I am always amused when right wing politicians revert to fables and fairy tails to get their point across. Invariably it is to illustrate an idea such that even a child could understand it. And, like most fairy tales, their explanation will invariably be binary- good versus bad.
So Mr Trump has taken to reciting the story of the Snake which for those of you who don't know is the simple story of a woman who while walking home sees a frozen snake which asks her to help him. She takes him home, warms him up, and by the end of the day he is fit as a fiddle. She picks him up to hug him as she is so happy to have saved his life and he promptly bites him. As the poison slowly kills her she asks him how he could bite her after she took him in and nursed him back to health. The snake's answer- 'don't blame me foolish woman- you knew I was a snake when you picked me up'.
Of course the snake here is the great mass of immigrants who risk their lives to enter (in this case the USA) and then of course, following the fable, will turn out to be terrorists and bite the hand that feeds them.
Let's think about this. With one fell swoop Trump has just turned all immigrants into terrorists.
It is the same ploy that the right wing in Europe and the Euro-Sceptics in Britain use.
Make the world black and white, good and bad, and it's easy to make a decision. Turn difficult decisions into instinctual one's rather than taking the time to analyse what's going on. Promise simple answers to complex questions. Appeal to the individual's self-interest at the expense of the community. And then appeal to their sense of community through a xenophobic rant against the 'others'.
We have seen all this before....just not in the USA.
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