Social Question

Jeruba's avatar

Raise your hand if you're purchasing Mary Trump's book.

Asked by Jeruba (55829points) July 9th, 2020

If yes, please tell us briefly why.

 
Tags as I wrote them: Mary Trump, Donald Trump, Fred Trump, family dysfunction, politics, psychology, emotional abuse, nightmares

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

42 Answers

Dutchess_lll's avatar

Hand up.
I am curious to see if my suspicions of abuse and neglect are correct.

Tropical_Willie's avatar

Have it on order it will be shipped on Tuesday the 14th.

elbanditoroso's avatar

Probably not – it seems like everything of importance has already been said.

My impression is that 98% of what she wrote is the honest truth. Otherwise why would they be trying to stifle her?

mazingerz88's avatar

Still undecided. I want to buy to thank her for writing the book but I have no intention of reading more about a piece of human excrement.

stanleybmanly's avatar

Nope. As with Bolton’s book, everything in it will be splayed before us in the coming weeks. By now the stack of books touting Trump’s deficiencies is its own pandemic. I mean how much turd analysis is required to reveal every aspect of the thing revolting? Stinky has now achieved such legendary status that an entire industry of stench revulsion lore now numbs our tolerance.

josie's avatar

Why bother?
All the gossip will show up online. For free.

Inspired_2write's avatar

Ordered the book that will be available July 14 2020.
I hope Fluterites will discuss the book here once they read it?

Inspired_2write's avatar

Today just received the book from Amazon

: The Room Where It Happened” by John Bolton

(577 Pages) Hard cover

JLeslie's avatar

Nope. The media is talking about it, so I am hearing bits and pieces, and I already know Trump is an idiot.

Yellowdog's avatar

The main thing I’ve been hearing from the regular media is that Trump hired a friend of his named Joe Shapiro to take the SAT exam so that he would have a better shot at transferring from college at Fordham University to the more prestigious Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Joe Shapiro died in 1999, and his widow says the allegation is false. Critical thinking also would reveal that SAT scores are not used in transferring from one university to another. Grades might matter, but ACT, SAT, and college entrance exams would not.

It would seem that if Trump is as bad as you ascertain, it would not be necessary to make stuff up, But you are certainly free to pay for this, which you are already convinced of.

Jeruba's avatar

This is the quote that blew me away in a New York Times review:

“Donald, though — he thrived in the world that his father created, even if, as Mary argues, his personality was ultimately deformed by the experience. The psychologist in her is sympathetic. She says her uncle has the emotional maturity of a 3-year-old and has “suffered mightily,” burdened by what she calls an insatiable “black hole of need.” He was trained to hunger endlessly for daddy’s approval; it’s just that now, as president of the United States, she says, the figures who remind him of home are Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un.” (boldface added)

They’re DADDY figures. I haven’t seen that written anywhere before, but wow, does that fit.

gorillapaws's avatar

I would have a hard time reading more than a page about Trump. It’s bad enough that we have to hear about him constantly as it is.

Here’s my prediction: Trump was a selfish bully. His dad had high expectations of him and he has been trying and failing to live up to that his life. He has no moral filter and will do or say anything that he believes to be in his self-interest without regard or concern for how that could negatively impact others.

chyna's avatar

^The book in a nutshell!

Inspired_2write's avatar

@gorillapaws

Exactly as he was raised to be like.
His upbringing by a demanding father who had little regard for females as nothing more than underlings. Hence his children were raised on same assumptions.
And praising the almighty dollar in the meantime.

Dutchess_lll's avatar

From another excerpt I read he was encouraged to display all of those traits….couple that with the maturity of a 3 year old…and that spells danger.

mazingerz88's avatar

@Yellowdog You’re such a BS Fox News artist. Shapiro’s widow didn’t outright say it’s false. And there could be another guy named Shapiro.

Why do you assume Mary just made stuff up? She mentioned a name as she honestly remembered it. She could easily not have included any name at all.

Yellowdog's avatar

For one thing, when transferring from one university to another, you don’t take an SAT or a college entrance exam, after having two years of credits.

Secondly, the likelihood of Donald Trump having two close friends named Joe Shapiro while in college is about as likely as being struck by a meteorite.

All the news carried the story, not just Fox. And like I said, critical thinking about the above points is an essential skill. Even eighth graders can be taught discernment skills as to how credible a story.

mazingerz88's avatar

@Yellowdog Pls. post the link re this…For one thing, when transferring from one university to another, you don’t take an SAT or a college entrance exam, after having two years of credits.

Upon googling, Fox News headlines Shapiro’s widow says, Mary’s claim is false.

Business Insider says the widow is not refuting the claim. Here is the link

( Business Insider )....While Shriver did not refute Mary Trump’s account, she said she was always told that her husband met Donald Trump after Trump had already started at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Yellowdog's avatar

Yet the article you cite directly refutes what you are saying.

And Shapiro’s widow was a guest on on Sean Hannity.

mazingerz88's avatar

@Yellowdog So your link as well as your brain link is Hannity. Makes perfect sense all that BS. And just like me, you haven’t actually seen the widow’s video I assume.

Tropical_Willie's avatar

@Yellowdog you have not proven anything !!!

Smashley's avatar

I’m not giving my money to any skeezy rich kids trying to cash in. I’ll read the commentary, select excerpts, and if it’s really groundbreaking work, I’ll check it out at the library in 2025.

