Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:39 pm
Donald Trump is Time’s Person of the Year. Time explains that,
“For reminding America that demagoguery feeds on despair and that truth is only as powerful as the trust in those who speak it, for empowering a hidden electorate by mainstreaming its furies and live-streaming its fears, and for framing tomorrow’s political culture by demolishing yesterday’s, Donald Trump is TIME’s 2016 Person of the Year.”
This seems a bit tenuous, not to mention torturous, logic, given that the electorate voted for Hillary Clinton, but okay. Let’s let that pass and have some fun.
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So Trump is Person of the Year, and so, as has been noted, was Adolf Hitler, the man to whom he has been so often compared. In this case, the comparison is invoked as proof of Godwin’s Law:
Breaking: TIME names Trump Person of the Year, presents final proof of Godwin's Law. pic.twitter.com/PXPpUyEML6
— Norse Mythology (@NorseMythNews) December 7, 2016
Others have noted also the “august” company Trump keeps. Clyde Haberman of The New York Times tweeted:
Trump is Time's Person of the Year. In the past, so were Hitler, Stalin (twice), Ayatollah Khomeini, Andropov and Putin.
— Clyde Haberman (@ClydeHaberman) December 7, 2016
Leaving attorney Lisa Bloom to offer Time some timely advice:
Hey @Time you need to end your love affair with authoritarian bullies. Trump sees this as a great honor. Sends terrible message. https://t.co/6tWd1nme8r
— Lisa Bloom (@LisaBloom) December 7, 2016
Full Frontal’s Samantha Bee, on the other hand, strives to protect Trump from intrusion:
Jesus, @TIME, give the man some privacy! pic.twitter.com/QaIRdB0ZGX
— Full Frontal (@FullFrontalSamB) December 7, 2016
It is fair to say, even given the company of Richard M. Nixon, no American has been less deserving of being named person of the year.
John Fugelsang tells us that “Donald Trump is what happens when parents never say ‘no.'” And he’s right: Time should have just said no.
Most Americans did. And that’s one other thing Trump and Hitler have in common.
Neither of them won the popular vote.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
