelligent enough for somethign like Time Travel. Which brings me to my next point . . . Why did you write this. Cheering for him much . . . Why ? For a small loan of millon$$$ ? I am not subscribing to your artcile.

    • Giulio Prisco

      I am not cheering for Trump, just noticing trends. See “Before you ask, no I wouldn’t vote for Trump. But I think we need a very loud wake-up call, and the success of Trump’s campaign will provide one. Or so I hope. I hope Trump will lose, but come close enough to winning to highlight the fact that also Trump voters have legitimate concerns”