JLeslie's avatar

@Jeruba Years ago I saw a psychoanalysis of lots of presidents and lots of the explanations were daddy related. The only one I remember is the second Bush felt compelled to finish what his father had started in the Middle East. That he went after Sadam Hussein with anything he could drum up, because his father had stopped short.

Jeruba's avatar

So, @Yellowdog . . . a guy who would take a standardized test in someone else’s name, for money, and presumably keep quiet about it (otherwise what’s the point?), would never lie to his wife. Right. That alleged history of their acquaintance could not possibly have been a cover story.

You certainly are a loyal defender, I’ll give you that. Much more so than the man deserves.

Yellowdog's avatar

Without evidence other than the testimony of someone writing a book for high sales, you disbelieve the testimony of the widow. How convenient that the accused is deceased, but you’d just say he was lying.

Again, the SAT is not taken by students who are already enrolled in college, transferring somewhere else. It is taken as a college entrance exam, usually between high school and college, for incoming freshmen. Anyone is free to take a college entrance exam for any reason, but if a student were transferring to another university, the only thing the second university would heed would be the student’s grades / college GPA

mazingerz88's avatar

^^As if you’ll believe trump cheated even if Shapiro himself was still alive and said so. No matter what trump says, you bow. Saddest thing in America’s political history in the 21st century.

Jeruba's avatar

After waffling for a couple of weeks, I just ordered the book myself. It’s part of a larger pattern of reading that I do, and who gets royalties for it is pretty much not a factor. The author is uniquely situated and professionally credentialed, and I want to see her analysis for myself.

Also I don’t mind annoying Trump a little bit. Don’t you suppose he will hate knowing that I bought this book? Let’s imagine that for a nanosecond.

@Yellowdog, further on Shapiro: I did not say what I believe or disbelieve. I asked questions. I notice how often you ascribe a view to someone and then attack it, when it’s your own invention. You don’t pay much attention to what people actually say.

Trump’s SAT-taking would have occurred around 1963 or 1964. His widow was born in 1962. So she definitely was not on hand to know if her late husband did or did not do any particular thing in high school. I couldn’t attest to anything my husband did in high school either, even though I believe him to be an honest man, because I didn’t know him then and don’t have any independent source of information. Anything I might think I know could only be second or third hand, and might or might not be modified a little to downplay some youthful indiscretion.

Arguing about what someone would or would not have done hardly amounts to evidence about what they actually did or did not do. Why do you suppose Trump wants his school records guarded almost as closely as his tax returns? Could it be—he’s hiding something??

The fact that the accused is deceased is pretty convenient, yes: but for whom more so than Trump?

Yellowdog's avatar

The one making the accusation, of course.

BTW, I wouldn’t give my financial information or any other records over to a crazy, insidious mob of agitators either—and neither would you.`

Tropical_Willie's avatar

@Jeruba Some people don’t need evidence, just a strong belief in someone with Orange make-up and low TV ratings / Presidential polls.

stanleybmanly's avatar

I’ve been thinking about this question since you posted it here. I’m glad you intend to read the book, and await your review. Your recommendation would be sufficient to change my mind, and you are thus far the only person I know committed to reading the book.

Jeruba's avatar

Dear @Yellowdog, I am not running for president. If I were asking people to place their trust in me to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and bear true faith and allegiance to the same, you can damn well bet I’d give them everything they wanted to know that cast light on my trustworthiness, competence, and fitness for office. And so would you. Because I think you’re basically an honest person. That’s why it’s so sad to see you stake your loyalty on someone with no moral character at all.

Dutchess_lll's avatar

Oh I’ll be reading it sooner or later @stanleybmanly. I just don’t have the luxury of buying it new.

stanleybmanly's avatar

Luxury? What are they asking for it? Apparently there are “used” copies available now ebay at 3.99. Want me to snatch one for you?

chyna's avatar

It hasn’t even come out yet. How
Are there used copies available?

Dutchess_lll's avatar

I’ll call my library @Stanlyman

JLeslie's avatar

I do think it’s odd to take a SAT when you transfer, but even if that is not true, it might be a small memory inconsistency and doesn’t mean everything in the book is to be thrown out. Or, it might actually be true.

Knowing two Joe Shapiro’s doesn’t seem odd at all. It was in NYC right? Shapiro is pretty common.

elbanditoroso's avatar

Shapiro is something like the 25th or 26th most common Jewish last name. In a metro area like New York, that could mean tens of thousands of Shapiros.

Shapiro or Shapira שפירא is an ancient Ashkenazi Jewish name indicating the bearer’s roots are in the city of Speyer in Germany, an important Jewish center in the middle ages.

It is fairly common among Ashkenazi Jews (those of European descent) but it is non existant with Sepharadi Jews. The most common Jewish names cross these lines – Cohen, Levi, etc. (there are many variations) indicating a priesthood in the far past and are common among Ashkenazis and Sepharadi alike.

mazingerz88's avatar

Mary Trump’s interview is also quite interesting.

stanleybmanly's avatar

@chyna I would guess used copies are almost certainly books provided reviewers. Anyway, there now appears to be plenty of them all over the net. Looks like the going rate is 3–8 dollars. Audio books are $18.

chyna's avatar

@stanleybmanly I must live in a cave. I had no idea that’s how things worked!

stanleybmanly's avatar

Before Amazon, there were bookstores known to be dumping places frequented by book reviewers who would trade volumes in which they had no interest. I look back on those days now in near disbelief. There were so many great and wonderful used bookstores in this town, that it is amazing that I ever managed to do anything productive with my life.

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